Statistics: Bledisloe Cup iv

What a thriller in Hong Kong when a last minute try and conversion gave Australia a 26-24 victory over New Zealand. We give some statistics.

Spectators

26 210.

The night before in Port Elizabeth for a promotion-relegation match between Eastern Province and Mpumalanga there were over 45 000, At the Currie Cup Final in Durban there were 52 000 spectators. One wonders at the gain of going to Hong Kong.

Sanctions

Sanctionary Cards

There were no cards though Albie Mathewson was close for a tackle infringement at the death.

Penalties conceded

In this section we record the times a team was penalised.

Australia vs New Zealand

Total number of penalties: 19

Australia: 7
New Zealand: 12

The reasons for the penalties were as follows:

* = points conceded

Australia:
Tackle/ruck/maul: 3 (McCalman, Giteau, Pocock)
Scrum: 3 (Robinson, Whole front row, Whole front row)
Discipline: 1 (Elsom – barging in the line-out)

New Zealand:
Tackle/ruck/maul: 9 (Kaino, Nonu 2, Thorn 2, McCaw 2, Rokocoko, Mathewson)
Off-side: 1 (Mealamu)
Scrum: 1 (Woodcock)
Discipline: 1 (Toeava – high tackle)

Australia (Beale and Giteau) mussed four penalty kicks at goal, New Zealand (Carter) two.

Tackles/Penalties

This gives the number of penalties at ruck/tackle as a fraction of the total number of penalties: 12/19 – 63%

Getting possession – line-outs, scrums, free-kicks, drop-outs

In this section the figures represent the number of times you get to play with the ball.

Australia:
Line-outs: 5 (2 lost)
Scrums: 10 (8 resets, 10 collapses, 2 free kicks, 3 penalties)
Free-kicks: 2 (scrums)
Drop-outs: 2

The scrums were a serious mess.

New Zealand:
Line-outs: 11 (2 lost, 1 penalty)
Scrums: 7 (5 collapses, 1 free kick, 1 penalty)
Free-kicks: 1 (scrum)
Drop-outs: 6

Stoppages (total of line-outs, scrums with resets, free kicks, penalties, drop-outs): 75

Ball in play: 11 minutes 03 seconds + 19 minutes 25 seconds = 30 minutes 28 seconds

This low but then the scrums took inordinately long.

Tackle/ruck/maul: 190

Turnovers

Australia 5
New Zealand 6 

Injuries: 3
Replacements: 5

Scoring

Tries

This is the number of tries each team scored.

Australia: 4 (Cooper, Ashley-Cooper, Mitchell, O’Connor)
New Zealand: 3 (Cowan, Jane, Nonu)

Tries/penalties scored

This gives the ratio of tries scored to penalties scored by each team:

Australia: 4/0
New Zealand: 3/1

The ratio of tries scored to penalties goaled is 7/1

Kicks

Australia vs New Zealand: 30

Australia: 19
New Zealand 11