Statistics: November 2009, Week 4
There was foul weather and there were two great matches – in Cardiff and, above all, in Marseille. We give some statistics from each of the matches.
One remarkable statistic is that for the scrums in Dublin and Murrayfield. The other is the number of stoppages at Murrayfield.
It is also interesting to note that all the southern hemisphere countries were penalised more often than the home sides. The penalty count against the Tri-Nations countries was 36-19. The ones who suffered most were New Zealand and Australia, the sides playing the most constructive rugby and scoring the tries.
The five Six Nations countries playing scored three tries amongst them. Their opponents scored 10 tries.
Noises can be interesting. Probably the ugliest at rugby is booing. Schalk Burger scored the only try of the Dublin match and was booed. Argentina got the ball in their own territory, leading by three points and the time up. They kicked it out and were booed.
Results
Argentina vs Scotland, 9-6
Australia vs Wales, 33-12
Ireland vs South Africa, 15-10
Italy vs Samoa, 24-6
New Zealand vs France, 39-12
Sanctions
There were a red card and yellow cards – and one would have expected a few citings if there is to be consistency.
Red Card Recipient
Henry Fa’afili got a red card for a horrible high tackle
Yellow Card Recipients
Owen Franks (New Zealand): dangerous shoulder charge
Nathan Hines (Scotland): dangerous tip tackle
Last week it was surprising that Census Johnson was not cited for his tackle and this week it may well be that there could be citings for JP Pietersen of South Africa, Nathan Hines (Scotland) and Digby Ioane (Australia). There have been accusations of eye-gouging against Jamie Heaslip (Ireland) and Vincent Clerc (France) which may also require investigation.
Penalties
In this section we record the times a team was penalised.
* = points conceded
(i) Ireland vs South Africa
Total number of penalties: 20
Ireland: 9
South Africa: 11
The reasons for the penalties were as follows:
Ireland:
Tackle/ruck: 4 (David Wallace 2, Earl, O’Connell)
Off-side: 1 (O’Connell)
Scrum: 2 (Hayes, Healey)
Discipline: 2 (O’Callaghan – air tackle; O’Driscoll – obstruction)
South Africa:
Tackle/ruck: 7 (Burger*, Brüssow*, Olivier, Rossouw 2, Matfield*, Mtawarira)
Off-side: 1 (Kirchner)
Discipline: 2 (Steyn – high tackle; Bekker* – kneeing)
Ireland missed a penalty kick at goal, South Africa 4.
(ii) Wales vs Australia
Total number of penalties: 18
Wales: 5
Australia: 13
The reasons for the penalties were as follows:
Wales:
Tackle/ruck: 2 (Halfpenny, Tom James*)
Off-side: 1 (Martyn Williams)
Scrum: 2 (Paul James*, Jenkins*)
Wales were penalised only once in the second half.
Australia:
Tackle/Ruck: 8 (Palu 2, Smith, Genia* 2, Elsom, Horwill, Cooper)
Offside: 3 (Hynes, Palu, Mumm)
Discipline: 2 (Ashley-Cooper – high tackle; Ioane – dangerous tackle – tip)
Wales missed two penalty kicks at goal.
(iii) France vs New Zealand
Total number of penalties: 17
France: 5
New Zealand: 12
The reasons for the penalties were as follows:
France:
Tackle/ruck: 4 (Bonnaire, Millo-Chlusky, Traille*, Ouedraogo*)
Scrum: 1 (Barcella)
France were penalised only once in the second half.
New Zealand:
Tackle/ruck: 5 (Nonu 2, McCaw 2, Franks)
Off-side: 1 (Kaino*)
Scrum: 3 (Woodcock, Tialata* 2)
Discipline: 3 (Tialata – stamping; Thorn* – barging in line-out; Franks – shoulder charge)
France missed two penalty kicks at goal.
(iv) Italy vs Samoa
Total number of penalties: 23
Italy: 10
Samoa: 13
The reasons for the penalties were as follows:
Italy:
Tackle/ruck: 3 (Dal Fava* 2, Castrogiovanni*)
Scrum: 3 (Perugini 2, Castrogiovanni)
Discipline: 2 (Geldenhuys – obstruction; Canale – air tackle; Perugini – high tackle; Gower – late tackle)
Samoa:
Off-side: 6 (Johnson, Esau, Schwalger 2, Tomoteo)
Scrum: 4 (Johnson 2, Va’a 2)
Discipline: 3 (Levi – obstruction; Fa’afili – high tackle; Stowers – dangerous charge)
Italy missed two penalty kicks at goal, Samoa three.
(v) Scotland vs Argentina
Total number of penalties: 13
Scotland: 6
Argentina: 7
The reasons for the penalties were as follows:
Scotland:
Tackle/ruck: 4 (Cusiter, Low, Beattie*, Strokosch)
Discipline: 2 (Ford – dissent; Hines* – dangerous tackle – tip
Argentina:
Tackle/Ruck: 3 (Fernandez-Lobbe, Albacete, Agulla)
Off-side: 2 (Abadie, Carizza*)
Scrum: 2 (Scelzo, Roncero)
Neither side 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:
Scotland vs Argentina: 7/13 = 54%
Wales vs Australia: 10/18 = 56%
France vs New Zealand: 9/17 = 53%
Italy vs Samoa: 9/23 = 39%
Ireland vs South Africa: 11/20 = 55%
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 South Africa
Ireland:
Line-outs: 13 (1 skew, 1 quick, 1 free kick)
Scrums: 6 (1 reset, 1 lost, 1 free kick)
Free-kicks: 3 (1 mark, 1 line-out, 1 + 10)
Drop-outs: 3
South Africa:
Line-outs: 14 (3 lost, 1 skew, 1 quick, 1 free kick)
Scrums: 8 (1 reset, 2 penalties)
Free-kicks: 5 (3 marks, 1 scrum, 1 line-out)
Drop-outs: 4
Not one scrum collapsed! This defies the modern trend.
(ii) Wales vs Australia
Wales:
Line-outs: 17 (1 lost, 1 quick)
Scrums: 10 (4 reset, 5 collapses, 1 free kick, 1 penalty)
Free-kicks: 0
Drop-outs: 4
Australia:
Line-outs: 5
Scrums: 7 (2 reset, 6 collapses, 1 free kick)
Free-kicks: 2 (scrums)
Drop-outs: 2
The scrums compare unfavorably with those in the previous match.
(iii) France vs New Zealand
France:
Line-outs: 11 (1 quick, 1 penalty)
Scrums: 9 (6 reset, 5 collapses, 1 lost, 1 free kick, 2 penalties)
Free-kicks: 0
Drop-outs: 1
New Zealand:
Line-outs: 14 (1 lost, 2 quick, 1 skew)
Scrums: 9 (3 reset, 5 collapses, 1 free kick, 1 penalty)
Free-kicks: 2 (scrums)
Drop-outs: 2
Again the scrums compare unfavorably with those of Dublin.
(iv) Italy vs Samoa
Italy:
Line-outs: 14 (2 lost, 1 quick)
Scrums: 11 (5 reset, 3 collapses, 1 lost, 5 penalties, 1 penalty try)
Free-kicks: 2 (1 line-out, 1 mark)
Drop-outs: 3
Samoa:
Line-out: 17 (2 skew, 1 quick, 1 penalty)
Scrums: 7 (1 reset, 2 free kicks, 2 penalties)
Free-kicks: 2 (scrums)
Drop-outs: 3
(v) Scotland vs Argentina
Scotland:
Line-outs: 6 (4 lost)
Scrums: 10 (1 collapse, 2 free kicks, 2 penalties)
Free-kicks: 1 (scrum)
Drop-outs: 2
Argentina:
Line-outs: 6
Scrums: 2
Free- kicks: 1 (scrum)
Drop-outs: 0
Not many scrums but they were good.
Stoppages (total of line-outs, scrums with resets, free kicks, penalties, drop-outs):
Italy vs Samoa: 86
Scotland vs Argentina: 41
France vs New Zealand: 71
Ireland vs South Africa: 76
Wales vs Australia: 71
The number of stoppages at Murrayfield is low enough to be freakish.
Tries
This is the number of tries each team scored.
(i) Ireland vs South Africa: 1
Ireland: 0
South Africa: 1
(ii) Wales vs Australia: 4
Wales: 0
Australia: 4
(iii) France vs New Zealand: 5
France: 0
New Zealand: 5
(iv) Italy vs Samoa: 2
Italy: 2
Samoa: 0
(v) Scotland vs Argentina: 0
Scotland: 0
Argentina: 0
Tries/penalties scored
This gives the ratio of tries scored to penalties scored by each team:
Argentina: 0/3
Australia: 4/2
France: 0/3
Ireland: 0/5
Italy: 2/3
New Zealand: 5/2
Samoa: 0/2
Scotland: 0/2
South Africa: 1/0
Wales: 0/4
The ratio of tries scored to penalties goaled is 12/26
Last weekend it was 25/25, the weekend before 13/31.
Some November Totals
Tries per country
Australia: 1 + 2 + 1 + 4 = 8
Argentina: 0 + 1 + 0 = 1
England: 0 + 1 + 0 = 1
Fiji: 1 + 0 + 4 = 5
France: 1 + 7 + 0 = 8
Italy: 0 + 1 + 2 = 3
Ireland: 2 + 5 + 0 = 7
New Zealand: 1 + 1 + 1 + 5 = 8
Scotland: 2 + 0 + 0 = 2
Samoa: 1 + 1 + 0 = 2
South Africa: 1 + 4 + 1 = 6
Wales: 1 + 1 + 3 + 0 = 5
This weekend Fiji played Romania.
Penalties conceded per country
Australia: 11 + 10 + 9 + 13 = 43
Argentina: 9 + 12 + 7 = 28
England: 6 + 9 + + 10 = 25
France: 5 + 7 + 5 = 17
Italy: 12 + 7 + 10 = 29
Ireland: 9 + 13 + 9 = 31
New Zealand: 14 + 13 + 8 + 12 = 47
Scotland: 12 + 6 + 6 = 24
Samoa: 10 + 7 + 13 = 30
South Africa: 14 + 10 + 11= 35
Wales: 9 + 11 + 7 + 5 = 32
Stoppages per match
England vs Australia: 69
England vs Argentina: 74
France vs South Africa: 79
Ireland vs Australia: 81
Italy vs New Zealand: 101
Scotland vs Fiji: 76
Wales vs New Zealand: 70
Wales vs Samoa: 81
France vs Samoa: 66
Ireland vs Fiji: 85
New Zealand vs England: 81
South Africa vs Italy: 74
Scotland vs Australia: 89
Wales vs Argentina: 69
Italy vs Samoa: 86
Scotland vs Argentina: 41
France vs New Zealand: 71
Ireland vs South Africa: 76
Wales vs Australia: 71
Sanctions
Red Card
Henry Fa’afili (Samoa)
Yellow cards
Morné Steyn (South Africa): playing a man without the ball
Ryan Kankowski (South Africa): tackle infringement
Henry Tuilagi (Samoa): tackle infringement
Gonzalo Garcia (Italy): tip tackle
Nemia Tialata: (New Zealand): scrum infringement
Wycliff Palu (Australia): dangerous tackle
Simon Favaro (Italy): late and dangerous charge
Owen Franks (New Zealand): dangerous charge
Nathan Hines (Scotland): dangerous tackle
Cited & suspended
In addition Daniel Carter (New Zealand) was cited and suspended for a high tackle when New Zealand played Wales.
