After 12 rounds of Super Rugby the Brumbies have conceded 129 penalties – that’s 41 per cent more than the average of all other teams in the competition!
Yes, the Brumbies have played one more match than most of the New Zealand and South African teams but that doesn’t account for the huge disparity between their number and the rest of the competition. The team with the next highest number of penalties is the Reds with 104 whilst the Rebels are third with 102. The Chiefs have conceded 98.
Does this suggest the Brumbies are a side with poor discipline and will conceding this many penalties eventually count against the Brumbies?
The penalties conceded by each team is shown below.
While the high number of penalties conceded by the Brumbies suggest they have poor discipline, there is another statistic that indicates they are actually the most disciplined team in the competition – the percentage of times the opposition take a shot for goal after receiving a penalty.
In this measure the Brumbies are even further ahead of the competition. While the opposition takes a shot at goal from 41 per cent of the penalties they receive from the other teams, they only choose the shot at goal from 21 per cent of penalties the Brumbies concede. Yes, the Brumbies match against the Reds throws these numbers out a little with the Reds turning down so many shots at goal but that doesn’t explain the massive disparity with the numbers for the rest of the competition. The percentage of shots at goal against penalties conceded is shown below.
Why would opposition teams be taking less shots at penalty goal against the Brumbies than any other team? The most likely reason is that the Brumbies have been very disciplined by conceding the vast majority of their penalties outside of goal kicking range. If so, there’s a strong case for calling them the most disciplined team in the competition.
Will this large number of penalties conceded eventually hurt the Brumbies’ chances of winning the competition? To answer this I’ve looked back at the number of penalties conceded by the previous three winners of the competition. In 2010 the Bulls conceded 139 penalties for the entire season (6th highest), in 2011 the Reds conceded 174 (4th highest) and in 2012 the Chiefs conceded 198 (the highest). So, based on recent results the number of penalties conceded does not necessarily count against teams in Super Rugby.
