We let our stat gimp loose on the teams and he couldn’t stop himself delving into the individual players as well. So here they all are.
For the most part they reinforce what you might already suspect, but there are a few surprises……..
Attacking stats based on most runs – Backs only
| Player | Runs | Line Breaks |
Line Breaks /Run % |
Defenders Beaten |
Defenders |
Offloads | Turnovers Conceded |
| Mark McLinden | 144 | 18 | 13% | 21 | 0.15 | 10 | 20 |
| Quade Cooper | 142 | 12 | 8% | 22 | 0.15 | 21 | 23 |
| Digby Ioane | 136 | 25 | 18% | 35 | 0.26 | 15 | 19 |
| Drew Mitchell | 134 | 14 | 10% | 23 | 0.17 | 6 | 18 |
| Mark Gerrard | 98 | 9 | 9% | 20 | 0.20 | 7 | 14 |
| C. Lealiifano | 97 | 7 | 7% | 10 | 0.10 | 7 | 18 |
| Matt Giteau | 94 | 12 | 13% | 14 | 0.15 | 14 | 18 |
| Lote Tuqiri | 88 | 4 | 5% | 7 | 0.08 | 7 | 12 |
| Berrick Barnes | 87 | 14 | 16% | 16 | 0.18 | 13 | 13 |
| Lachlan Turner | 79 | 13 | 16% | 17 | 0.22 | 3 | 12 |
Best Effective tackle % stats (40 Tackle minimum) – Backs only
| Player | Tackles Made |
Tackles Missed |
Effective Tackle % |
| Tom Carter | 102 | 6 | 94% |
| James O’Connor | 60 | 8 | 88% |
| Lachlan Turner | 65 | 9 | 88% |
| Matt Giteau | 107 | 15 | 88% |
| Lote Tuqiri | 57 | 8 | 88% |
| Luke Burgess | 76 | 11 | 87% |
| Patrick Phibbs | 41 | 7 | 85% |
| Ryan Cross | 81 | 15 | 84% |
| Daniel Halangahu | 57 | 11 | 84% |
| Christian Lealiifano | 93 | 18 | 84% |
Worst Effective tackle % stats (40 tackle minimum) – Backs only
| Player | Tackles Made |
Tackles Missed |
Effective Tackle % |
| Sam Norton-Knight | 23 | 16 | 59% |
| Kurtley Beale | 55 | 21 | 72% |
| Stirling Mortlock | 52 | 19 | 73% |
| Tyrone Smith | 63 | 23 | 73% |
| Drew Mitchell | 44 | 16 | 73% |
| Quade Cooper | 96 | 34 | 74% |
| Timana Tahu | 45 | 15 | 75% |
| Rob Horne | 65 | 19 | 77% |
| Will Genia | 37 | 10 | 79% |
| Adam Ashley-Cooper | 78 | 21 | 79% |
Attacking stats based on most runs – Forwards only
| Player | Runs | Line Breaks |
Line Breaks /Run % |
Defenders Beaten |
Defenders Beaten/Run |
Offloads | Turnovers Conceded |
| Wycliff Palu | 125 | 5 | 4% | 11 | 0.09 | 28 | 24 |
| Nathan Sharpe | 103 | 3 | 3% | 4 | 0.04 | 3 | 12 |
| David Pocock | 91 | 4 | 4% | 13 | 0.14 | 9 | 14 |
| George Smith | 87 | 5 | 6% | 5 | 0.06 | 15 | 10 |
| Matt Hodgson | 81 | 3 | 4% | 8 | 0.10 | 6 | 14 |
| Hugh McMeniman | 81 | 1 | 1% | 6 | 0.07 | 5 | 6 |
| Stephen Moore | 71 | 2 | 3% | 6 | 0.08 | 4 | 15 |
| Ben Alexander | 66 | 3 | 5% | 6 | 0.09 | 5 | 10 |
| S. Higginbotham | 65 | 7 | 11% | 12 | 0.18 | 7 | 14 |
| Sean Hardman | 63 | 0 | 0% | 2 | 0.03 | 3 | 17 |
Best Effective tackle stats (70 Tackle minimum) – Forwards only
| Player | Tackles Made |
Tackles Missed |
Effective Tackle % |
| David Pocock | 167 | 10 | 94% |
| Nathan Sharpe | 109 | 7 | 94% |
| Tom Hockings | 74 | 6 | 93% |
| Matt Hodgson | 136 | 12 | 92% |
| Ben Hand | 88 | 8 | 92% |
| Julian Salvi | 98 | 9 | 92% |
| George Smith | 137 | 13 | 91% |
| Richard Brown | 72 | 7 | 91% |
| Stephen Hoiles | 69 | 7 | 91% |
| Benn Robinson | 78 | 8 | 91% |
Worst Effective tackle stats (70 Tackle minimum) – Forwards only
| Player | Tackles Made |
Tackles Missed |
Effective Tackle % |
| S. Higginbotham | 71 | 24 | 75% |
| Hugh McMeniman | 72 | 22 | 77% |
| Peter Kimlin | 73 | 17 | 81% |
| Ben Mowen | 96 | 21 | 82% |
| Will Caldwell | 118 | 25 | 83% |
| Laurie Weeks | 58 | 11 | 84% |
| Ben Alexander | 67 | 12 | 85% |
| Phil Waugh | 128 | 22 | 85% |
| Pekahou Cowan | 83 | 14 | 86% |
| Wycliff Palu | 103 | 16 | 87% |
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="2798 https://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/?p=2798">11 Comments
Makes me sad that Stirling is in the missed tackles group.
What about Pocock! The guy is a machine.
Drew Mitchell and Kurtley Beale are as good a defenders as Stirling Mortlock.
Who would have thought.
not for sure. Stats are a harsh master.
For example, Shepherd is often only kicking when it is already judged too far for Gits, and similarly Gits never takes 55yd kicks. So both their stats are distorted in favour of Gits – imagine Merhtens’ stats if he had only kicked <55yds!
For missed tackles, nothing discriminates between missing your own man head-on (Beale) and missing the guy next to you’s man in cover (Mortlock). To the contrary Mortlock is in fact penalised for getting to the cover tackle as opposed to Beale who is yards away and doesn’t register any stat at all for that play.
finally, Palu doesn’t get credit in those stats for running two or three yards more in the tackle without beating the man – but it is exactly that which makes him an auto-selection for the Wallabies.
and like me and dommo argued about before, if stirlo goes in for a game changing tackle and misses its a missed tackle, but if beale bulldogs someone and they drag him and the ball over the try line its not a missed tackle.
I realise Morty is now canonized and approaching St Latho status, but the problem is the number of those missed tackles that are charges out of the line that pretty much wave a try through.
Happening more and more often – there were more than a few last year even in the G&G jersey.
Yes, I’m a fucken heretic!
no no I am happy to chuck Iaone in there, if not Smith – you have company in your heretical ways!
Hey JC.
Where are you getting the stats? If I go to Foxsports I get the following (for example)
McLinden, 87 Runs, 7 Line Breaks
Quade Cooper 88 Runs, 6 Line Breaks
Digby Ioane 131 Runs 14 Line Breaks
I’ve always wondered what constituted a missed tackle. If you don’t touch your opponent is it still missed?
yeah and is it a missed tackle if they score cos of your tackle that gave them an extra 2metres,,,?
and Waugh is closing in on double the work load of those above him.
Good point there Westy, Phil is still punching some big numbers for an ‘old dog’