Statistics: Tri-Nations, Week 4

What a great match in Sydney, and the statistics tell something about it for it had a remarkably small number of stoppages.

Sanctions

There was a yellow card this week for Brad Thorn for a gross high tackle on Matt Giteau when the Wallabies were well on the way to scoring. Earlier in the Tri-Nations, Thorn was cited and found guilty of bad sportsmanship when he tackled John Smit dangerously. One wonders why this tackle on Giteau was not also considered bad sportsmanship.

Cards during the 2008 Tri-Nations

Victor Matfield (South Africa) – high tackle
Brad Thorn (New Zealand) – high tackle

Citing with suspension during the 2008 Tri-Nations

Brad Thorn (Australia) – an act contrary to good sportsmanship, suspended for a week.
Bismarck du Plessis (South Africa) –  contact with the eyes or eye area, suspended for three weeks

Penalties conceded

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

* = points conceded

Australia vs New Zealand

Total number of penalties: 7

Australia: 3
New Zealand: 4

The reasons for the penalties were as follows:

Australia:

Tackle: 2 (Moore, Smith)
Off-side: 1 (Moore)

New Zealand:

Tackle: 1 (Hore)
Off-side: 2 (So’oialo 2)
Discipline: 1 (Thorn* – high tackle)

Neither side missed a penalty kick at goal.

Free kicks conceded:

Australia: 14 (11 tackles, 1 scrum, 1 mark, 1 maul)
New Zealand: 10 (9 tackles, 1 scrum)

Of the free kicks, three were turned into scrums.

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.

Australia:

Line-outs: 5 (1 quick)
Scrums: 11 (6 reset, 12 collapses, 1 lost, 1 wheel, 1 free kick)
Drop-outs: 2

New Zealand:

Line-outs: 10 (2 skew, 1 quick, 1 free kick)
Scrums: 5 (1 collapse)
Drop-outs: 1

Yet again there were many collapsed scrums in the Land of the Falling Scrum.

In the first Tri-Nations match, between New Zealand and South Africa, the scrums were 23, 2 resets, 3 collapses.
In the second Tri-Nations match, between New Zealand and South Africa, the scrums were 13, 1 resets, 3 collapses.
In the third Tri-Nations match, between Australia and South Africa,  the scrums were 23, 10 reset, 16 collapses.
In the fourth Tri-Nations match, between Australia and New Zealand,  the scrums were 16, 6 reset, 13 collapses.

In matches involving only New Zealand and South Africa, there were 36 scrums, 3 resets and 6 collapses.
In matches involving Australia, there were 39 scrums, 16 resets and 29 collapses.

There may be something behind the question of Australia’s scrumming.

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

Australia vs New Zealand: 65

Stoppages in the Tri-Nations matches:

New Zealand vs South Africa (i): 81
New Zealand vs South Africa (ii): 71
Australia vs South Africa (i): 82
Australia vs New Zealand: 65

Tries

This is the number of tries each team scored.

Australia vs New Zealand: 7

Australia: 4
New Zealand: 3

Tries/penalties scored

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

Australia: 4/1
New Zealand: 3/0

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

In the first Test of the Tri-Nations the ratio was 2/5
In the second Test of the Tri-Nations the ratio was 3/11
In the third Test of the Tri-Nations the ratio was 2/4
In the fourth Test of the Tri-Nations the ratio was 7/1