Bled 1 - Numbers at Rucks
Have had a closer look at the ruck involvements for Bled 1 and particularly the number of players involved at each ruck.
These numbers represent players after the tackler/s who actually made contact with the ruck.
The profiles for Attack and Defence Rucks below.
Both teams supported their ball carriers to about the same extent. The All Blacks had 55% possession. The All Blacks avoided taking the ball into contact with 26 Off Loads to the Wallabies 5.
The All Blacks stood off ~60% of the Wallabies rucks, preferring to maintain their strong defensive line.
The Wallabies stood off ~30% of the All Blacks rucks.
The Wallabies were more involved in attempting to place the All Blacks ball carriers under pressure, slowing the ball down, forcing penalties or actually making a turn over.
The Wallabies earned 12 TOW at an effectiveness of 1TOW/8.3 DRIs.
The All Blacks earned 8TOW at an effectiveness of 1TOW/7.6DRIs.
i.e. about the same effectivess.
However, Pocock's 7TOW - 1TOW/3DRIs is still very impressive.
Did the Wallabies over-commit numbers to the breakdown?
These numbers would suggest not.
It seems strange to me that the Wallabies work so hard to put pressure on the opposition ball carriers only to give up possession so easily with senseless kicking - including uncontested high balls.
The 40 missed tackles (70% efficiency) speaks for itself regarding lack of pressure elsewhere on the park, as does the Wallabies 72% line out efficiency.
Both teams made about the same number of Handling Errors.