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I was browsing other news sites when I came upon an article written over on news.com.au – where a ‘Team of the Rugby Championship’ was posted as chosen by the Fox Sports Stats team.
After browsing down the list I had more than a few nods, a few raised eyebrows and an occasional scratch of the head in confusion.
The team that they put forward complete with stats (and a few of my own comments interspersed) is as follows:
1. James Slipper (AUS) – 51 ball carries, 49 tackles
2. Augustin Creevy (ARG) – 64 ball carries
3. Tendai Mtawirira (RSA) – 48 tackles with only two missed
Stats quoted are ball carries and tackles – but there’s no mention of scrum performance at all.
4. Eben Etzebeth (RSA) – five lineout steals
5. Manuel Galarza (ARG) – 22 lineout wins, four steals
The only stat that they’ve quoted here is the quantity of lineout takes or steals with no consideration of general field play.
6. Marcel Coetzee (RSA) – 72 tackles, three missed
7. Richie McCaw (NZL) – 82 tackles, three pilfers, three tries
8. Duane Vermeulen (RSA) – five pilfers, six forced penalties, 54 ball carries, 12 tackle busts
Kind of hard to argue with any of the numbers here really.
9. Aaron Smith (NZL) – 100 run metres, 8 tackle busts, two linebreaks
10. Nicolas Sanchez (ARG) – 52 points, four linebreaks, 298 run metres, 10 tackle busts
Again fairly self explanatory and I believe Sanchez was the only number 10 to start every game in the RC?
11. Julian Savea (NZL) – four tries, nine linebreaks, 643 run metres, 24 tackle busts, 10 offloads
12. Malakai Fekitoa (NZL) – 347 run metres
13. Tevita Kuridrani (AUS) – 440 run metres,
14. Cornal Hendricks (RSA) – three tries
15. Israel Folau (AUS) – two tries, 30 tackle busts, 49 offloads, 633 run metres, six linebreaks, four linebreak assists (also played every minute of the RC)
4/5 ain’t too bad…
Accordingly, the breakdown the team has having three Australians, three Argentinians, five South Africans and four New Zealanders.
To my mind the stats have chosen a fairly accurate set of players for the middle and latter part of the list – but I’d suspect that some of the tight five have been hard done by to not make the cut.
Additionally the use of pure aggregate statistics here (as in total numbers rather than averaged numbers) clearly weights the stats towards those who played in every single game of The Rugby Championship.
So, which players do you think the statistics elevated beyond their actual play, and who deserved their spot in that team?
And if you think a player was hard done by – what statistics should Fox Sports have taken into consideration instead?
Link to the article is here
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