The tech being used by the Lions to topple the Springboks

The British and Irish Lions have enlisted the latest player performance technology in their bid to topple South Africa in the Test series that begins on Saturday.

The Lions are the first sports team in the world to use the PLAYER.Connect dashboard that is designed to enhance performance, wellbeing and recovery.

Data is collected in real time from the various devices worn by players such as GPS trackers and heart rate monitors into one dashboard, allowing it to be easily viewed, analysed and acted upon.

Previously, because all data had to be collated manually by an analyst, the information was not available until two days after the event, placing limitations on the value of the data.

It has been used throughout the Lions tour to date, including shaping decisions on when to replace players in-game and monitoring training loads to mitigate against injury.

“The Vodafone PLAYER.Connect platform is a step forward in performance monitoring,” Lions head of strength and conditioning Paul Stridgeon said.

“The dashboard lets us maximise the output of our current monitoring, and is helping us provide detailed analysis of all wellness, training and match data throughout the 2021 tour.

“We are already starting to see the benefits, and are confident that using this platform will support our ambition to beat the Springboks.”