Ballymena man Alex ‘stats’ up for Ulstermen!

A BALLYMENA man will play a pivotal role in Ulster’s bid to land European rugby’s biggest prize this weekend.

Alex McCloy won’t be on the pitch at Twickenham, but he will have a major impact on the performances of those who are when Brian McLaughlin’s men take on Leinster in the Heineken Cup final.

The former Ballymena Academy pupil is Ulster Rugby’s Performance Analyst and forms a key part of the Ravenhill backroom team.

“Ultimately, my role is to analyse the performance of the team both from a team component point of view - in terms of lineouts, scrums, restarts, set pieces etc - and also to carry out in-depth individual analysis of the players’ performances,” Alex told Times Sport.

“You would see us up in the box behind the posts during matches where we input data into a computer as the game is going on, which gives us an indication of what is working well and what isn’t.

“After a matchday, over the course of the weekend I would carry out in-depth individual analysis of the players - things likes tackles made and missed, carries, linebreaks, off-loads.

“Come Monday morning I would present it to the coaching staff who would then use that information to look at areas of the gameplan which have worked well or areas that need improvement.

“It used to be very much statistic-based with lots of numbers but now it’s more important to sit down with the coaches and the players and show them the actual footage for themselves.”

Alex has been in his post since the start of the 2008/9 season, having previously attained a first class BSc (Hons) in Sport and Exercise Science from the University of Ulster as well as a PHD in Sport Bio Mechanics. He also holds a Level 6 Performance Analyst accreditation from the International Society of Performance Analysis in Sport.

“It’s obviously fantastic to be able to work within professional sport,” says Alex, who himself played scrum-half for Ballymena and Belfast Harlequins and who is a plus handicap golfer.

“When you sit back at the end of each season and look back you can see the progress we have made in the past few years - winning in England for the first time a couple of seasons ago, then getting out of the Heineken Cup group stages for the first time last year, and then of course this year’s run to the final.

“It’s exciting to be part of an environment which has progressed and developed each year to the extent where there is now an expectation to do well.”

Unsurprisingly, no stone has been left unturned in Alex’s preparations for Ulster’s biggest game since their 1999 European triumph.

“We would look at the last five games of every team we play against - in the case of Saturday’s game we would use that to look at the way Leinster play, for example if Johnny Sexton is playing or if Brian O’Driscoll is playing, and we would try to pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses.

“During the game we will be getting live feed from the television companies which we can then break down instantly to see what is working well and what isn’t and then get that information across to the players.

“It will be a tremendous occasion and if we can win it, that would be the icing on the cake,” added Alex.

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