The telling stats behind Boks' Nations Championship dominance
STATS ATTACK: The European leg of the Nations Championship kicks off this weekend, with some enthralling fixtures on the cards.
The inaugural edition of the North versus South competition has delivered some interesting results and created several narratives and talking points ahead of next year’s World Cup in Australia.
As things stand, the Springboks top the Southern Hemisphere pool, while France lead the Northern Hemisphere standings.
The Boks and New Zealand are the only unbeaten teams in the competition, while all six teams in the Northern Hemisphere have suffered at least one defeat.
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The numbers from the opening leg of the competition paint an interesting picture.
Individually, the Boks are nowhere to be seen.
However, they dominate the team statistics in a way that will concern Italy, France and Ireland over the next three weeks.
The head-to-head battle
After 18 matches played in the opening leg of the Nations Championship, each Hemisphere has recorded nine wins.
The Northern teams have scored 536 points, while the Southern Hemisphere guns have racked up 573 points and a whopping 83 tries.
Individual brilliance
On the individual front, France scrumhalf Maxime Lucu is the top point scorer with 37 points.
Lucu was impressive in July for Les Bleus in the absence of talisman Antoine Dupont, who is expected to feature against the Boks.
Behind Lucu in the points tally is Japan’s Takuro Matsunaga with 32 points and New Zealand’s Ruben Love with 31.
The closest South African player is Cheslin Kolbe, and he has 15 points, which he accumulated with his boot in the single Test match he played against England at Ellis Park.
Will Jordan leads the try-scoring tally with six tries. The 28-year-old etched his name into the record books by becoming the All Blacks’ all-time leading try-scorer against Italy.
England’s wunderkind, Henry Pollock, and All Blacks scrumhalf, Cam Roigard, also feature in the top five try standings with three apiece.
Jesse Kriel also crossed the whitewash three times in July, and Kurt-Lee Arendse twice.
The Boks’ consistent squad rotation throughout the window definitely impacted their chances of dominating the individual stats.
Where the Boks actually dominate
While the Springboks do not feature in any of the top five individual standings, they dominate the most important stats.
Throughout the opening three rounds, the Boks have scored 130 points after beating England (45-21), Scotland (42-28) and Wales (43-0). Therefore, they lead as the team with the most points scored in the competition.
In the process, Rassie Erasmus’ men scored 20 tries and led England, Australia, New Zealand and Scotland.
To further highlight their dominance with ball in hand, the Boks made just 458 tackles, compared to Italy’s 632, who have the highest tackle count.
In terms of metres gained, it’s no surprise that New Zealand lead the way with 1767 metres, and the Boks are in sixth place with 1290. That can be attributed to the contrasting style of plays, as was evident in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry.
Erasmus won’t be too concerned about individual statistics, given that the Boks’ success over the past eight years has been built on a collective effort and their ability to put teams away.
The numbers suggest they are operating at a level few sides can match, and what will satisfy him is the fact that they’ve scored plenty of tries and will need to replicate that with the bonus point factor likely to play a role.
While the team stats are impressive, the Boks have fixtures against France and Ireland looming, and finals weekend on their minds, so they will be tested.
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