Ball-in-hand time

In our statistics of Test matches we record the number of stoppages. A clever man has now worked out how long the ball was in hand during Tri-Nations Tests and some big matches in South Africa.

The clever man is Jan Taljaard, who does this for the South African Referees Association, providing another tool for measuring performance.

There is a difference between stoppages and ball in hand, though clearly they are related. Stoppages can vary in length, as an injury, and ball in hand does not count the time taken to get the ball back in play.

Here are the statistics for the Tri-Nations Tests so far. The times for ball in hand are first half, second half and total

1. All Blacks vs Springboks
Referee: Alan Lewis (Ireland)

Stoppages: 63
Ball in hand: 18 minutes 52 seconds + 20 minutes 15 seconds = 39: minutes 7 seconds

2. All Blacks vs Springboks
Referee: Alain Rolland (Ireland)

Stoppages: 59
Ball in hand: 17 minutes 34 seconds + 20 minutes 05 seconds = 37 minutes 39 seconds

3. Wallabies vs Springboks
Referee: George Clancy (Ireland)

Stoppages: 53
Ball in hand: 18 minutes 17 seconds + 19 minutes 20 seconds = 37 minutes 37 seconds

4. Wallabies vs All Blacks
Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa) 

Stoppages: 59
Ball in hand: 13 minutes 15 seconds + 19 minutes 50 seconds = 33 minutes 5 seconds

The first half of this match had 11 kicks at goal – 6 penalties and 5 conversions. That took the ball out of play a great deal.

5. All Blacks vs Wallabies
Referee: Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa)

Stoppages: 69
Ball in hand: 18 minutes 1 second + 20 minutes 10 seconds = 38 minutes 11 seconds

It would seem that hemispheric differences are not all that great.

One of the matches with most ball-in-hand time was the Lions vs Blue Bulls with  Marius Jonker as the referee:

Stoppages: 63
Ball in hand: 16 minutes 18 seconds + 24 minutes 29 seconds = 40 minutes 47 seconds