It’s difficult to obtain statistics on the number of tackles made by players in the four Australian Super 14 teams. The franchises obviously keep their own stats, but they could hardly be expected to release such sensitive information.
The only source for this data that I am aware of is Fox Sports Fantasy Super 14. Stats across a number of categories are shown for each player in the competition.
In order to compare the tackle activity of the Australian players, I used their figures for “Tackles made” and “Minutes played” up to the end of Round 6.
The number of minutes played was converted into “Full-Game-Equivalents” by dividing by 80.
This number was then divided into the total number of tackles to give a score for the number of successful tackles in a full game.
I have no way of knowing what criteria were used to define a successful tackle, but it can be assumed that the data is objective and therefore provides a valid measure of comparative tackle activity.
Thirteen Australian players are averaging ten or more successful tackles per full game. Twelve of them are forwards: they are Luke Holmes, 14.9 (5.9); George Smith, 13.4 (11.8); David Pocock, 13.3 (4.8); Adam Byrnes, 13.1 (4.9); Phil Waugh, 12.7 (10.0); Daniel Braid, 12.0 (8.3); Julian Salvi, 11.6 (11.8); Richard Brown, 11.6 (3.1); Ben Mowen, 10.6 (16.4); Matt Hodgson, 10.3 (16.0); Dean Mumm, 10.0 (11.8); and Stephen Hoiles, 10.0 (7.7).
Luke Holmes at 14.9 has the highest number of tackles per full game, but so far this season he has only played a total of 86 minutes, presumably coming off the bench to play a cameo role where he is fresh and most other players are tiring.
The figures in parentheses are the percentage of attempted tackles which the player missed: Richard Brown with 3.1%, David Pocock at 4.8%, and Adam Byrnes at 4.9% are obviously very efficient tacklers.
The only back to make the merit list is Tom Carter.
He is averaging 14.0 tackles per full game with only 4.2% of his tackles missed.
This reinforces the point that he has a very high work rate. Any back who can average fourteen tackles per game is clearly going looking for involvement, and the figures indicate he very rarely misses his man.
By comparison, the next busiest defenders among the backs are Quade Cooper, 8.8 (16.0); James O’Conner, 8.8 (15.6): and Tyrone Smith, 8.7 (20.0).
Note in each case the very much higher percentage of missed tackles.
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