June calm - Part One

Three Tests' stats

We come to the end of Week Three of June Tests, and mercifully it was a calm week after the storms of the week before.  There was not a single sanctionary card in the three Tests and no major gripes afterwards.

The three matches in question are New Zealand against Argentina in Hamilton, Australia against England in Brisbane and South Africa against Wales in Pretoria.

Statistics

1. Sanctionary actions

As a Spanish officer would say when he hands over command: Sin novidad - There is nothing new to report - nothing's happened.

There were no cards. A Welsh prop, an Argentinian prop and an English No.8 may have been lucky, but there was comparative calm this week.

2. Penalties conceded

In this section we record the times a team was penalised. In (i), for example, New Zealand were penalised 12 times, Argentina six times.

* = penalty goaled from the infringement

(i) New Zealand vs Argentina

New Zealand: 12
Argentina: 6

The reasons for the penalties were as follows:

New Zealand:
Tackle/ruck: 4 (Somerville, Hore, Jack, Tuiali'i)
Off-side: 6 (Mehrtens, Tuiali'i, McCaw 3, Woodcock)
Discipline: 2 (Jack - line-out obstruction, Woodcock - collapsing maul)

Argentina:
Tackle/ruck: 4 (Durand, Fernandez Lobbe* 2, Albacete*)
Discipline: 2 (Manuel Contepomi - tackle without the ball, Omar Hasan - headbutt)

(ii) South Africa vs Wales

South Africa: 10
Wales: 6

The reasons for the penalties were as follows:

South Africa:
Tackle/ruck: 4 (Russell, Du Preez, Rautenbach, J Cronjé)
Off-side: 4 (Wannenberg*, Andrews*, Du Preez, J Cronjé)
Discipline: 2 (Britz - deliberate knock-on, Mentz - late tackle)

Wales:
Tackle/Ruck: 1 (Charvis*)
Scrum: 2 (Bennett, Duncan Jones)
Off-side: 2 (Peel, Jonathan Thomas)
Discipline: 1 (Gethin Jenkins* - punching)

(iii) Australia vs England

Australia: 8
England: 14

The reasons for the penalties were as follows:

Australia:
Tackle/ruck: 6 (Roff, Gregan 2, Samo*, Larkham, Waugh, Dunning)
Scrum: 1 (Baxter)

England:
Tackle/Ruck: 7 (Lewsey* 2, Voyce, Cohen, Dallaglio*, Dawson, Corry*)
Off-side: 3 (White & Shaw*, Hodgson, Shaw)
Discipline: 4 (Shaw* 2 - line-out obstruction and high tackle, Lewsey - early tackle, Dallaglio - verbal)

NB We shall discuss the Lewsey penalty for the early tackle in Part Two.

3. Tries scored

(i) New Zealand vs Argentina

New Zealand: 5
Argentina: 1

(ii) South Africa vs Wales

South Africa: 7
Wales: 2

(iii) Australia vs England

Australia: 6
England: 2

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

Argentina: 10
Australia: 15
Wales: 11
New Zealand: 13
South Africa: 13
Ireland: 3
Scotland: 1
England: 2

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 Argentina

New Zealand:
Line-outs: 13 (4 lost, 2 quick)
Scrums: 12 (5 reset)
Free-kicks: 0
Drop-outs: 1

Argentina:
Line-outs: 16 (3 lost, 1 free kick)
Scrums: 16 (10 reset, 1 lost, 4 free kicks, 1 penalty)
Free-kicks: 6 (1 line-outs, 4 scrums, 1 +10m)
Drop-outs: 0

(ii) South Africa vs Wales

South Africa
Line-outs: 10 (1 lost)
Scrums: 17 (5 resets, 1 penalty)
Free-kicks: 2 (mark, scrum)
Drop-outs: 1

Wales:
Line-outs: 20 (5 lost, 1 quick, 1 skew)
Scrums: 10 (2 resets, 1 free kick, 1 wheel, 1 lost)
Free-kicks: 2 (line-out, mark)
Drop-outs: 1

(iii) Australia vs England

Australia:
Line-outs: 15 (2 lost. 1 skew, 1 free kick, 1 penalty)
Scrums: 11 (9 reset, 1 wheel, 3 free kick, 1 lost)
Free-kicks: 6 (3 scrum, 2 line-out, 1 mark)
Drop-outs: 0

England:
Line-outs: 9 (1 lost, 1 quick, 1 free kick)
Scrums: 8 (4 reset, 1 free kick, 1 penalty)
Free-kicks: 3 (2 scrum, mark)
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
Australia vs England: 8 + 14 = 22
New Zealand vs Argentina: 12 + 6 = 18
South Africa vs Wales: 10 + 6 = 16

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
Australia vs England: 83
New Zealand vs Argentina: 87
South Africa vs Wales: 86

7. Table

The following table gives some summary of information on the teams who have taken part in these big trans-equatorial clashes.

Team	P	W	D	L	Pf	Pa	Pd	Tf	Ta	Cards	Pen
New Zealand	3	3	0	0	113	22	91	13	1	Y	33
Australia	3	3	0	0	120	43	77	15	3	0	26
South Africa	3	3	0	0	110	52	58	13	5	2Y	30
Wales	3	1	0	2	97	123	-26	11	16	3Y	31
Argentina	3	1	0	2	77	120	-43	10	14	Y	28
Ireland	2	0	0	2	34	57	-23	3	6	Y	20
Scotland	2	0	0	2	28	69	-41	1	9	C	20
England	3	0	0	3	30	123	-93	2	14	R,C	28

NBP = matches played; W = matches won; D = matches drawn; L = matches lost; Pf = points for; Pa = points against; Tf = tries for; Ta = tries against; Y = yellow card; R = red card; C = citing with suspension; Pen = penalties conceded