Stats reveal SA teams' key weapons and performers as URC returns
STATISTICAL SPOTLIGHT: With the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup taking a break until the end of March, the spotlight will now be on the United Rugby Championship for South Africa’s teams.
The tournament enters Round 13 this weekend with all four SA teams in Europe.
On Friday, the Bulls are in Llanelli to take the Scarlets and the Stormers are in Belfast to take on Ulster.
On Saturday, Edinburgh will welcome the Sharks and the last fixture on that day sees the Lions in Galway to face Connacht.
The URC StatMaster has provided some interesting stats on South Africa’s teams heading into the weekend’s matches.
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#ICYMI: Ruben Van Heerden’s signing has been welcomed with a smile and a list of expectations from the Stormers forwards coach Rito Hlungwani. 👇#URC #ChampionsCup #Stormers https://t.co/448FCmXP0F
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Stormers:
Scrumhalf Paul de Wet has been a key figure for the Stormers in their campaign so far.
De Wet’s service has been integral on attack and the stats provide some evidence of this.
He has made more try assists than any other player (eight), all of which have been passes.
In that pack, Marvin Orie won more line-outs than any other player in Round 12 (11).
He has been the Stormers’ most regular target in the line so far this season, taking a total of 52 – more than double that of next-best Hacjivah Dayimani (52).
There are a few stats from their last URC match against Glasgow that does not make for impressive reading.
Manie Libbok and Damien Willemse missed eight and seven tackles respectively in Round 12 – the highest totals of the round.
However, Libbok is the league’s top points-scorer with 102.
Bulls:
Ruan Nortje has won more line-outs than any other player in the URC (64). Also showing his dexterity in the loose, he has made more passes than any other forward (50). Whilst he has made two try assists, teammate Marcell Coetzee leads the pack with three.
The Bulls have the best success rate off the tee in the competition (88 percent). This allows them to get the best out of their impressive attack, which has produced a league-high 32 try assists.
The Bulls have scored four more tries from turnovers than any other team (11).
Their favoured method of winning turnovers is extracting jackal penalties, of which they have been awarded 25 so far this season – the second-highest total in the league.
#SPOTLIGHT: They have a lot of talented players, but they also have a lot of problems 👇#URC #ChampionsCup #Bulls https://t.co/vKhlNsM0w9
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Sharks:
The Sharks have conceded the fewest cards in the competition so far (three; two yellow, one red).
They have also scored more tries from scrums than any other team (six). 46 percent of their tries have come from first phase
The Sharks have thrown fewer passes than any other team this season (1 053), an average of 105.3 per 80 minutes.
They have thrown a relatively low 1.12 passes per carry.
Lions:
Scrumhalf Morne van den Berg made as many offloads as any other player in Round 12 (four, = Stuart McCloskey and John Hodnett).
Emile van Heerden made a round-high 31 tackles against Munster, missing none.
Only Sean Reffell has made more in a match this season (42).
PJ Botha and Jaco Visagie top the charts for line-out throws which have travelled over the line – further than 15 metres – having thrown nine and seven respectively.
No other player has thrown more than four.
The Lions have scored the fewest tries in the URC (27). They are yet to score in the first 10 minutes of a match.
