1
Ruck involvement by the Forwards in the first 4 games of the NRC.
Remember:
1. Early means 1st or 2nd of player’s team AFTER the ball carrier has been tackled and brought to ground.
2. Impact means active engagement: strong physical contact, changed shape of ruck, clean-out, protecting ball etc. (more than hand on someone’s bum or arriving after the hard work has been done). Yes it’s subjective - but as I collect all data at least it’s consistent.
3. Impact DOES NOT equate to Effectiveness. I’ve concluded that coming up with an effectiveness measure is just too hard in the time that I have available – but open to suggestions.
Comments:
+ Have highlighted those with limited playing time or only part games/no full games with yellow. Extrapolating these to an 80 minute equivalent can give an over-estimation. Especially when the player was aware that he didn't have to play the full game.
+ IMO ALL forwards need to be involved in either supporting their own ball carriers and/or putting the opposition ball carriers under pressure and competing for the ball.
+ The Spirit Front Row is putting the opposition under a lot of pressure at the breakdown. Heath Tessman has been particularly energetic.
+ The Spirit's most reliable performers (Hoskins, Van Wyk & Tessman) having been clocking up about 40% of the total team ruck involvements and about 21% of the team defensive rucks. This Total Ruck involvement is about 10% higher than for any team in TRC this year and the Defensive Rucks is close to the All Black front row involvement (23%) and higher than the Boks (17%) or Wallabies (14%) front row performance.
+ Of the Locks Hall and Haylett-Petty have been very active in Defensive Rucks. The Spirit Locks are generally less involved in Total Ruck involvements (17%) which is about 10% lower than the TRC teams. However, their Defensive ruck involvements (19%) is close to the Wallabies (22%) and more than either the ABs (17%) or Boks (10%).
+ Koteka, Hardwick and Cottrell have been very active in Defensive Rucks. Rovira has been very involved in his two games.
+ The best of the Back Row total ruck involvement (42%) is a bit less than the Boks (46%) and Wallabies (45%) teams but higher than for the ABs (38%). The ABs Back Row has the least ruck involvement of the TWC teams. They tend to leave a lot of the hard work to the Front Row and are more selective in their Defensive Ruck involvement. This could explain why they are so quick on the rebound after a turnover due to the impact of these strong ball runners (Kaino, Read, Missam and even McCaw).
+ Generally the Spirit Backs have 20% - 25% of the ruck involvements during a game.
+ I've not provided any separate stats for Backs but happy to answer any specific queries.
+ The rather frantic pace of the NRC certainly gives rise to a lot more ruck involvements.
+ There is a general stand-off on Defensive Rucks unless there is a clear opportunity to earn a turn-over. There were some good turn-overs earned against the Vikings. I think Gus Cottrell was the only player to earn two. Others earning turnovers included: RH-P, AHall, FvW, RHardwick. There may have been more but easy to lose focus as I'm usually looking for the next point of contact.
+ If you pick those from the Spirit with the most ruck involvements for each position they are getting involved in about 30% of the Defensive Rucks. Does this high involvement mean that they are leaving holes in the Defensive Line?
+ The All Blacks (23%), Boks (19%) and Wallabies (24%) average fewer Defensive Ruck involvements.
+ Have provided the Western Force 2015 stats below for comparison. They averaged ~20% Def rucks.
+ I am unaware of any complete player stats being available for the NRC games. Anybody know of any?
I will compile another comparison after the last home and away game.
Any surprises or comments?