This week in the Top 5 we go through what was good, bad and ugly about the weekend in rugby, do our heads in with more stats, catch up with some NRC action, check in on our South African mates in the Pro 14 and have highlights a plenty!
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
Good – the game against the Pumas was definitely the best yet (I’m just pretending the first half didn’t happen). When we got it together in the second half we really looked good.
Bad – what the hell was that first half all about?
Ugly – well this is really only ugly if you are a Springbok fan, but 57 – 0. FIFTY-SEVEN TO NIL!! Sorry, just had to make sure you all got that. Suddenly our 54-34 loss doesn’t seem quite so bad.
Rugby Championship – what did we learn this week?
Wow, the Wallabies finally put together a good win. There were tries, solid defence, good scrums – we managed to get most of it right. And guess what? We made our tackles!!! About bloody time! We are probably still conceding too many turnovers, but thankfully this week they didn’t cost us.
So the numbers in both attack and defence look pretty good. We didn’t squander possession and were much more efficient with the ball in hand. The real test will be in 2 weeks when we meet the Springboks again, this time in South Africa. They had a bit of a shocker against the All Blacks, but if they go back to playing the way they did in the June series they are clearly a dangerous side.
NRC Wrap
Once again, we saw some fantastic games of rugby this weekend in the NRC. I tell you what, it isn’t easy being a Vikings fan right now, last week they waited until the last minute to take the win, this week going down by just 2 points … but what a great game it was.
We saw the Fijians play at home for the first time, and get a good win in front of a pretty good local crowd. We saw 2 teams get their first defeats, meaning there are no undefeated teams after just 3 rounds. There are 2 teams yet to record wins, and it doesn’t get any easier for them this week, the Rising, who take on the Rams, and NSW Country, who are up against the Vikings. With only 2 points separating the top 5 teams at this point, every game already is becoming important.
I am noticing something interesting with the matches being telecast though. The games at 3pm on Saturday and Sunday are broadcast live on Fox Sports. Lets look at how many matches each team plays at a 3pm timeslot (or the telecast match if it’s at a different time – In Round 5 the matches being telecast live on Fox Sports, as listed in the guide, are on a Friday night, 7:30 and Monday at 3pm, with none on Saturday and Sunday. numbers.) … just out of interest.
Qld Country 0
Spirit 3
Vikings 3
Brisbane City 3
NSW Country 4
Rising 5
Drua 6
Rays 6
Rams 7
I know that all matches are available to be streamed, but you have to admit, its much easier to just flick on the tv than to work out the streaming, which can be intermittent at times anyway. I wonder if the scheduling was done to aim at Sydney audiences? Clearly the organisers realise there will be a big interest in the Fijian team, but almost every week a Sydney team is being show as well.
I don’t necessarily see it as a negative as we can still see all the games, just thought it was interesting.
But anyway, let’s take a look at what the numbers tell us from this weekend.
There don’t seem to be any patterns really emerging yet, still far less cards than we saw last season, similar tackle success rate. This week looks more attacking than last round, with less tackles and more clean breaks and tries.
How about the tackle count team by team? Any improvements?
There were actually some decent improvements over last week from 3 teams, including the Eagles at a whopping 89%. No sure what happened to the Rays and Rams, both were significantly lower than previous matches. It’s a bit all over the place really, we’ll check back in again next week.
Pro 14 – right idea?
After 3 rounds of the Pro 14, I thought we’d do a quick check in with the Kings and Cheetahs and see how they are tracking.
The Cheetahs got their first win last weekend, against Zebre, 54-39, while the Kings are yet to get a win, going down to Scarlets, Connacht and Leinster by some large margins. Some are putting the slow start down to a short turnaround from Super Rugby, we will have to wait and see if they improve as the season goes on.
Both teams had their first home game in round 3. Interestingly, the matches they had played away have had some of the largest crowds so far. In round 1, Ulster v Cheetahs and Scarlets v Kings pulled the 2 largest crowds of the round. And in round 2 the largest crowd was at Munster v Cheetahs. Sadly, for the Kings at least, those numbers didn’t transfer over to their home game in round 3.
In fact, the official crowd at Nelson Mandela Bay stadium was just 3,011 (and some thought that was an over estimation).
The people of PE are clearly thrilled to have the Kings in the Pro14. pic.twitter.com/KCQYtNvpBz — Simon Borchardt (@SimonBorchardt) September 16, 2017
Meanwhile the Cheetahs managed to pull a crowd of 13,982 to their match, maybe courtesy of the very affordable ticket price – free. Yep, entry was free to the game, possibly a great move to get the fans there to see what this Pro 14 thing is about.
Some of the suggestions for the poor Kings crowd were the South African people not knowing much about the Pro 14, it has not had much of a following there in the past, the fact that this is basically a brand-new Kings outfit after most of the players left at the end of Super Rugby or that there is an overabundance of Rugby on at the moment with the Currie Cup still in full swing.
Whatever the reason, I’m sure that those behind the scenes at the Kings will be hoping things pick up, both on the field and in the stands.
