Ok, so I've done a little stats review, for what it's worth (yes I know, statistics are like bikinis yada yada yada)
So far, 10 players have started at blindside this Super Rugby AU
Angus Scott-Young - 6 times
Rob Valetinie - 6
Josh Kemeny - 5
Fergus Lee-Warner - 3
Lachlan Swinton - 3
Hugh Sinclair - 2
Tim Anstee - 1
Tomas Lezana - 1
Will Harris - 1
For the sake of argument, let's ditch the bottom three as one game wonders.
Starting on individual defensive stats and the basics:
Tackle success
Kemeny 96.88% (has only missed one tackle so far this season at 6)
ASY (Angus Scott-Young) @ 91.78%
FLW (Fergus Lee-Warner) @ 90%
Valetini @ 89.23%
Swinton @ 85.42%
Sinclair @ 82.86%
Tahs struggling big time
Tackles per game
Sinclair @ 14.5
Swinton @ 13.67
ASY (Angus Scott-Young) @ 11.17
Valetini @ 9.67
FLW (Fergus Lee-Warner) @ 9
Kemeny @ 7.75
Tahs being asked to do a lot of work.
Defensive importance to team
Don't really know what to call this, but basically its the percentage of the individual workload on the overall team outcome.
Sinclair - 10.36% (meaning he's made 10% of his team's total tackles)
ASY (Angus Scott-Young) - 10.14%
Valetini - 7.69%
Kemeny - 7.03%
FLW (Fergus Lee-Warner) - 6.10%
Swinton - 4.86%
Looking at some attacking stats:
Attack Efficiency
Another made up stat, but basically looks at clean breaks and defenders beaten per carry and considers metres per carry too (note, don't have post contact metres). The higher the better
Valetini - 18.00
Kemeny - 12.48
Sinclair - 12.44
FLW (Fergus Lee-Warner) - 4.44
ASY (Angus Scott-Young) - 2.85
Swinton - 0
So Valetini is the clear stand out, as you'd expect. ASY (Angus Scott-Young) and FLW (Fergus Lee-Warner)'s minimal attacking impact perhaps a reason why they weren't in the PONI squad. Swinton a standout. Has barely made an attacking impact - no defenders beaten; no clean breaks, and aside from an ok game v the Brumbies has been very poor at making metres.
Just some other randoms
Lineout use:
ASY (Angus Scott-Young) - 9 (all won)
FLW (Fergus Lee-Warner) - 9 (7 won, 2 lost)
Swinton - 6 (all won)
Sinclair - 5 (all won)
Valetini - 3 (2 won, 1 lost)
Kemeny 1 (1 won)
Most penalties conceded:
ASY (Angus Scott-Young) - 4
FLW (Fergus Lee-Warner) / Kemeny - 3
Sinclair - 2
Swinton / Valetini - 1
Work Rate:
Add carries, tackles, turnovers won (note RugbyPass did not have stats for this for every game) and divide by number of games. Wish I had ruck numbers too.
Sinclair / Swinton - 22
ASY (Angus Scott-Young) / FLW (Fergus Lee-Warner) - 19
Valetini - 17
Kemeny - 14
So, what does it mean? I think the Wallaby selectors have picked the right people except Swinton, although I could understand him being picked based on 30-odd minutes of test rugby last year. Valetini the stats standout from a consistency basis, but as we know, it all comes down to the balance of the rest of the backrow.
One thing worth saying though, gees I wish the Force would give Anstee another start at 6. His stats that one game v the Waratahs were exceptional.
Tackled at 92.31% (made 12 of 13) which was 7.5% of his team's total.
His attacking stats were off the charts obviously @ 72.
He took a lineout, didn't lose one and gave away a penalty.
His workrate stat was 23.
Just one game, but it confirms the potential most of us recognise. It would just be nice to see more of him