Some Six Nations statistics, Round 3
Round 3 of the Six Nations produced its share of hectic activity, not without controversy as England seek to set records for the number of yellow cards they can garner. We give some statistics from the matches of the third round of the 2009 Six Nations – France vs Wales in Paris, Scotland vs Italy in Edinburgh and Ireland vs England in Dublin.
Yet again England also conceded far more penalties than their opponents. The theory that there is a refereeing conspiracy against England for some weird reason becomes more ridiculous by the match.
A remarkable statistic is how few line-outs were won on the opponents’ ball – or how few were lost, if you like.
Sanctions
England again collected two yellow cards this weekend. Nobody else went to the sin bin.
Yellow cards so far in the 2009 Six Nations:
Round 3
Phil Vickery (England) – deliberate infringement
Danny Care (England – playing a man without the ball after the whistle
Round 1
James Haskell (England) – tripping
Shane Geraghty (England) – air tackle
Geoff Cross (Scotland) – air tackle
Martyn Williams (Wales) – deliberate infringement
Round 2
Mike Tindall (England) – deliberate infringement
Andy Goode (England) – deliberate infringement
Andrea Masi (Italy) – dangerous tackle
Salvatore Perugini (Italy) – air tackle
Ronan O’Gara (Ireland) – tackling a man without the ball
James Haskell (England) – tripping
Shane Geraghty (England) – air tackle
Geoff Cross (Scotland) – air tackle
Martyn Williams (Wales) – deliberate infringement
Penalties conceded
In this section we record the times a team was penalised.
* = points conceded
(i) France vs Wales
Total number of penalties: 21
France: 10
Wales: 11
The reasons for the penalties were as follows:
France:
Tackle/ruck: 7 (Harinordoquy** 2, Parra, Trinh-Duc*, Tillous-Borde, Kayser, Millo-Chluski)
Off-side: 1 (Baby*)
Discipline: 2 (Nallet – air tackle; Barcella = +10)
Wales:
Tackle/ruck: 6 (Martyn Williams** 2, Ryan Jones, Roberts, Undetermined, Halfpenny)
Off-side: 3 (Powell, Martyn Williams, Shanklin)
Discipline: 2 (Shanklin – man without ball; Ryan Jones* – man without ball)
France missed a penalty kick at goal.
(ii) Scotland vs Italy
Total number of penalties: 18
Scotland: 9
Italy: 9
The reasons for the penalties were as follows:
Scotland:
Tackle/ruck: 6 (Jacobsen 3, Thom Evans, Taylor, Hall, Dickinson)
Discipline: 3 (White – air tackle; Murray – collapsing maul; Gray – obstructive crossing)
Italy:
Tackle/Ruck: 5 (Perugini*, Bortolami*, McLean, Mauro Bergamasco*, Del Fava)
Scrum: 2 (Castrogiovanni, Perugini)
Discipline: 3 (Mauro Bergamasco* – deliberate knock-on; Del Fava – air tackle)
Scotland and Italy each missed a penalty kick at goal.
(iii) Ireland vs England
Total number of penalties: 24
Ireland: 8
England: 16
The reasons for the penalties were as follows:
Ireland:
Tackle/ruck: 6 (David Wallace, O’Callaghan*, O’Connell, Heaslip, Bowe 2, Paddy Wallace*)
Offside: 1 (O’Connell)
Discipline: 1 (Kearney – air tackle)
England:
Tackle/ruck: 9 (Cueto, Tindall, Ellis, Vickery 2, Haskell, Mears, Hartley 2)
Offside: 1 (Kennedy*)
Scrum: 1 (Vickery)
Discipline: 5 (Vickery – deliberate knock-on; Flood – diving on man on the ground; Armitage – late tackle; Kennedy – air tackle; Care – man without the ball)
Ireland missed 3 penalty kicks at goal.
Tackles/Penalties
This gives the number of penalties at ruck/tackle as a fraction of the total number of penalties:
France vs Wales: 13/21 = 62%
Scotland vs Italy: 11/18 = 61%
Ireland vs England: 15/24 = 63%
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) France vs Wales
France:
Line-outs: 9 (1 free kick)
Scrums: 6 (1 reset, 1 collapse)
Free-kicks: 1 (line-out)
Drop-outs: 0
Wales:
Line-outs: 14 (1 quick)
Scrums: 8 (5 reset, 4 collapses, 1 free kick)
Free-kicks: 2 (1 scrum, 1 +10)
Drop-outs: 2
(ii) Scotland vs Italy
Scotland:
Line-outs: 15 (1 skew, 1 quick)
Scrums: 7 (4 reset, 6 collapses, 1 free kick, 1 uncontested)
Free-kicks: 3 (1 scrum, 2 marks)
Drop-outs: 2
Italy:
Line-outs: 9
Scrums: 8 (1 reset, 2 collapses, 1 free kick, 1 penalty, i uncontested)
Free-kicks: 3 (2 marks, 1 scrum)
Drop-outs: 3
(iii) Ireland vs England
Ireland:
Line-outs: 17 (1 skew)
Scrums: 7 (4 reset, 1 free kick)
Free-kicks: 2 (1 scrum, 1 mark)
Drop-outs: 0
England:
Line-outs: 12 (1 lost)
Scrums: 5 (1 reset, 1 collapse)
Free-kicks: 0
Drop-outs: 6
Stoppages (total of line-outs, scrums with resets, free kicks, penalties, drop-outs):
France vs Wales: 69
Scotland vs Italy: 71
Ireland vs England: 78
Tackles/rucks/mauls per match:
France vs Wales: 186
Scotland vs Italy: 186
Ireland vs England: 175
Kicks per match
France vs Wales: 54
France: 32
Wales: 22
Scotland vs Italy: 81
Scotland: 41
Italy: 40
Ireland vs England: 78
Ireland: 41
England: 37
Passes per match:
France vs Wales: 254
France: 141
Wales: 113
Scotland vs Italy: 349
Scotland: 177
Italy: 172
Ireland vs England: 258
Ireland: 120
England: 138
Advantage
Here we give the number of times in the match the referee allowed advantage. (The figure in brackets is the number times the advantage actually accrued.)
France vs Wales: 22 (6)
Scotland vs Italy: 11 (4)
Ireland vs England: 11 (7)
Hold-ups for injury:
France vs Wales: 7
Scotland vs Italy: 6
Ireland vs England: 11
Substitutions/replacements:
France vs Wales: 9
Scotland vs Italy: 13
Ireland vs England: 8
Tries
This is the number of tries each team scored.
(i) France vs Wales: 3
France: 2
Wales: 1
(ii) Scotland vs Italy: 2
Scotland: 2
Italy: 0
(iii) Ireland vs England: 2
Ireland: 1
England: 1
Tries/penalties scored
This gives the ratio of tries scored to penalties scored by each team:
Ireland: 1/1
France: 2/3
England: 1/2
Italy: 0/1
Wales: 1/3
Scotland: 2/3
The ratio of tries scored to penalties goaled is 7/13
In Week 1 the ratio was 9/17
In Week 2 the ratio was 16/11
Some Totals
Tries per country
England: 5 + 2 + 1 = 9
France: 2 + 1 + 2 = 5
Ireland: 3 + 5 + 1 = 9
Italy: 1 + 0 + 0 = 1
Scotland: 1 + 1 + 2 = 4
Wales: 4 + 1 + 1 = 6
Penalty goals per country
England: 1 + 0 + 2 = 3
France: 1 + 5 + 3 = 9
Ireland: 3 + 1 + 2 = 6
Italy: 2 + 3 + 1 = 6
Scotland: 2 + 2 + 3 = 7
Wales: 2 + 6 + 3 = 11
Kicks per country
England: 42 +34 + 37 = 113
France: 29 + 36 + 32 = 87
Ireland: 39 + 17 + 41 = 97
Italy: 39 + 18 + 40 = 97
Scotland: 23 + 20 + 41 = 84
Wales: 22 + 40 + 22 = 84
Passes per country
England: 132 + 151 + 138 = 421
France: 174 + 127 + 141 = 342
Ireland: 103 + 157 + 120 = 380
Italy: 146 + 89 + 172 = 407
Scotland: 200 + 168 + 177 = 545
Wales: 188 + 166 + 113 = 487
