经济学人下载:高科技橄榄球(1)

Rugby union, it is often said, is a game for thugs that is played by gentlemen.
人们常说，橄榄球是绅士们玩的流氓游戏。

"Played by lawyers" might be a more accurate dictum. The rules are famously complicated.
“律师玩的游戏”，这么说或许更加准确。橄榄球的规则是出了名的复杂。

Scrums—organised shoving matches between the two teams' burliest members—are regarded as a dark art even by other players.
并列争球—两队最强壮的队员之间的推搡比赛—甚至被其他玩家视为一种黑暗的艺术。

Open, running play can be stopped and wound back for any number of arcane infringements.
任何莫名的犯规都可能暂停拉开进攻或让持球奔跑的球员退回原位。

The recent Rugby World Cup competition, held in Japan, is regarded as a big success by those keen to boost the sport's popularity.
最近在日本举行的橄榄球世界杯比赛被那些热衷于提升这项运动人气的人视为一场巨大的成功。

But it was marred by arguments about how to interpret complicated new rules forbidding dangerous shoulder charges and high tackles.
但是，关于如何解释禁止危险肩冲和高阻截的复杂新规则的争论，给比赛蒙上了一层阴影。

(World Rugby, the game's governing body, offers referees a handy flowchart to memorise, which provides for eight possible outcomes.)
（该运动主管部门，世界橄榄球联合会为裁判员提供了一个方便记忆的流程图，其中列出了八种可能的结果。）

All this is an irritant to players and referees, and a turn-off for viewers, who struggle to follow the action or work out why a particular decision was made.
所有这些对球员和裁判来说都是一种刺激，也会让观众感到厌烦，因为他们很难跟上比赛的进展，也很难理解为什么要做出这样的决定。

But a British firm called Sportable thinks it might be able to improve things, by wiring up rugby players—and rugby balls—with high-tech sensors.
但是一家英国公司Sportable认为通过给橄榄球运动员和橄榄球装上高科技传感器，或许可以有些改善。

Sportable was founded in 2014 by Dugald Macdonald and Peter Husemeyer, a pair of rugby-mad South Africans.
2014年痴迷于橄榄球的南非人Dugald Macdonald和Peter Husemeyer成立了Sportable。

It makes lightweight, sensor-stuffed garments that can be worn under a jersey and which measure impact forces in 80 separate places on a player's body.
该公司生产重量轻且装上了传感器的衣服，可以穿在球衣下，还可以测量球员身体80个不同部位的冲击力。