Brief overview because some people will be saying the June numbers mean nothing. Well actually the do mean something, so lets have a look. No charts cause I’m not sure they are that useful at this stage. If a team start dominating, or losing, then it is a bit more attractive. You can call me lazy, but also call me free...
Both teams like to have a lot of possession and territory, both over 50%.In Australia’s case they enjoy more than 55% possession and territory. This transfers into time spend inside the oppositions 22, where the Wallabies averaged over 20% in the June Tests and the All Blacks just under 20%.
Despite the results, both teams in 2012 both teams are conceding few tries. The Wallabies an average or 1.0 and the All Blacks 0.7. When the Wallabies do concede a try they are 3 times more likely to concede a try on the LEFT side of the field. Don’t disregard this stat because if you remember Ireland were more likely to concede on the RIGHT to the same amount and Savea ran in 3 tries (Ireland’s RIGHT is NZ left a.k.a. Savea’s wing). What I think is a little more telling is that the southern hemisphere average is 2.5 tries conceded per game.
The All Blacks did opt to kick for goal from penalties only 38.5% of the time because they were too busy scoring tries. They also didn’t give Ireland that much opportunity to kick them either, only 18.5% of the time.
The quality of the opposition might be why the All Blacks were breaking 1 in every 5.1 tackle attempts by Ireland; and the Wallabies breaking 1 in 8.8 against Wales and Scotland. In missing tackles the Wallabies missed 1 in 6.9 tackle attempts and the All Blacks 1 in 11.1 attempts.
In the June test the All Blacks were on averaging twice as many offloads per game than the Wallabies.
Maybe it was a Northern hemisphere v Southern hemisphere thing, but both teams made a tactical kick from the hand every 53-55 seconds yet received one every 41-42 seconds. Scarily close numbers
The Wallabies, despite their fetchers, only managed to turnover (steal) 2.4% of the defensive rucks. The All Blacks were a lot better turning over/stealing with 4.4%. Wallabies lost 2.0% of their rucks to a steals compared to the All Blacks who lost 3.1%.
When looking at internationals being better when it comes to making fewer errors, the stats show this. The Wallabies were making 15.3 lost possessions/turnovers per game. That’s pretty good and better than the Kiwi’s 18.7. Both however are better than the southern hemisphere average of 19.1. Taking the amount of possession means Australia are making on every 83 seconds to New Zealand’s 63 seconds. Could be the difference.
It seems the All Blacks are making a too many handling errors, one every 122 seconds in possession, this is pretty bad. Its a concern because if a team gets a case of the droppsies it tends to go all season, especially in pressure games (go ask the Reds). As a comparison in SuperRugby the Hurricanes were the worse for handling errors, every 103 seconds followed by Lions with 131 seconds. Get my point?
Nothing in the penalty counts for both teams.
Think kick offs could be interesting contest. The Wallabies are yet to reclaim a kick off, restart or 22 drop out. The All Blacks are reclaiming 27.8% of them.
The stats suggests the All Blacks will really target the Wallabies at set piece. In the June tests the Wallabies lost 9.4% of their lineout throws in the air. The All Blacks are yet to lose a lineout, either in the air or through infringement in 2012. The Wallabies stole 10.4% of the opposition's lineouts in the air, the All Blacks 6.7%.
The Wallabies tend to throw to the middle, so do the All Blacks, but throw a lot to the back.
I read somewhere that the Wallabies are not getting the benefit of the doubt at the scrums and the stats kinda back that up. The Wallabies are conceding an infringements in 33.9% of the scrums set in the June tests. That is a massive. In SuperRugby the Bulls were the worse scrum infringers (is that a word) with 17.1% of scrums in the Bulls games, the Bulls conceded an infringement, so almost double that.
