June madness - Part One

Statistics only

Not all of it was nice - not at all nice. There is a lot for us to talk about in Part Two - enough for several parts! But this bit is just the dry bones of statistics of four matches - between Argentina and Wales in Buenos Aires, between Australia and Scotland in Sydney, between New Zealand and England in Auckland and between South Africa and Ireland in Cape Town.

Statistics

1. Sanctionary actions

We could debate this until the cows come home. There just seems so much disparity and such a great possibility for unfairness in what happens. We will debate the matter.

There was a red card for Simon Shaw and a citing and suspension for Danny Grewcock, the fate suffered by Stuart Grimes in the aftermath of the Scots' first Test against the Wallabies.

There were six yellow cards - one for Colin Charvis of Wales for infringing critically - his second in two weeks - one for Shane Williams of Wales for infringing critically, one for Ignacio Fernández Lobbe of Argentina for infringing critically, one for Martie Holah of New Zealand for infringing critically and one for Wayne Julies of South Africa who was adjudged to have infringed critically. The fourth was for Reggie Corrigan of Ireland for punching.

The santionary list by country looks as follows:

Argentina: 1 yellow
Australia: 0
England: 1 red, 1 cited and suspended
Ireland: 1 yellow
New Zealand: 1 yellow
Scotland: 1 cited and suspended
South Africa: 2 yellow
Wales: 3 yellow

2. Penalties conceded

In this section we record the times a team was penalised. In (i), for example, New Zealand were penalised 14 times, England three times.

* = penalty goaled from the infringement

(i) New Zealand vs England

New Zealand: 14
England: 4

Remarkably England played the second half without conceding a single penalty.

The reasons for the penalties were as follows:

New Zealand:

Tackle/ruck: 5 (Evans, Rush, Gibbes, Woodcock, Jack)
Off-side: 4 (Jack*, Holah 2, Spencer)
Scrums: 2 (Hayman*, Meeuws)
Discipline: 3 (Meeuws - not 10m, Holah* - pulling, Rush* - pushing in line-out)

England
Tackle/ruck: 1 (Woodman)
Discipline: 3 (Cohen - pushing, Shaw - kneeing, Regan - tackling man without the ball)

(ii) South Africa vs Ireland

South Africa: 11
Ireland: 11

The reasons for the penalties were as follows:

South Africa:
Tackle/ruck: 5 (Smit 2, Joubert, Van der Linde, Julies)
Off-side: 3 (Du Preez, Wannenberg, Julies)
Scrum: 2 (Andrews, Van der Linde)
Discipline: 1 (Julies - not 10 metres)

Ireland:
Tackle/Ruck: 8 (O'Connell 2, Foley, Duffy, Simon Easterby 2, O'Driscoll, Maggs)
Scrum: 1 (Horan)
Discipline: 2 (Foley - deliberate knock-on, Corrigan - punching)

(iii) Argentina vs Wales

Argentina: 14
Wales: 10

The reasons for the penalties were as follows:

Argentina:
Tackle/ruck: 10 (Borges, Albacete* 3, Roncero, Fernández Lobbe, Aramburu, Ledesma, Ostiglia, Juan de la Cruz Fernández Miranda)
Off-side: 1 (Hasan)
Discipline: 3 (Hasan - high tackle, Ostiglia* - stamping, Albina - obstruction)

Wales:
Tackle/Ruck: 6 (Shanklin, Charvis, Cockbain 2, Shane Williams, Gethin Jenkins)
Scrum: 1 (Duncan Jones)
Off-side: 1 (Peel)
Discipline: 2 (Cockbain - stamping, Undetermined - collapsed maul)

(iv) Australia vs Scotland

Australia: 11
Scotland: 11

The reasons for the penalties were as follows:

Australia:
Tackle/ruck: 8 (Sharpe 2, Harrison 2, Waugh 2, Samo, Larkham)
Off-side: 1 (Larkham*)
Scrum: 1 (Young)
Discipline: 1 (Gregan - deliberate knock-on)

Scotland:
Tackle/Ruck: 3 (Macfadyen*, Hogg, Henderson)
Scrum: 1 (Douglas)
Off-side: 2 (Fullarton, Hogg)
Discipline: 5 (Hogg 2 - arguing & collapsing maul, Smith - obstruction, White air tackle, Morrison - collapsing maul)

3. Tries scored

(i) New Zealand vs England

New Zealand: 5
England: 0

(ii) South Africa vs Ireland

South Africa: 2
Ireland: 2

(iii) Argentina vs Wales

Argentina: 3
Wales: 4

(iv) Australia vs Scotland

Australia: 5
Scotland: 1

Tries scored so far in these high-powered North-South matches:

Argentina: 9
Australia: 9
Wales: 9
New Zealand: 8
South Africa: 6
Ireland: 3
Scotland: 1
England: 0

4. Getting possession - line-outs, scrums, free-kicks, drop-outs

In this section the figures represent the number of times you get to play with the ball. In (i) for example, New Zealand threw into 16 line-outs, England into 12 scrums. A line-out lost is recorded, as is a skew throw-in. At scrums - resets and sanctions are recorded.

(i) New Zealand vs England

New Zealand:
Line-outs: 16 (2 lost, 1 free kick)
Scrums: 11 (5 reset, 1 penalty)
Free-kicks: 0
Drop-outs: 1

England:
Line-outs: 14 (2 lost, 1 quick)
Scrums: 11 (2 reset, 1 free kick)
Free-kicks: 2 (line-out, scrum)
Drop-outs: 3

(ii) South Africa vs Ireland

South Africa
Line-outs: 17 (3 lost, 2 quick)
Scrums: 11 (5 resets, 2 penalties, 1 free kick)
Free-kicks: 0
Drop-outs: 0

Ireland:
Line-outs: 22 (2 lost, 1 quick)
Scrums: 12 (6 resets)
Free-kicks: 1 (scrum)
Drop-outs: 0

(iii) Argentina vs Wales

Argentina:
Line-outs: 12 (4 lost)
Scrums: 10 (2 reset, 1 wheel)
Free-kicks: 0
Drop-outs: 3

Wales:
Line-outs: 14 (3 lost, 1 skew)
Scrums: 9 (4 resets)
Free-kicks: 1 (mark)
Drop-outs: 0

(iv) Australia vs Scotland

Australia:
Line-outs: 13 (1 lost)
Scrums: 11 (5 resets, 1 free kick, 1 penalty)
Free-kicks: 0
Drop-outs: 3

Scotland:
Line-outs: 15 (1 lost, 1 quick)
Scrums: 8 (1 reset, 1 free kick, 1 lost)
Free-kicks: 2 (scrums)
Drop-outs: 0

5. Penalties per match

New Zealand vs England: 7 + 10 = 17; 14 + 4 = 18 Total: 35
South Africa vs Ireland: 9 + 9 = 18; 11 + 11 = 22; Total 40
Argentina vs Wales: 10 + 11 = 21; 12 + 14 = 26; Total: 47
Australia vs Scotland: 8 + 9 = 17; 11 + 11 = 22; Total: 39

It is interesting that the matches which had the most foul play produced the fewest penalties.

6. Stoppages

These are the totals of stoppages per match that is totals of line-outs, scrums (including resets), penalties, free kicks and drop-outs. We have not counted scores as stoppages as they are after all the purpose of the game.

Stoppages per match, first and second in each series:

New Zealand vs England: 73 and 83 = 156
South Africa vs Ireland: 81 and 96 = 177
Argentina vs Wales: 83 and 81 = 164
Australia vs Scotland: 78 and 80 = 158