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With Test season approaching, and the Super Rugby season advanced enough to render statistics meaningful, let’s look at our heavy tacklers’ efficacy.
Many of the usual suspects show up when we look at players who have made 100 or more tackles: busy Michael Hooper, the tackle king Lappies Labuschagne, the impressive Pablo Matera, and the ‘Rock of Hamilton’ Sam Cane.
But who is leading and who is lagging on time between tackles (TBT)? Realignment speed is key to navigating the new rules, and the durability to withstand the G-forces of collisions, then pop back up to make a dominant tackle is a bonus.
Who makes the most dominant tackles per 80-minute game (DT:80)?
And of course, who on the ‘heavy tackle’ list refuses to miss their tackles, and finds a way, by hook or by crook, to bring the carrier down?
The top volume tacklers are all loose forwards: Dillon Hunt (123), Labuschagne (115), Matera (110), Kwagga Smith (110), Sam Cane (108), Hooper (105), and Luke Whitelock (101).
I also took a look at three players expected to challenge for starting test berths in June: David Pocock (48 tackles in by far the fewest minutes of the group), Siya Kolisi (87), and Matt Todd (86).
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First, there was a statistically significant gap among these fine players in industry.
Hunt and Labuschagne are simply phenomenal in their TBT at 3:50 minutes and 3:51 minutes, respectively. Most of the others are clumped in a group between 4:18 and 5:03, with Smith and Hooper near the top, and Matera and Cane lagging.
The laggard is Springbok incumbent Kolisi, who has a 6:23 average gap between his tackle attempts. Once I overlaid his rather shocking 82 per cent tackle success rate, I expelled him from this survey, even though his DT:80 was middle-of-the-pack. Kolisi’s poor form (which he admits) is a worry for both Rassie Erasmus and the Stormers.
The other high-volume tackler who cannot survive our look is Smith. We all love his spirit, and on attack he is an excitement machine, but he is missing even more tackles than Kolisi, while completing the fewest dominant tackles per 80 minutes (only 0.68).
So, looking at the loosies still in the group, a real pecking order emerges:
Labuschagne: 3.83 dominant tackles per 80
Hooper: 2.9
Pocock: 2.75
Whitelock: 2.5
Todd: 2.16
Hunt: 1.4
Matera: 1.33
Cane: 1.3
Michael Hooper of the Waratahs (AAP Image/Craig Golding)
Labuschagne is first in DT:80, second in tackle success rate, and first in TBT.
Hunt is first or second in two categories, but behind in dominance.
Just looking at tackle efficacy, then, the Wallabies have quality to choose from within ‘Pooper’.
The Pumas have a world-class choice.
The All Blacks have reliable Cane, with Todd and Hunt right there.
And yet again, the Boks are caught in a political dilemma. Labuschagne has, for years, been the busiest and best tackler in Super Rugby, but Kolisi is hard to drop, even with his average form. He is the better ball carrier, of course, and has serious leadership qualities, but in the next rounds, Siya needs to step it up.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.