Some Six Nations statistics, Round 1
We give some statistics from the matches in the first round of the Six nations – tight matches rather than matches of creativity and adventure.
Results:
Ireland vs Italy, 29-11
England vs Wales, 30-17
France vs Scotland, 18-9
Sanctions
There were two yellow cards – both for foul play. Gonzalo Garcia of Italy was sent to the sin bin for a dangerous tackle and Alun-Wyn Jones for tripping, as stupid an act as you will ever see on an international field. Both players cost points for their actions. Garcia was not expensive. In his absence the score was 7-5 to Ireland but Alun-Wyn Jones’s absence was worth 17 points to England.
Yellow cards so far:
Gonzalo Garcia (Italy) – dangerous tackle (tipping)
Alun-Wyn Jones (Wales) – tripping
Penalties conceded
In this section we record the times a team was penalised.
* = points conceded
(i) Ireland vs Italy
Total number of penalties: 18
Ireland: 8
Italy: 10
The reasons for the penalties were as follows:
Ireland:
Tackle/ruck: 3 (O’Leary, O’Driscoll, McLaughlin*)
Off-side: 2 (O’Brien, David Wallace)
Scrum: 1 (Healey*)
Discipline: 2 (Cullen – air tackle; O’Leary – high tackle)
Italy:
Tackle/ruck: 4 (Dal Fava* 2, Castrogiovanni, Canale)
Off-side: 1 (Castrogiovanni)
Scrum: 4 (Castrogiovanni* 2, Aguero 2)
Discipline: 1 (Garcia – dangerous tackle)
Neither side missed a penalty kick at goal.
(ii) England vs Wales
Total number of penalties: 17
England: 10
Wales: 7
The reasons for the penalties were as follows:
England:
Tackle/ruck: 7 (Flood* 2, Care, Borthwick, Haskell, Shaw 2)
Off-side: 1 (Shaw)
Scrum: 2 (Wilson, Payne)
Wales:
Tackle/Ruck: 3 (Powell* 2, Roberts*)
Off-side: 1 (Powell)
Scrum: 1 (Paul James)
Discipline: 2 (Roberts – early tackle; Alun-Wyn Jones – trip)
Wales missed three penalty kicks at goal.
(iii) Scotland vs France
Total number of penalties: 15
Scotland: 5
France: 10
The reasons for the penalties were as follows:
Scotland:
Tackle/ruck: 2 (Brown* 2)
Scrum: 3 (Dickinson, Low*, Ford)
France:
Tackle/ruck: 8 (Harinordoquy** 3, Ouedraogo* 3, Nallet, Undetermined – three players)
Scrum: 1 (Domingo)
Discipline: 1 (Szarzewski – high tackle)
France missed a penalty kick at goal.
Tackles/Penalties
This gives the number of penalties at ruck/tackle as a fraction of the total number of penalties:
Ireland vs Italy: 7/18 =39%
England vs Wales: 10/18 = 56%
Scotland vs France: 10/15 = 67%
The ball was slowest in the match in which there were fewest penalties at the tackle.
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) Ireland vs Italy
Ireland:
Line-outs: 8 (1 free kick, 1 skew)
Scrums: 11 (5 reset, 5 collapses, 2 free kicks, 3 penalties)
Free-kicks: 3 (2 marks, 1 scrum)
Drop-outs: 1
Italy:
Line-outs: 19 (7 lost, 1 free kick)
Scrums: 7 ( 3 reset, 3 collapses, 2 penalties)
Free-kicks: 3 (1 scrum, 1 mark, 1 line-out)
Drop-outs: 0
(ii) England vs Wales
England:
Line-outs: 10 (1 lost, 1 quick)
Scrums: 13 (8 reset, 9 collapses, 4 free kicks, 2 penalties)
Free-kicks: 5 (2 marks, 3 scrums)
Drop-outs: 2
Wales:
Line-outs: 12 (4 lost, 1 quick, 1 skew)
Scrums: 6 (2 reset, 1 collapse)
Free-kicks: 1 (mark)
Drop-outs: 1
(iii) Scotland vs France
Scotland:
Line-outs: 12 (1 lost,)
Scrums: 11 (3 reset, 2 collapses, 2 penalties)
Free-kicks: 1 (mark)
Drop-outs: 3
France:
Line-outs: 9 (4 lost)
Scrums: 7 (6 reset, 5 collapses, 2 penalties)
Free-kicks: 1 (mark)
Drop-outs: 0
Stoppages (total of line-outs, scrums with resets, free kicks, penalties, drop-outs):
Ireland vs Italy: 78
England vs Wales: 83
Scotland vs France: 66
Kicks per match
Ireland vs Italy: 87
Ireland: 49
Italy: 38
England vs Wales: 75
England: 41
Wales: 34
Scotland vs France: 75
Scotland: 51
France: 24
Passes per match
Ireland vs Italy: 235
Ireland: 161
Italy: 74
England vs Wales: 245
England: 131
Wales: 134
Scotland vs France: 395
Scotland: 157
France: 138
Tackles made
Ireland vs Italy: 50 + 93 = 143
England vs Wales: 78 + 90 = 168
Scotland vs France: 91 + 112 = 203
Tackles missed
Ireland vs Italy: 4 + 5 = 9
England vs Wales: 8 + 9 = 17
Scotland vs France: 9 + 15 = 24
Tries
This is the number of tries each team scored.
(i) Ireland vs Italy: 4
Ireland: 3
Italy: 1
(ii) England vs Wales: 5
England: 3
Wales: 2
(iii) Scotland vs France: 2
Scotland: 0
France: 2
Tries/penalties scored
This gives the ratio of tries scored to penalties scored by each team:
Scotland: 0/3
Ireland: 2/5
France: 2/2
Wales: 2/1
Italy: 1/2
England: 3/3
The ratio of tries scored to penalties goaled is 10/16
