Six Nations, Week 2, Part 1

Stats

These statistics are mostly about stoppages in play. But we also have tries scored and will start a progressive table in penalties and tries to carry on for the Six Nations. We have added a stat - the unplayables.

When the SANZAR administrators, coaches and referees met in December they discussed empowering the scrums and also ensuring that the tackle be more competitive.

There was an observation that at tackles, southern referees were more likely to stop post-tackle action because the ball was unplayable whereas their northern colleagues would be likely to seek a solution - ball out for play or penalty.

In Week 1, there was one unplayable when Scotland played France, at a Scottish tackle, four when England played Wales (all English tackles), and none when Italy played Ireland.

We are also going to give the number of penalties at tackles as a fraction and a percentage of the total number of penalties per match.

Cards

There were no sanctionary cards this weekend though Martin Corry, for a charge on Pépito Elhorga after the whistle for a mark, and Elhorga himself for throwing the ball into touch were perhaps fortunate to avoid spending time watching rather than playing.

Penalties conceded

In this section we record the times a team was penalised. In (i), for example, Italy were penalised four times, Ireland 10 times.

* = points conceded

(i) Italy vs Wales

Total number of penalties: 14

Italy: 4
Wales: 10

The reasons for the penalties were as follows:

Italy:
Tackle/ruck: 4 (Bortolami, Nitoglia, Del Fava, De Marigny)

Wales:
Tackle/Ruck: 6 (M Davies, Owen, Shanklin, 5, Gareth Thomas, Gough)
Off-side: 3 (Jonathan Thomas 2, Kevin Morgan)
Discipline: 1 (Gareth Thomas - high)

Italy missed two kicks at goal, Wales one.

(ii) Scotland vs Ireland

Total number of penalties: 21

Scotland: 10
Ireland: 11

The reasons for the penalties were as follows:

Scotland:
Tackle/ruck: 5 (Smith*, White*, Grimes 2, Blair)
Scrum: 1 (Kerr)
Discipline: 4 (Grimes 2 - air tackle, man without ball, Bulloch 2 - not 10, legs at maul)

Ireland:
Tackle/Ruck: 5 (Foley, O'Connor* 2, O'Connell 2)
Off-side: 4 (O'Connor, Foley, Easterby 2)
Discipline: 2 (O'Conell - dissent, Byrne, Hayes & O' Kelly - obstruction)

Neither side missed a penalty kick at goal.

(iii) England vs France

Total number of penalties:

England: 13
France: 11

The reasons for the penalties were as follows:

England:
Tackle/ruck: 8 (Cueto*, Rowntree, Thompson, Moody** 2, Robinson, Rowntree*, Cohen)
Scrum: 1 (Vickery)
Off-side: 2 (Kay, Moody*)
Discipline: 2 (Corry - tackle after whistle, Thompson* - obstruction)

France:
Tackle/Ruck: 6 (Betsen 2, Liebenberg, Chabal, Traille, Pelous)
Off-side: 1 (Chabal)
Discipline: 4 (Thion - obstruction, Elhorga - throwing ball into touch, Yachvili - kicking ball in scrum, Pelous - barging in line-out)

Tackles/Penalties

This gives the number of penalties at ruck/tackle as a fraction of the total number of penalties:

Italy vs Wales: 10/14 = 71%
Scotland vs Ireland: 10/21 = 48%
England vs France: 14/24 = 59%

Getting possession - line-outs, scrums, free-kicks, drop-outs, turn-overs.

In this section the figures represent the number of times you get to play with the ball. In (i), for example, Scotland threw into 30 line-outs, Ireland into 17 scrums. A line-out lost is recorded and a skew throw-in. At scrums, resets, loss and sanctions are recorded.

(i) Italy vs Wales

Line-outs:  15 (2 lost)
Scrums: 7 (2 reset, 1 free kick)
Free-kicks: 5 (1 scrum, 1 line-out, 2 marks, 1 + 10)
Drop-outs: 1

Wales:
Line-outs: 15 (2 lost, 2 free kicks)
Scrums: 11 (3 reset, 2 free kicks)
Free-kicks: 4 (1 mark, 2 scrums, 1 mark)
Drop-outs: 1

(ii) Scotland vs Ireland

Scotland:
Line-outs: 16 (2 lost)
Scrums: 11 (2 reset, 1 free kick)
Free-kicks: 3 (2 scrums, 1 mark)
Drop-outs: 4

Ireland:
Line-outs: 20 (1 lost, 1 skew)
Scrums: 8 (6 reset, 1 penalty, 3 free kicks)
Free-kicks: 2 (scrums)
Drop-outs: 2

(iii) England vs France

England:
Line-outs: 17 (3 lost, 1 quick, 1 skew)
Scrums: 8 (7 reset, 1 free kick, 1 penalty)
Free-kicks: 1 (scrum)
Drop-outs: 3

France:
Line-outs: 11 (1 lost)
Scrums: 5 (1 lost, 1 free kick, 1 penalty)
Free-kicks: 1 (scrum)
Drop-outs: 7

Unplayables:

Italy vs Wales: 1 (Italy)
Scotland vs Ireland: 0
England vs France: 3 (England 2, France 1)

Stoppages (total of line-outs, scrums with resets, free kicks, penalties, drop-outs):

Italy vs Wales: 73
Scotland vs Ireland: 87
England vs France: 77

Tries

This is the number of tries each team scored.

(i) Italy vs Wales:

Italy: 1
Wales: 6

(ii) Scotland vs Ireland

Scotland: 2
Ireland: 5

(iii) England vs France

England: 2
France: 0

Some Totals

After two rounds of the 2005 Six nations:

Penalties conceded:

England: 11 + 13 = 24
France: 8 + 11 = 19
Ireland: 10 + 11 = 21
Italy: 7 + 4 = 11
Scotland: 14 + 10 = 24
Wales: 9 + 10 = 19

Tries scored:

England: 0 + 2 = 2
France: 1 + 0 = 1
Ireland: 3 + 5 = 8
Italy: 1 + 2 = 3
Scotland: 0 + 2 = 2
Wales: 1 + 6 = 7