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Super Rugby Statistical Awards (Pt 1: Defence)

Roar Guru
5th July, 2011
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Roar Guru
5th July, 2011
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3130 Reads

It’s time for part one of the inaugural Super Rugby awards based on the statistical performance across the season and finals to date.

First up, I will be focussing on the best and worst defensive teams and players in Super Rugby. Hopefully, this confirms some views and challenges others.

I have used raw data available publicly from here and then aggregated and analysed to form an overall picture of the top performers over the season and finals series in a number of areas, starting with defence.

There will be team awards and individual awards across these categories – some of the winners (and losers) may surprise you.

In order to determine which teams and players had the toughest defence over the course of the season, I looked at a number of factors, including:

• tackles made per game (individual and team)
• missed tackles per game (individual and team)
• % of tackles where a turnover was forced (individual and team)
• Running meters conceded per ball carry (team only)
• Line breaks conceded per game (team only)

I have deliberately not included traditional measures (points and tries scored against) as this has been reported and commented on frequently – I am trying to get to the root of the defensive argument – effectively making tackles, minimising line breaks and running meters and ultimately forcing turnovers.

So here we go.

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Defensive team of the year: Crusaders

Crusaders were number one by a mile. They missed the second-fewest tackles, conceded the second-fewest line breaks, forced the fourth-most turnovers from tackles and conceded the fifth-fewest meters per carry.

While I am not surprised at them being a top defensive side, I didn’t think they were that dominant, well ahead of the Stormers, although that dominance was clearly on display in the semi.

If anything, I think the Crusaders defence is underrated versus their reputation at the breakdown, set piece, kicking game and back line amongst the rest. Because they do everything well, their defence does not stand out as much as other teams – particularly the Stormers, which need very strong defence as they don’t produce much in attack.

Defensive team ranking:
1 Crusaders
2 Stormers
3 Reds
4 Brumbies
5 Waratahs
6 Chiefs
7 Hurricanes
8 Force
9 Bulls
10 Blues
11 Lions
12 Cheetahs
13 Sharks
14 Highlanders
15 Rebels

The Stormers were let down by missed tackles and not forcing as many turnovers at the tackle – middle of the pack on both of these measures.

Importantly, they allowed the fewest meters per carry and the fewest line breaks. This implies their cover defence was outstanding to miss an average number of tackles but not see their line broken.

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What is interesting is the poor defensive records of the rest of the South African teams – only the Stormers were in the top half of the defensive standings, as the Bulls were less accurate in defence than what I would have expected.

They gave up 8.5m per ball carry (versus 6.8m – 7.5m for leading teams), had their line broken 19 times per game (Stormers only allowed 13 line breaks per game) and missed 11.1% of tackles (an extra 1% of tackles vs. the top performing Brumbies).

For Tahs fans, which continued to laud the defensive strength of the team over the latter half of the season (including me) they were number five overall – only just behind the Reds and Brumbies.

Obviously, their defence was good but not great, and certainly not enough to make up for the lack of attacking cohesion against the top teams.

Now, onto the players.

Defensive Player of the Year: David Pocock.

Pocock is, unsurprisingly, the best defender in the competition. He made 15 tackles per game (only McCaw made more at 16), missing just two in nine games (just 1.5% of attempted tackles) and was generally a menace across the park.

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He is the captain of my all-defensive team below. Add his breakdown proficiency to his tackling and you have, at 23 years of age, the cornerstone of the Wallabies pack for the next decade.

His work rate is immense around the breakdown and requires special mention. Pocock was among the first three to arrive at the defensive ruck, 14 times per game – more than one more per game than McCaw and three more than the rest of the pack.

Defensive team of the tournament:
1 Ben Daley (Reds)
2 Alex De Malmanche (Chiefs)
3 James Slipper (Reds)
4 Anthony Boric (Blues)
5 Sam Whitelock (Crusaders)
6 Adam Thomson (Highlanders)
7 David Pocock, Capt. (Force)
8 Victor Vito (Hurricanes)
9 Alby Mathewson (Blues)
10 Dan Carter (Crusaders)
11 Atieli Pakalani (Waratahs)
12 Tom Carter (Waratahs)
13 Jaco Pretorius (Bulls)
14 Sean Maitland (Crusaders)
15 Hennie Daniller (Cheetahs)

The only real surprise for me here is Atieli Pakalani. I am shocked that he only missed 2% of his attempted tackles, he completed five tackles per game (not bad for a winger often coming off the bench) and forced five turnovers at the tackle over the season – a higher rate than all other wingers by some distance.

One thing I can’t measure is the dominance of the tackle outside of creating turnovers – Pakalani is unlikely to rattle any rib cages, but from memory he tends to tackle low and apparently very accurately.

There were also very few standout defensive wingers (only Pakalani, Maitland and Luke Rooney scored well), albeit in a very difficult position to defend.

Players unlucky to miss out: Richie McCaw (Crusaders), Chris Jack (Crusaders), Warren Whiteley (Lions), Rynhardt Elstadt (Stormers)

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In contrast, the all-turnstile team for worst defenders this season is:
1 Nic Henderson (Rebels)
2 John Smit (Sharks)
3 Jannie Du Plessis (Sharks)
4 Danie Rossouw (Bulls)
5 James Broadhurst (Hurricanes)
6 Colby Faingaa (Brumbies)
7 Chris Alcock (Waratahs)
8 Devon Raubenheimer (Cheetahs)
9 Ricky Januarie (Stormers)
10 Daniel Cipriani (Rebels)
11 Peter Betham (Rebels)
12 Benson Stanley (Blues)
13 Dwayne Sweeney (Chiefs)
14 Alfi Mafi (Force)
15 Julian Huxley (Rebels)

I am a bit surprised with Chris Alcock.

I generally like him as a player but come to think of it, he did fall off a few tackles this year – actually it was 2 per game – the most of any forward ex-Raubenheimer and Schalk Burger (but Burger did make 13 tackles a game vs. Alcock’s eight).

He will need to pick up the effort if he is the first choice seven for the Tahs in 2012. Lots of Rebels on this team is no surprise to anyone, I am sure.

So that is part one of hopefully several articles which use more advanced stats to confirm some existing views or challenge others. Part two (hopefully out in the next few days) will focus on the best and worst attacking teams and players.

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