Statistics - second semi

South Africa scored first and last and won the second 2007 Rugby World Cup semi-final 37-13. We give some statistics from the match.

Later we shall give some more statistics about using possession when we put the two semi-finals together. We shall also discuss some aspects of the laws.

Sanctionary Cards

In the dying minutes of the match there were two yellow cards – one for Juan Smith (South Africa) for a high tackle on Juan Martin Hernandez and one for Felipe Contepomi for slapping Bismarck du Plessis, a petulant act.

Penalties conceded

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

Argentina vs South Africa

Total number of penalties: 24

Argentina: 10
South Africa: 14

This is more than either side conceded in any pool match.

The reasons for the penalties were as follows:

* = points conceded

Argentina:

Tackle/ruck: 5 (Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, Manuel Contepomi*, Corleto 2, Agulla)
Off-side: 1 (Pichot*)
Discipline: 2 (Pichot – stamping; Longo – collapsing maul; Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe* – man without ball; Felipe Contepomi – fighting)

South Africa:

Tackle/ruck: 6 (Smith 2, Burger, Smit, Steyn* 2)
Off-side: 2 (Habana, several)
Scrum 2 (Van der Linde, Jannie du Plessis)
Discipline: 4 (Smit* – obstruction; Rossouw – man without ball; Rossouw – not 10; Smith – high tackle)

Argentina missed two penalty kicks at goal.

Tackles/Penalties

This gives the number of penalties at ruck/tackle as a fraction of the total number of penalties:

Argentina vs South Africa: 12/24 = 50 per cent

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.

Argentina vs South Africa

Argentina:

Line-outs: 19 (7 lost, 1 skew, 1 reset)
Scrums: 8 (2 reset, 2 collapses)
Free-kicks: 3 (1 line-out, 2 marks)
Drop-outs: 0

South Africa:

Line-outs: 18 (1 lost, 2 quick)
Scrums: 15 (6 reset, 5 collapses, 2 penalties)
Free-kicks: 0
Drop-outs: 3

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

Argentina vs South Africa: 93

Tries

This is the number of tries each team scored.

Argentina vs South Africa: 5

Argentina: 1
South Africa: 4

Tries/penalties scored

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

Argentina: 1/2
South Africa: 4/3

The ratio of tries scored to penalties goaled is 5/5