Autumn’s mauling masterclasses

Just before the 2015 Six Nations gets started, tGL decided to take a look back at the 2014 Autumn Internationals, specifically some of the mauling play on show in the England vs South Africa, and Ireland vs South Africa matches, and wonder whether we might see similar play in the Six Nations. Mauls originally belonged to an older style of rugby, one that resembled the big shoving contests of the sport’s earliest days when every attacking player’s job was to either push the maul forward or, if the ball escaped, secure possession and hold on until another maul formed. Mauls are associated with slow, boring and old-fashioned rugby, so why have they become a modern attacking weapon?

Another year older, another year wiser?

What a difference a year makes… if a non-championship Test ever had a target on its back for a visiting team, it would have been this one. In 2012 England surprised everybody, probably even themselves, with a 38-21 win against New Zealand at Twickenham; the All Blacks’ only defeat in their 26 Tests since becoming world champions in 2011. There was a score to be settled, so how did a record 17-point defeat become a 30-22 victory?

The Madness of King George

He would definitely have enjoyed easier days at the office, and the frustration finally broke him in the last minute of the 24-15 defeat by South Africa; he knocked on a half-chance to kick ahead and chase, and the consequent roar of irritation was plenty clear for all to see. George North’s contorted expression was the sum of 80 minutes where one of Test rugby’s most potent attacking weapons was blunted by his own team.

Undercover excellence

Half-time at Twickenham against Australia and England were in a hole, 13-6 behind against a team they should have been on top of given the chances that had gone their way. After kicking his first penalty chance of the afternoon inside the opening three minutes, Owen Farrell had missed three shots you’d expect him to make and with them had gone what could have been a comfortable lead. When another one arrived shortly after – closer but still nervy for a player misfiring – Twickenham saw one of the reasons
Stuart Lancaster invested faith in Chris Robshaw as his captain. Robshaw didn’t think twice, threw Farrell the ball and England took a 6-3 lead.

TRC 2013 – The importance of the highveld

How many times have you heard the ‘highveld’ mentioned in reference to South Africa’s home Test matches and wondered precisely what was meant by the term? People often talk about playing conditions being different up on the highveld, but what exactly do they mean and, more importantly, is it a help or hinderance for Springbok rugby?

TRC 2013 – Out of the shadows

Ahead of New Zealand’s 2013 Rugby Championship home clash with South Africa, the Springboks had emerged as a genuine threat to the All Blacks’ supremacy – outscoring the world champions and topping the competition table after three rounds – and went to Eden Park sensing a real chance of a rare victory, especially given the All Blacks would be without injured captain Richie McCaw, but New Zealand didn’t need to panic, they had Kieran Read ready to step out of the shadows…

TRC 2013 – Can the Springboks take Eden Park?

Since they became world champions in 2011 and Steve Hansen took on the job as head coach, New Zealand have played 20 Test matches with an outstanding 90% win average. If that statistic isn’t impressive enough, they’ve put their wins together with an average 20-point winning margin while giving 16 Test debuts. Only Australia, who managed an 18-18 draw in Brisbane, and England, with a surprise 38-21 win at Twickenham, have spoiled an otherwise perfect record, but in 2013 South Africa have emerged as a threat to the All Blacks. In the Rugby Championship the Springboks have outscored them and sit at the
top of the table after three rounds, but New Zealand in Auckland in round four is the real test of their credentials – so how do the visitors step up from pretenders to victors?

TRC 2013 – Down Under Pressure

At the end of round two of the 2013 Rugby Championship tGL revisited the possession efficiency metric we first investigated at the beginning of the year; a measure of how well a team coverts its percentage of possession into points and how that affects match results. We considered the major annual international tournaments, the Six Nations and the Rugby Championship, in the period since the 2011 Rugby World Cup, and the most notable finding was that Australia were one of the highest accumulators of possession, but were also one of the worst convertors of the 10 Test teams involved. The Wallabies’ round-three 38-12 home defeat against South Africa presented evidence why.

Efficiency NOT an ugly word

Back at the start of this year during the Six Nations, tGL started looking at a new metric called ‘possession efficiency’ which quantified how well a team was turning its possession/territory percentages into points, and the dominant effect that factor had on match results. The opening round of the 2013 Rugby Championship supplied a pair of extremely efficient performances from New Zealand and South Africa and inspired tGL to revisit this interesting and significant statistic.

Lions 2013 – Bah! Humbug! part I

As it’s most commonly associated (thanks to Dickens’ famous character Ebenezer Scrooge) with Christmas, the phrase ‘Bah! Humbug!’ might seem a little out of place in August, but as its general intention is to draw attention to the belief of delusion and/or deception, it seems appropriate to put it to use in reaction to most assessments of the 2013 Lions tour. After a week of high-pressure build-up, the Lions finished off their tour of Australia with a highpoint 41-16 win over the Wallabies at the Olympic stadium in Sydney. The 41 points were the most the Lions had ever scored in a Test and, predictably, provoked all sorts of sensational ‘scoreboard journalism’ praise: ‘Gatland’s finest hour, by a long chalk’ (Delme Parfitt, Western Mail) and ‘Triumph enhances Lions’ and Gatland’s reputations’ (Bryn Palmer, BBC) just a pair of examples which, in turn, helped provoke tGL’s own reaction: ‘Bah! Humbug!’