The key KPIs for a Wallabies clean sweep

Key Performance Indicators are tricky things. I struggle with them in the workplace and I struggle with their application in sport.

It feels to me they can be counterproductive in many instances, stifling enterprise by discouraging the risk-taking. Nevertheless, they seem to be the norm in business, and in at least some cases professional sport is following suit.

We have seen two very different games from the Wallabies over the past two weeks. While some of the differences can be attributed to the quality of the opposition, I feel that is far from the whole story.

What KPIs would you want Wallaby players to focus on this weekend to ensure a more dominant display? I’ve offered my thoughts below but keen to read the thoughts of others on this.

Percentage of (not out) kicks that are contestable
On Thursday, fellow Roarer Die hard wrote that “Every kick should end in a contest or gain ground either going out or in open spaces”. I agree with that but I’ve broken it into two metrics – this one and the one below.

If you’re not going to kick it out, you need to make sure the kick is contestable. Ideally, that means giving it enough height that Wallabies can contest in the air.

If not, the kick should be into enough space that by the time the French players get to it they have Wallabies breathing down their necks.

This isn’t always possible. There are times when you have taken the ball back into your 22 so you can’t kick it out and the safest thing actually is to just hoof it downfield. So we’re not after 100 per cent on this one, but you want it as high as possible.

Percentage of ‘good’ kicks
For the purpose of this, I’ll define a good kick as either contestable (see above) or out when you want it to go out, bouncing before going out when you want that and gaining good ground.

What’s the definition of ‘good ground’? Pretty flexible, but you probably want to be making at least 30 metres upfield.

Kicking out on the full when you don’t want to is a huge kick in the guts for a team. Ditto not finding touch when kicking out of your own 22, and also kicking hard-won ball to the opposition.

Again, you’ll likely never hit 100 per cent with this one, but you’d hope to get pretty close.

The scrum
I read on another site that our pack will outweigh the French by 85 kilograms, which to my simple mind is almost like having a whole other person pushing in your scrum.

We’ve done pretty well in the scrums except for that penalty try, which I think we’ve all agreed never to speak of again. Nothing would please me more than to see us push the French scrum around a bit. We have some consistency in the front row and hopefully know the French nuances.

We should be aiming to win all our own scrums, give no scrum penalties away and to win at least a couple when the French are putting in. That’s achievable, and we need to send a signal for games to come this year.

Breakdown turnovers
We’ve been pretty good with protecting our own ball at the breakdown. The very good French back row really haven’t been able to pilfer much, and for the most part we’re not being driven back off our own ball.

Where we have turned it over in a tackle it’s either been the player taking it not having a good handle on it, running too upright or running away from support. Breakdown turnovers conceded is a difficult stat to keep to zero, but that should be our target.

I prefer to see turnovers won at the breakdown as players hitting breakdowns in numbers and driving over the ball. Focusing on trying to pilfer can often be counterproductive and lead to less turnovers won if the pilfering player gets knocked off their feet or concedes a penalty.

The other way to win a turnover is holding the opposition player up until a maul is called and then not allowing it out. We’ve done that a few times, but it can be a dangerous ploy.

Setting a target for breakdown turnover wins is always a bit problematic. Flankers can have blinders but never get a single pilfer. We did get a few last match though, and I’m hoping we can get a few again this weekend.

As with most KPIs, there is a degree of subjectivity in all of these measures. And the above alone will not of course guarantee a win – we still need to hold onto passes, not miss tackles, kick penalties, and so on.

I’m not aiming to list all possible metrics, but the above are key. Do the rest right and perform on these key metrics and the Wallabies will romp it home.