Author: Scott Allen

After six rounds in the Super Rugby competition, the greater number of games played is providing us with statistics that are a little more meaningful. This week I’ve looked at goal-kicking stats. Click on the icon in the column headings to sort the data in the tables. James O’Connor from the Force is showing why he’ll be in the Wallabies starting team in 2011 with a current success rate of 81 per cent — second only to the Stormers. The other Australian teams, with the exception of the Waratahs, have percentages in the low 70s range.  The Waratahs are lagging badly at only 59…

I’ve been really impressed with James O’Connor playing number 10 for the Force so far this season. I have no doubt that he’ll be in the starting team for the Wallabies come World Cup time — the only question for me is in which position? If Kurtley Beale stays fit he’ll be the Wallaby fullback, so JO’C will either be on one of the wings, where he played so well last year, or he may get a chance in closer. Also on the plus side, his goal-kicking seems to be getting better and better. In a knockout competition you need a…

This week we take a look at attacking statistics after four rounds. When I’m looking at ways to improve a team’s performance I consider reduction of handling errors is an area that deserves a lot of attention. Better control of the ball improves the amount of possession you have and therefore increases attacking opportunities. The opposing view is that if you’re not making mistakes, you’re probably playing conservatively in attack; something I don’t advocate. The obvious ideal scenario is to keep attacking while minimising errors. That means improving the basic skills of passing, catching and offloading, and that’s why even…

Watching the Crusaders v. Waratahs and Brumbies v. Reds games from the weekend it was apparent that the problems with Australian scrums are not going away. Once Tatafu Polota-Nau went off injured, the Waratahs scrum started going backwards dramatically, then improved until the last quarter of the match when it fell apart again. In both games there were numerous re-set scrums. While I acknowledge that I’m no expert on scrums, after watching the footage of Ben Alexander against the Reds I wanted to take a closer look at front row techniques. This video focuses on the Brumbies scrum, but all Australian Super…

Defence patterns in Super Rugby this year are more aggressive than in 2010, putting more pressure on attackers.  As a result, attacking opportunities are harder to find. This means that teams have to be more patient in attack, and that having a good counter-attack is even more important. Counter-attack and turnover ball present some of the best attacking opportunities. One of the interesting trends so far in Super Rugby is that we’re seeing teams win games despite facing a large deficit in possession. In Round 1 the Bulls beat the Lions with only 39 per cent of time in possession and 47 rucks…

After two rounds of Super Rugby let’s have a look at some of the statistics to see if any trends are emerging. We’ll start with possession, looking at percentage of possession and share of rucks and mauls. Average Possession % Per Game Blues 53% Brumbies 62% Bulls 45% Cheetahs 46% Chiefs 41% Crusaders 45% Force 47% Highlanders 52% Hurricanes 55% Lions 58% Rebels 41% Reds 55% Sharks 53% Stormers 46% Waratahs 48% Rucks & Mauls – Attack Average Per Game Rucks & Mauls – Defence Average Per Game Blues 137 68 116 58 Brumbies 224 112 93 46 Bulls 150…

I didn’t get to watch the Waratahs v Reds game on Saturday night but when I got home I was surprised by the score. I wasn’t surprised by a Waratahs win but I had expected a closer match and I found it hard to understand how the Reds could only score six points. Having now watched the game it’s very easy to understand – the Reds looked pedestrian in attack and every time they tried something the Waratahs defence easily covered them. It was an outstanding display by the Waratahs and after two rounds they look the team to beat in the…

There’s plenty for the Rebels to work on this week to prepare for the Brumbies but for me the first place to start is their defensive structure. In this video I take a look at the structural issues with the Rebel’s defence that led to three of the Waratahs tries. [youtube width=”600″ height=”450″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVlf9fLdlrQ[/youtube]

2011 is a big year for Rugby – the introduction of Super 15, the Rugby World Cup and … a new segment on Green & Gold Rugby – G&GR Whiteboard. Each week we’ll be bringing you analysis of aspects of games involving Australian teams.  Obviously tries will feature heavily but there are plenty of areas we’ll be covering as well, so if you’ve got suggestions on what we should take a look at, let us know. We’ll start the new segment off with a try from the Reds game against the Highlanders last year. [youtube width=”533″ height=”400″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvhuayBrj4s[/youtube] 

As we approach the 2011 Super Rugby season, let’s look back at the statistics from 2010 to see who performed best in the rankings for some key areas. We know the Bulls won the 2010 Super Rugby title but how did they fare in the rankings? In attack, they scored the most tries with 47 but had the second lowest number of line breaks and metres gained running behind the Cheetahs.  In defence they had the third lowest tackle accuracy rate at 87%. That goes to show that statistics are not an absolute measure of performance and only form part of the big picture.  Statistics are…

FatProp recently started a thread on the G&GR Forum titled “All These Australian Local Derbies … Better?”.  The general thrust of the comments in response was that based on Super 14 games between the Australian teams, we may see games played in a less adventurous manner than when the Australian teams are playing teams in the other conferences. Read the comments here. I think that teams will probably start out the season looking to play positive rugby but after the first three or four weeks we might start to see the teams that have collected a good haul of points already playing a…

Here’s a look at a really good Wallaby try from July 2007. [youtube id=”s-f1Ygw9owY” width=”600″ height=”350″]

George Smith – a Brumbies and Wallaby legend that has given us all so much pleasure over the years. Here’s a short tribute to the great man – I’ve exhausted my video library but I know there are still some great moments I couldn’t find footage of so let us know of any other footage out there on the net. [youtube width=”600″ height=”450″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IYu3URrB6I[/youtube]

I’ve got some bad news and some good news for you. The bad news is that having completed a highlights video of the Wallabies backline in 2010, it comes in at 16 minutes, which I know is a lot longer than most people are prepared to watch on the Internet.  In fact I’ve had to split it into two video files. There are two items of good news. First, despite cutting out plenty of highlights I couldn’t make the video much shorter and still do the subject justice — the Wallabies backline have just produced so many recent highlights, particularly…

Adam Ashley-Cooper’s recent try against France was one of the few times in 2010 the Wallabies have run a backline play from a set piece. That’s a shame, because they have a lot of success when they do. In this video I take a more detailed look at how the move worked. [youtube id=”JJjPtP7hN_A” width=”600″ height=”350″]

In a recent post I gave you details of the Wallaby players’ tackling performances in 2010. Here’s a little more detail that shows how the team went against all the different teams they played in 2010. Let’s start with the number of tackles attempted. While the average number of tackles in all games was 159 there is a fair bit of variance from the low against Ireland to the high against England on the recent EOYT. Next we’ll look at missed tackles. Not surprisingly, the two worst performances in terms of missed tackles were also the Wallabies’ worst two games…

I think “defence” is about the structure of the defensive line, line speed and the performance of the team as a whole, whereas “tackling” is what the individuals in the team do. No matter how well a team’s defence is working, if the individuals aren’t tackling well, the opposition are going to put points on you. The same applies if the individuals are tackling well but the defence is poorly organised. I thought the Wallabies defence improved the further the EOYT went on. One factor in that improvement would be a drop in the quality of the opposition compared to…

While the Wallabies’ result against France was fantastic, most people have acknowledged that the French played poorly. So does this match really give us any pointers to the development of the Wallabies in 2010? Let’s look beyond the score line to determine whether the performance really gives us some positive signs, or whether it may be another false dawn. The Wallabies’ lineout was good once again with a 93 per cent success rate, against only 57 per cent for France. The lineout has been more than competitive all year and with Nathan Sharpe in the form of his career, James…

Quade Cooper’s stats in defence against Italy were much better than they’ve been recently — 100 per cent of tackles made and even a dominant tackle. While the result was better, what changed? Was it the influence of Phil Blake? Did Quade just have a better approach to his defence? Or wasn’t he required to defend as much this week? Watch the video for my take on what was happening. [youtube width=”600″ height=”450″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUl4wl3bJt0[/youtube]

The defence numbers for the Wallabies in their game against Italy look impressive: 94 per cent of tackles completed — their best result for the year — and 29 per cent of tackles were dominant, equalling their second-best performance of the year. Improved organisation and more aggressiveness resulted in only eight tackles being missed! Of course we need to keep in mind that Italy didn’t ask too many questions in attack and the Wallabies had a mountain of possession. There was however one major issue with the Wallabies defence and yes, it’s Quade Cooper again. What issue, I can hear you…