Three June Tests' stats
The June Tests got under way in gruesome conditions in Wellington when New Zealand and Ireland avoided dying of exposure. Then we had sunny Bloemfontein and cheerful Rosario. We give the statistics of the three Tests.
The matches were played under the “old) (= pre-ELV) law but after a decree by the International Rugby Board that the laws of the tackle/ruck and the scrum feed would be applied as they are written.
Some things did happen – an attacking team was penalised once for side entry, another was penalised once for turning a ruck into the maul, there were several cries of “No hands”, a scrumhalf was free kicked for a crooked feed – that sort of thing but often it was not obvious that there were changes as the ball was still played by hand at what looked like a ruck, players off their feet still handled the ball back and, above all, the business of blocking opponents from getting to the ball – sealing off or bridging or whatever – still happened.
The sides who managed best seemed to be New Zealand and South Africa and they were rewarded with a better share of turnover ball than their opponents.
In Rosario the match was a broken-down affair with untidy scrums, long post-tackle involvement and some lectures.
That is how it seemed.
We shall discuss some incidents from each of the matches in more detail later in the week.
Sanctions
There were two yellow cards – two who deserved them if only for being silly in the most childish way – CJ van der Linde (South Africa) and Richard Hibbard (Wales). Their playground shoving was really pretty harmless. But it led to uncontested scrums as the Welsh had nobody to take hooker Hibbard’s place.
Penalties conceded
In this section we record the times a team was penalised.
* = points conceded
(i) New Zealand vs Ireland
Total number of penalties: 17
New Zealand: 9
Ireland: 8
The reasons for the penalties were as follows:
New Zealand:
Tackle/ruck: 5 (Hore* 2, McCaw, Williams, Tialata)
Off-side: 1 (Tialata)
Discipline: 3 (Tialata – collapsing maul; Thomson – collapsing maul; Williams – collapsing maul)
Ireland:
Tackle/ruck: 5 (O’Connell 2, D Wallace, Leamy, Heaslip*)
Off-side: 1 (O’Connell)
Discipline: 2 (Horgan – man without ball; Horan – punching)
Each side missed a penalty kick at goal.
(ii) South Africa vs Wales
Total number of penalties: 17
South Africa: 6
Wales: 11
The reasons for the penalties were as follows:
South Africa:
Tackle/ruck: 3 (De Villiers*, Undetermined, Watson)
Off-side: 2 (Chavhanga, De Villiers)
Scrum: 1 (Mujati)
Wales:
Tackle/Ruck: 8 (Jonathan Thomas*, Gough* 2, Shanklin*, Ryan Jones* 3, Alun-Wyn Jones)
Off-side: 2 (Ryan Joiners*, Delve)
Discipline: 1 (Alun Wyn-Jones – air tack)
Neither side missed a penalty kick at goal.
(iii) Argentina vs Scotland
Total number of penalties: 19
Argentina: 10
Scotland: 9
The reasons for the penalties were as follows:
Argentina:
Tackle/ruck: 5 (Núñez-Piossek*, Juan Fernandez-Lobbe* 2, Todeschini*, Ignacio Fernandez-Lobbe)
Scrum: 2 (Tejeda, BBonorino)
Off-side: 3 (Lozada, Undetermined, Leguizamón
Scotland:
Tackle/ruck: 2 (Paterson*, Blair)
Off-side: 2 (MacLeod*, Dickinson)
Discipline: 5 (Jacobsen – high tackle; MacLeod* – deliberate knock-on; Evans – air tackle; Murray – collapsing maul; Blair – dissent)
Argentina missed a penalty kick at goal, Scotland two.
Getting possession – line-outs, scrums, free-kicks, drop-outs, turn-overs
In this section the figures represent the number of times you get to play with the ball.
(i) New Zealand vs Ireland
New Zealand:
Line-outs: 12 (1 lost, 2 free kicks)
Scrums: 11 (4 reset, 7 collapses)
Free-kicks: 2 (1 scrum, 1 line-out)
Drop-outs: 3
Ireland:
Line-outs: 18 (4 lost, 1 quick)
Scrums: 6 (6 reset, 7 collapses, 2 free kicks)
Free-kicks: 3 (1 scrum, 1 +10, 1 line-out)
Drop-outs: 1
(ii) South Africa vs Wales
South Africa:
Line-outs: 16 (1 quick, 1 skew)
Scrums: 11 (7 reset, 6 collapses, 2 free kicks, 1 penalty, 1 uncontested)
Free-kicks: 2 (1 line-out, 1 scrum)
Drop-outs: 0
Wales:
Line-outs: 11 (2 lost, 1 reset)
Scrums: 9 (2 reset, 2 collapses, 1 uncontested)
Free-kicks: 2 (scrums)
Drop-outs: 1
(iii) Argentina vs Scotland
Argentina:
Line-outs: `14 (3 lost, 1 quick, 1 free kick)
Scrums: 7 (5 reset, 4 collapses, 1 penalty)
Free-kicks: 3 (2 marks, 1 line-out)
Drop-outs: 1
Scotland:
Line-outs: 13 (1 lost)
Scrums: 7 (5 reset, 7 collapses, 1 penalty)
Free-kicks: 0
Drop-outs: 1
Stoppages (total of line-outs, scrums with resets, free kicks, penalties, drop-outs):
New Zealand vs Ireland: 83
South Africa vs Wales: 79
Argentina vs Scotland: 73
That is just the number of stoppages but not how long stoppages went on. Certainly the match in which stoppages became most annoying was the Rosario match. One scrum in New Zealand collapsed four times. It was reset three times and ended in a free kick. It lasted 1 minute 48 seconds. That was not great for backs and other spectators who were freezing in the rain and wind.
Tries
This is the number of tries each team scored.
(i) New Zealand vs Ireland:
New Zealand: 2
Ireland: 1
(ii) South Africa vs Wales:
South Africa: 4
Wales: 2
(iii) Argentina vs Scotland:
Argentina: 2
Scotland: 0
Tries/penalties scored
This gives the ratio of tries scored to penalties scored by each team:
Argentina: 2/3
New Zealand: 2/3
Scotland: 0/5
Wales: 2/1
Ireland: 1/2
South Africa: 4/5
The ratio of tries scored to penalties goaled is 11/18
Some Totals
Tries per country
Argentina: 2
Ireland: 1
New Zealand: 2
Scotland: 0
South Africa: 4
Wales: 2
Penalties per country
Argentina: 3
Ireland: 2
New Zealand: 3
Scotland: 5
South Africa: 5
Wales: 1
