Vodafone has announced a new multi-year partnership with reigning Premiership Women’s Rugby Champions, Gloucester Hartpury Rugby, and sister club, Hartpury University and Hartpury College WRFC.
- Vodafone will become the Performance Innovation Partner as well as feature on the training kit of Gloucester Hartpury Rugby, front-of-shirt of Hartpury University, and back-of-shirt of Hartpury College.
- In its role as Performance Innovation Partner, Vodafone will provide both teams with access to Vodafone PLAYER.Connect, Vodafone’s landmark performance platform, which helps female athletes better understand the impact of the menstrual cycle on their performance and wellbeing.
- Vodafone will work with both teams to help the development of their talent pathway, by providing support for Hartpury University and Hartpury College players looking to step up from university rugby to the elite level.
- The partnership builds on Vodafone’s established women’s rugby portfolio and shows its continued commitment to help grow women’s rugby at all levels of the game.
The partnership sees Vodafone become the Performance Innovation Partner of the clubs, as well as feature on the training kit of Gloucester Hartpury Rugby, front-of-shirt of Hartpury University, and back-of-shirt of Hartpury College.
In its role as Performance Innovation Partner, Vodafone will provide both teams with access to Vodafone PLAYER.Connect, Vodafone’s landmark mobile-first platform that gathers data on: players’ performance and recovery; menstrual cycle phases; and mental and physical wellbeing.
The platform will allow both teams to tailor training programmes to each player’s specific needs.
Vodafone launches new menstrual cycle tracking technology with the Women’s Welsh Rugby Union
The new menstrual tracking programme is part of Vodafone’s PLAYER.Connect platform, which aggregates data from athletes’ wearable devices in real-time, allowing for instant analysis.
Vodafone will support the pre-existing prestigious talent pathway at Hartpury University and Hartpury College, an established route that allows players to progress from university rugby to the elite level.
Players will receive support from nationally accredited sports psychologists and nutritionists, as well as mental health support from Vodafone’s charity partner, LooseHeadz.
Vodafone will also be working with Gloucester Hartpury Rugby to rename Hartpury University and Hartpury College’s Stadium the “4ED Hartpury Stadium, with Vodafone” to support the 4ED Foundation, a charity set up in honour of former Gloucester Rugby player, Ed Slater.
The 4ED Foundation provides financial support to individuals living with motor neurone disease (MND) and their families and, for the next three seasons, 50p from every stadium ticket sold will be donated to the charity to further support its beneficiaries.
How LooseHeadz and Vodafone are tackling mental health stigma
The theme for Mental Health Awareness Week 2024 is ‘movement’, so what better time to sit down with Rob Shotton, co-founder of Vodafone charity partner LooseHeadz, to discuss how the two organisations have been working together to tackle the stigma of mental health in sport?
Speaking about the partnership, Maria Koutsoudakis, Head of Brand, Vodafone UK, said: “At Vodafone we are committed to supporting the growth of women’s rugby in the UK.
“We are thrilled to announce this landmark partnership with two of the nation’s most exciting women’s rugby teams ahead of what is set to be a momentous year for women’s rugby in the UK, with the 2025 World Cup taking place on home soil.
“As Performance Innovation Partner, we’ll be providing teams with access to groundbreaking technology such as our PLAYER.Connect platform, which will support player development and performance and help provide crucial pathways for the next generation of players.”
Natasha Hunt, Gloucester Hartpury Rugby and Red Roses player, said: “With the Women’s World Cup taking place next year, it’s an incredibly exciting time for women’s rugby, and it’s fantastic to see established brands like Vodafone investing in the sport and making a genuine difference to the game.
“In particular, their investment into developing the talent pathway between Gloucester Hartpury Rugby and Hartpury University and Hartpury College is so important for supporting the next generation of talent, who are an integral part of our Gloucester Hartpury squad and the future stars of our sport.”
Gloucester Hartpury Rugby and Hartpury University and Hartpury College are the latest addition to Vodafone’s established portfolio of women’s rugby partners and show its continued commitment to helping grow the sport across the Home Nations.
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Notes to Editors
About Vodafone’s Women’s Rugby Partnership Portfolio
The Gloucester Hartpury Rugby and Hartpury University and Hartpury College WRFC partnerships build on Vodafone’s continued commitment to help grow women’s rugby at all levels of the game. This includes partnerships with Wales Women, Scotland Women, the Armed Forces Women’s Rugby Teams, and Celtic Challenge teams Gwalia Lightning and Brython Thunder, as well as its EmpowHER programme in partnership with The Good, The Scaz & The Rugby, which works with The University of Edinburgh, Cardiff University and Durham University to help bridge the gap between university rugby and the elite women’s game.
About Vodafone PLAYER.Connect
Vodafone PLAYER.Connect is a first-of-its-kind performance dashboard that uses cutting-edge mobile-first technology to allow athletes’ data to be viewed, analysed and acted upon by medical and coaching staff instantly, from anywhere in the world.
The platform is already used across Vodafone’s women’s rugby partners, including Wales Women, Scotland Women, the Armed Forces Women’s Rugby Team, Celtic Challenge teams Brython Thunder and Gwalia Lightning and the women’s rugby teams at Edinburgh, Cardiff and Durham universities.
Benefits of Vodafone PLAYER.Connect include:
- The ability to view and compare all data for any given individual across a team, allowing for fully contextualised decisions that consider everything from physical fitness and performance on the pitch to sleep and recovery off it. For example, a team-wide drop-off in training performance could indicate an issue with adapting to altitude, rather than individual shortcomings.
- The ability to track performance and welfare across multiple days, weeks and months, allowing better optimisation of workload and preparation. For example, a player could already have played longer during an early tournament game, meaning they need to focus on recovery rather than training during non-game days, ensuring they’re in the best possible condition for their next fixture.
- The ability to monitor player welfare 24/7, on and off the court, allowing for better support of both mental and physical wellbeing. For example, a change in a player’s sleeping habits is often an indicator of a shift in their mental health, allowing coaches to provide support.
Full data that can be inputted into Vodafone PLAYER.Connect by athletes includes:
- Readiness to train
- Sleep
- Mood & energy
- Anthropometrics (bodyweight, height etc.)
- Health & sickness
- Medication
- Injury screening
- Muscle soreness screening
- Training load
- Fatigue
