Our stats preview against France last week warned of the ugliness to come, and this week against England it doesn’t get any better for the Wallabies.
Much has been made both here and in the press about the Wallabies resembling the Poms for lack of attacking skill. That’s simply not true. In some areas — notably tries scored and line-breaks — they are worse.
Quite startling are the ruck and maul figures. While the Wallabies execute the most phases for the fewest tries, England use the fewest phases for theirs, and instead kick the most out of hand — averaging a stunning 32 punts per game. This match has ‘horrorfest’ written all over it, with the Wallabies dry-humping like a randy jack russell and the poms refusing to play (Year 10 formal memories, anyone?).
If you think those attacking and scoring stats look bad enough, there isn’t much joy elsewhere.
The Wallabies miss more tackles than the poms, give away more penalties and have the dickiest scrum of the top 10 nations.
If you can see some positive prospects in this match, I wanna hear them!
Finally, the graphic below shows how many minutes you have to wait, on average, to see the Wallabies score a try, break the line, miss a tackle, or concede a penalty.
