Stats: A tale of two semis
The semifinals of the Currie Cup were played on Saturday. In both the away teams won, in both the margin was two points, in both the winning score was a kick and in both that score was in the last two minutes. Lots of drama and here are some cold statistics to bring the excitement down.
Sanctions
There was one yellow card.
Bakkies Botha (Blue Bulls) – elbow to the face inside the first minute.
Penalties conceded
In this section we record the times a team was penalised.
(i) Sharks vs Free State Cheetahs
Total number of penalties: 14
Sharks: 9
Free State Cheetahs: 5
The reasons for the penalties were as follows:
* = points conceded
Sharks:
Tackle/ruck: 6 (Sykes 2, Pienaar*, Bismarck du Plessis, Jacobs 2)
Off-side: 2 (Pietersen, Kankowski)
Scrum: 1 (Mtawarira)
Free State Cheetahs:
Tackle/ruck: 3 (Demas, Joubert*, Brüssow)
Off-side: 2 (De Villiers, Scholtz)
The Sharks missed a penalty kick at goal, the Free State Cheetahs 2.
(ii) Western Province vs Blue Bulls
Total number of penalties: 21
Western Province: 11
Blue Bulls: 10
The reasons for the penalties were as follows:
Western Province:
Tackle/ruck: 5 (Vermeulen*, Grant*, Watson*, Bekker, Louw*)
Off-side: 1 (Welsh)
Scrum: 2 (Blaauw, Harris*)
Discipline: 3 (Bekker* – high tackle; Welsh – obstruction; Naqelevuki* – high tackle)
Blue Bulls:
Tackle/Ruck: 4 (Kruger, Stegmann* 2, Kuün*)
Off-side: 2 (Du Preez, Potgieter*)
Scrum: 1 (Kruger)
Discipline: 3 (Botha – elbow to face; Olivier – obstruction; Habana* – deliberate knock-on)
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:
Sharks vs Free State Cheetahs: 9/14 = 64%
Western Province vs Blue Bulls: 9/21 = 43%
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) Sharks vs Free State Cheetahs
Sharks:
Line-outs: 15 (3 lost, 1 skew, 3 quick)
Scrums: 12 (5 reset, 5 collapses, 1 wheel, 1 free kick, 1 penalty)
Free-kicks: 1 (mark)
Drop-outs: 4
Free State Cheetahs:
Line-outs: 16 (4 lost, 1 skew, 1 quick)
Scrums: 5 (1 reset, 2 collapses)
Free-kicks: 8 (1 scrum, 7 marks)
Drop-outs: 4
Stoppages: 85
(ii) Western Province vs Blue Bulls
Western Province:
Line-outs: 17 (2 lost, 1 skew, 1 quick, 1 free kick)
Scrums: 6 (1 penalty)
Free-kicks: 4 (1 line-out, 3 marks)
Drop-outs: 1
Blue Bulls:
Line-outs: 12 (3 lost, 2 quick)
Scrums: 9 (6 reset, 4 collapses, 2 penalties)
Free-kicks: 1 (mark)
Drop-outs: 0
Stoppages: 77
Scoring:
Tries:
Sharks: 2
Free State Cheetahs: 2
Western Province: 1
Blue Bulls: 0
Conversions:
Sharks: 1
Free State Cheetahs: 2
Western Province: 1
Blue Bulls: 0
Penalty goals:
Sharks: 2
Free State Cheetahs: 2
Western Province: 4
Blue Bulls: 7
Drop goals:
Sharks: 1
Free State Cheetahs: 1
Western Province: 0
Blue Bulls: 0
