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Arch Winning (36)
From: http://www.rupa.com.au/news/the-players/stat-attack-round-eight-2016
How good must it have felt for the Reds to get on board their flight to South Africa with a first win of the season under their belt, and against the high-flying defending champions as well? So good!
With two potential debutants in their 27-man squad (Lukhan Tui and James Tuttle) and the boost that came from the confirmation that Rob Simmons will be fit to play, they land in Pretoria with a real spring in their step. There is an instant ‘but’, however, that comes in the form of a poor playing record at Loftus Versfeld that hasn’t seen them win there since 2001 and has seen them concede an average of 50 points there across their last 6 visits!
Just over a year ago the Reds went down 43-22, and while the Reds have lacked for experience at times this season they will be pleased to only have 7 players in their touring squad (Saia Fainga’a, Nick Frisby, Liam Gill, Greg Holmes, Jake Schatz, Simmons and James Slipper) who played back in 2012 at this venue as the Reds went down 61-8! Look even further back and you’ll see four more defeats before that last win 15 years ago, including the 92-3 drubbing in 2007 which remains the record Super Rugby loss to this day!
Let’s not dwell on that history for too long, and let’s focus on the positives; this side silenced a huge amount of critics with their performance last week, and there’s a plethora of positive individual statistics to digest.
Samu Kerevi’s game was one of the best by any player, for any team, this season; 1 try and 1 try assist, 164 metres across 16 carries, 8 defenders beaten, 5 clean breaks and 3 offloads! Chris Feauai-Sautia, Karmichael Hunt, Schatz and Hendrik Tui also had 10 or more carries, while Gill had 4 clean breaks, won 2 turnovers and tackled at 100%!
The Reds have won just two of their last 11 matches away from home, though one of those two wins came in South Africa against the Cheetahs in Round 10, 2015, while the Bulls have won seven and drawn one of their last nine matches at home. We’ve talked about the strength of the Reds’ set piece on multiple occasions this year; the Bulls have the 2nd best lineout in the competition (93%) but their scrum is ranked 17th, and that will be where the Reds will look to target them.
The Bulls have already used a whopping 34 players this season, with not a single one of them playing all 480 minutes of their campaign, and the Reds should be wary of the 20-40 minute mark of this match; the Bulls have scored 8 of their 19 tries during that time, though at least the Reds have only conceded 2 in the corresponding quarter.
Is it a tough ask? Absolutely, but so was hosting the defending champions who entered last week’s match as the competition’s in-form side against and left as the first side to taste defeat at the hands of the Reds this year. They showed against the Highlanders what they are capable of, and now the task is to replicate that every week, starting against the Bulls.
How good must it have felt for the Reds to get on board their flight to South Africa with a first win of the season under their belt, and against the high-flying defending champions as well? So good!
With two potential debutants in their 27-man squad (Lukhan Tui and James Tuttle) and the boost that came from the confirmation that Rob Simmons will be fit to play, they land in Pretoria with a real spring in their step. There is an instant ‘but’, however, that comes in the form of a poor playing record at Loftus Versfeld that hasn’t seen them win there since 2001 and has seen them concede an average of 50 points there across their last 6 visits!
Just over a year ago the Reds went down 43-22, and while the Reds have lacked for experience at times this season they will be pleased to only have 7 players in their touring squad (Saia Fainga’a, Nick Frisby, Liam Gill, Greg Holmes, Jake Schatz, Simmons and James Slipper) who played back in 2012 at this venue as the Reds went down 61-8! Look even further back and you’ll see four more defeats before that last win 15 years ago, including the 92-3 drubbing in 2007 which remains the record Super Rugby loss to this day!
Let’s not dwell on that history for too long, and let’s focus on the positives; this side silenced a huge amount of critics with their performance last week, and there’s a plethora of positive individual statistics to digest.
Samu Kerevi’s game was one of the best by any player, for any team, this season; 1 try and 1 try assist, 164 metres across 16 carries, 8 defenders beaten, 5 clean breaks and 3 offloads! Chris Feauai-Sautia, Karmichael Hunt, Schatz and Hendrik Tui also had 10 or more carries, while Gill had 4 clean breaks, won 2 turnovers and tackled at 100%!
The Reds have won just two of their last 11 matches away from home, though one of those two wins came in South Africa against the Cheetahs in Round 10, 2015, while the Bulls have won seven and drawn one of their last nine matches at home. We’ve talked about the strength of the Reds’ set piece on multiple occasions this year; the Bulls have the 2nd best lineout in the competition (93%) but their scrum is ranked 17th, and that will be where the Reds will look to target them.
The Bulls have already used a whopping 34 players this season, with not a single one of them playing all 480 minutes of their campaign, and the Reds should be wary of the 20-40 minute mark of this match; the Bulls have scored 8 of their 19 tries during that time, though at least the Reds have only conceded 2 in the corresponding quarter.
Is it a tough ask? Absolutely, but so was hosting the defending champions who entered last week’s match as the competition’s in-form side against and left as the first side to taste defeat at the hands of the Reds this year. They showed against the Highlanders what they are capable of, and now the task is to replicate that every week, starting against the Bulls.
