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The weekend in stats

February 08 2010

So that was the first Six Nations weekend! Victory for England, Ireland and France, all hard-earned, and sending coaches from Wales, Italy and Scotland back to their respective drawing boards for some study and improvements.

But what will it be that they improve on? Well, the comprehensive video analysis that has no doubt lasted into the wee hours of the weekend will tell them. But stats tell a tale too and we've gathered together a list of tell-tale figures that could give a few pointers as to where this weekend's games were won and lost.

Dublin first. Italy lost seven line-outs and made not one single offload in a tackle as they laboured to get their game going under heavy Irish pressure. More encouraging will be that they only missed five tackles in 98, not bad going at all. Defence seems not to be a problem, but attack is very much so.

Ireland thus dominated, winning the ball 88 times in open play compared to Italy's 51, and completing 161 passes to Italy's 74. The kicking percentage also bore out that the Irish simply wanted to start solidly and play the game away from their line - 61 per cent of their possession was kicked away. But when you are winning that much line-out ball against the throw, why wouldn't you play the touchlines...

Over to Edinburgh, where France conceded ten penalties to Scotland's five - not a ratio they can afford next week.

In fact, there were a few aspects France will have to tighten up on: their high missed tackle count - 15 out of 127 - and the high error rate of 20. Neither of those can be repeated against the Irish.

Scotland had the better of the possession slightly, but France's key to victory was not only turning ball over well, but also exploiting it. They made only two line-breaks all game, yet ran in two tries. Scotland's two line-breaks yielded nothing.

At Twickenham, Wales' obvious achilles heel was the line-out, with five out of twelve line-outs going awry. That's over 40 per cent of their line-out possession (you have to wonder a bit why England didn't kick more, given that stat).

There was an obvious tactical difference between the teams, with England opting for ruck and drive 30 times out of 74, and Wales going for ruck and pass 52 times out of 63. This was partly because the Welsh were left chasing the game later on, however.

But in keeping with the English mantra of playing it tight, they conceded not a single open play turnover, while the Welsh aim to pass and open it up produced a predictably higher error rate of 19 errors in all to England's 12. This aspect had been talked up all week: English pragmatism against Welsh flair, yet for much of the game, the teams were evenly-matched - same percentage tackle count, the same number of line-breaks, roughly the same amount of possession kicked.

Small margins cost Wales - yellow cards, missed kicks and fudged line-outs. It's a punishing game...