Statistics: Tri-Nations viii
South Africa played its sixth Tri-Nations match for 2009 and beat New Zealand in Hamilton, the first time the two teams have met in Hamilton. This victory meant that they added the Tri-Nations to the Freedom Cup, the Mandela Plate, the British & Irish Lions series and the World Cup for a full house that brought with it No.1 status in the world.
They played New Zealand in three Tests this year and won all three, their first whitewash of the All Blacks since 1949.
The statistic of penalties conceded by home teams vis-à-vis away teams is interesting and perhaps telling.
Sanctions
Sanctionary Cards
There were no cards this week – for the third week in a row. The nearest candidates this week were Joe Rokocoko and Kieran Read. But then Jaque Fourie of South Africa was cited for a dangerous tackle (tip tackle) on Ma’a Nonu and suspended for a month.
Recipients in Tri-Nations so far
JP Pietersen (South Africa) – high tackle
Isaac Ross (New Zealand) – offside at a tackle/ruck
Bakkies Botha (South Africa) – offside
Matt Giteau (Australia) – dangerous tackle
Richard Brown (Australia) – repeated infringement by the team
George Smith (Australia) – professional foul
Richard Brown (Australia) – dangerous tackle (tip tackle)
Cited and supended
Jaque Fourie (South Africa) – dangerous tackle; suspended for a month
Penalties conceded
In this section we record the times a team was penalised.
New Zealand vs South Africa
Total number of penalties: 20
New Zealand: 8
South Africa: 12
The reasons for the penalties were as follows:
* = points conceded
New Zealand:
Tackle/ruck/maul: 4 (Woodcock*, Nonu*, franks, Muliaina*)
Scrum: 1 (Woodcock)
Offside: 1 (Sivivatu*)
Discipline: 2 (Rokocoko – air tackle; Read – shoulder charge)
South Africa:
Tackle/ruck/maul: 8 (Morné Steyn, Matfield*, Spies, Brüssow, Du Preez, Botha* 3)
Off-side: 1 (Botha & Burger*)
Scrum: 1 (Smit*)
Discipline: 2 (Smit* – obstruction; Bismarck du Plessis – dissent)
Neither side missed a penalty kick at goal. Neither side missed a conversion either.
Tackles/Penalties
This gives the number of penalties at ruck/tackle as a fraction of the total number of penalties: 12/20 – 60%
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.
New Zealand:
Line-outs: 11 (4 lost, 1 skew, 2 quick)
Scrums: 9 (1 resets, 3 collapses, 2 penalties)
Free-kicks: 0
Drop-outs: 2
South Africa:
Line-outs: 11 (2 lost, 1 quick)
Scrums: 8 (1 resets)
Free-kicks: 0
Drop-outs: 1
Stoppages (total of line-outs, scrums with resets, free kicks, penalties, drop-outs): 64
This is a particularly low figure.
Scoring
Tries
This is the number of tries each team scored.
New Zealand: 2 (Sivivatu, McCaw)
South Africa: 2 (Du Preez, De Villiers
Tries/penalties scored
This gives the ratio of tries scored to penalties scored by each team:
New Zealand: 2/5
South Africa: 2/5
The ratio of tries scored to penalties goaled is 4/10
Some 2009 totals
Results
Australia vs South Africa, 21-6
New Zealand vs Australia, 19-18
New Zealand vs Australia, 22-16
South Africa vs Australia, 29-17
South Africa vs Australia, 32-25
South Africa vs New Zealand, 31-19
South Africa vs New Zealand, 32-29
South Africa vs New Zealand, 28-19
Tries scored
Australia: 1 + 2 + 0 + 3 + 2 = 8
New Zealand: 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 6
South Africa: 2 + 1 + 1 + 4 + 0 + 2 = 10
Conversions scored
Australia: 1 + 2 + 0 + 2 + 1 = 6
New Zealand: 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 6
South Africa: 0 + 1 + 0 + 3 + 0 + 2 = 6
Penalties conceded
Australia: 14 + 8 + 11 + 4 + 7 = 44
New Zealand: 10 + 11 + 14 + 12 + 8 = 55
South Africa: 4 + 7 + 5 + 15 + 11 + 12 = 54
In three matches South Africa conceded 16 penalties at home; in three matches South Africa conceded 38 penalties away.
Penalties conceded per match
New Zealand vs Australia i: 10 + 14 = 24
South Africa vs New Zealand i: 4 + 11 = 15
South Africa vs New Zealand ii: 5 + 14 = 19
South Africa vs Australia i: 5 + 8 = 13
Australia vs New Zealand ii: 11 + 12 = 23
Australia vs South Africa ii: 4 + 15 = 19
Australia vs South Africa iii: 7 + 11 = 18
New Zealand vs South Africa iii: 8 + 12 = 20
Total penalties conceded by
Home teams: 54
Away teams: 97
Is playing away a penalisable offence?
Free kicks conceded
Australia: 2 + 3 + 2 + 0 + 2 = 9
New Zealand: 3 + 2 + 0 + 4 + 0 = 9
South Africa: 1 + 5 + 1 + 4 + 4 + 0 = 15
Penalties scored
Australia: 3 + 0 + 6 + 2 + 2 = 13
New Zealand: 5 + 3 + 4 + 4 + 5 = 21
South Africa: 6 + 8 + 7 + 2 + 1 + 5 = 29
Drops scored
Australia: 0 + 1 + 0 + 0 + 1 = 2
New Zealand: 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 0
South Africa: 0 + 0 + 1 + 0 + 1 + 1 = 3
Line-outs lost
Australia: 0 + 9 + 0 + 5 + 3 = 17
New Zealand: 4 + 3 + 4 + 1 + 4 = 16
South Africa: 1 + 1 + 0 + 2 + 0 + 2 = 6
Stoppages per match
New Zealand vs Australia i: 77
South Africa vs New Zealand i: 62
South Africa vs New Zealand ii: 73
South Africa vs Australia i: 89
Australia vs New Zealand ii: 76
Australia vs South Africa ii: 72
Australia vs South Africa iii: 89
New Zealand vs South Africa iii: 64
