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Cape Town – On Tuesday we analysed the Bulls v Chiefs match from Round 11 of Super 14 using statistics from Verusco, and came to the conclusion that the home side’s victory was helped by the fact that they successfully targeted the visitors’ dodgy lineout throwing, conceded fewer turnovers, made fewer handling errors, and employed a superior kicking game.
Cynical fans would no doubt say that the Bulls won because they scored more points than the Chiefs – but that would be missing the point of analysing the matches using the same stats that virtually all the Super 14 sides consider important enough to shell out big sums of money every month to obtain.
So why do they consider it worth the investment?
Firstly, statistics are not meant to predict outcomes of matches. For us armchair fans, they should be seen as a helpful tool to help us understand and enjoy the game better – nothing more. For men like Naka Drotské or John Plumtree, however, they give critical insights into every aspect of a player’s on-field performance – a rugby fingerprint, if you like, left over the course of 80 minutes.
Of course, statistics alone should never be used to gain the full picture about a player or a particular match – players have unique strengths which can never be measured by numbers, after all – but in the hands of eagle-eyed coaches and back-room staff, they are used to pick out strong and weak points when it comes to individual skills, set pieces and team tactics, to name but three areas where teams are put under the microscope by their opponents.
In that context, let’s look briefly at what the stats revealed about the Stormers’ victory over the Highlanders, and the Cheetahs’ win over the Crusaders, as they prepare to clash with the Chiefs and Waratahs respectively this weekend.
Stormers 18 Highlanders 11
How often these days do coaches make a raft of involuntary substitutions just after half-time – many times to the detriment of their team’s performance? Rassie Erasmus retained his starting side for virtually the entire match, and the Stormers finally eked out a win. Coincidence? Or the fruits of keeping your team’s structure intact for as long as possible – something that has seemingly gone out of fashion in the modern era?
Erasmus made just two substitutions, both after 71 minutes: Januarie for Duvenage and Brits for Liebenberg, while Lobberts replaced an injured Bekker after 78 minutes. That’s it. In contrast, only eight Highlanders played the full 80, with changes made after 40, 55, 59, 67 (2), 71 and 72 minutes.
Of course, the Stormers’ performance wasn’t perfect: they won despite giving away more penalties (7-4); losing twice the amount of lineouts on own throw (6-3); conceding more turnovers (22-21); and making fewer line breaks (6-5).
But what they did do was keep ball in hand, gaining more metres (661m to 489m, most – Naqelevuki 108m) and scoring two tries to one.
In addition, the Stormers made more and missed fewer tackles than the Highlanders; forced more turnovers; and made fewer handling errors, as the following stats show:
Tackle Efficiency:
Highlanders: Attempted 157; Made 125; Missed 32; Efficiency 79.62%
Stormers: Attempted 153; Made 126; Missed 27; Efficiency 82.35%
Excellent stats for both sides. For the Stormers, Schalk Burger made the most tackles (17), followed by his fellow loosies Luke Watson (15) and Duane Vermeulen (14) – a great team effort by the back row. For the Highlanders, Adam Thomson made 15 tackles. AJ Venter and Gcobani Bobo both missed four tackles for the Stormers, while Jamie Mackintosh did likewise for the Highlanders.
Turnovers Forced:
Highlanders: 17 (most – Alando Soakai, 4)
Stormers: 18 (most – Duane Vermeulen, 5)
Handling Errors:
Highlanders: 26 (most – Adam Thomson, 3)
Stormers: 19 (most – AJ Venter, 4)
Cheetahs 20 Crusaders 13
This match produced some extraordinary stats. Firstly, as one would expect from the Crusaders, they dominated the Cheetahs in a number of areas. With ball in hand, they gained more than double the metres (1433-660); had almost a hundred more runs (152-66); made twice as many line breaks (16-7) and tackle breaks (5-2); and made more offloads (10-8).
And yet they could score only one try, as opposed to the Cheetahs’ two!
In addition, the defending champions made fewer handling errors (24-23); lost fewer lineouts on their own throw (4-2); and missed far fewer tackles (26-45).
But the Cheetahs were simply outstanding on defence: they made almost three times as many tackles (198-73) as their opponents, with Bok flankers Juan Smith (27) and Heinrich Brussow (25) heroic in this regard, and utterly dominated the Kiwis in a number of crucial areas, as shown below, which helped pave the way to a famous victory:
Turnovers forced:
Cheetahs: 20 (most – Brussow, 5)
Crusaders: 4 (most – Kade Poki, 1)
Turnovers conceded:
Cheetahs: 16 (most – Hennie Daniller, 4)
Crusaders: 31 (most – Stephen Brett, 7)
Turnover tackles:
Cheetahs: 11 (most – Brussow, 4)
Crusaders: 1
Kicking metres gained:
Cheetahs: 2 057 (most – Naas Olivier, 805)
Crusaders: 1 365 (most – Brett 731)
The Cheetahs were awesome, particularly in the tackle area, but will they be able to follow up this energy-sapping performance with another against the Waratahs? And will the Stormers make it two in a row against the Chiefs? Join us again on Tuesday, when we’ll review Round 12’s matches.
Verusco are suppliers of video analysis systems to most of the South African Super 14 teams. Find out more at www.verusco.com or email info@verusco.com
Cynical fans would no doubt say that the Bulls won because they scored more points than the Chiefs – but that would be missing the point of analysing the matches using the same stats that virtually all the Super 14 sides consider important enough to shell out big sums of money every month to obtain.
So why do they consider it worth the investment?
Firstly, statistics are not meant to predict outcomes of matches. For us armchair fans, they should be seen as a helpful tool to help us understand and enjoy the game better – nothing more. For men like Naka Drotské or John Plumtree, however, they give critical insights into every aspect of a player’s on-field performance – a rugby fingerprint, if you like, left over the course of 80 minutes.
Of course, statistics alone should never be used to gain the full picture about a player or a particular match – players have unique strengths which can never be measured by numbers, after all – but in the hands of eagle-eyed coaches and back-room staff, they are used to pick out strong and weak points when it comes to individual skills, set pieces and team tactics, to name but three areas where teams are put under the microscope by their opponents.
In that context, let’s look briefly at what the stats revealed about the Stormers’ victory over the Highlanders, and the Cheetahs’ win over the Crusaders, as they prepare to clash with the Chiefs and Waratahs respectively this weekend.
Stormers 18 Highlanders 11
How often these days do coaches make a raft of involuntary substitutions just after half-time – many times to the detriment of their team’s performance? Rassie Erasmus retained his starting side for virtually the entire match, and the Stormers finally eked out a win. Coincidence? Or the fruits of keeping your team’s structure intact for as long as possible – something that has seemingly gone out of fashion in the modern era?
Erasmus made just two substitutions, both after 71 minutes: Januarie for Duvenage and Brits for Liebenberg, while Lobberts replaced an injured Bekker after 78 minutes. That’s it. In contrast, only eight Highlanders played the full 80, with changes made after 40, 55, 59, 67 (2), 71 and 72 minutes.
Of course, the Stormers’ performance wasn’t perfect: they won despite giving away more penalties (7-4); losing twice the amount of lineouts on own throw (6-3); conceding more turnovers (22-21); and making fewer line breaks (6-5).
But what they did do was keep ball in hand, gaining more metres (661m to 489m, most – Naqelevuki 108m) and scoring two tries to one.
In addition, the Stormers made more and missed fewer tackles than the Highlanders; forced more turnovers; and made fewer handling errors, as the following stats show:
Tackle Efficiency:
Highlanders: Attempted 157; Made 125; Missed 32; Efficiency 79.62%
Stormers: Attempted 153; Made 126; Missed 27; Efficiency 82.35%
Excellent stats for both sides. For the Stormers, Schalk Burger made the most tackles (17), followed by his fellow loosies Luke Watson (15) and Duane Vermeulen (14) – a great team effort by the back row. For the Highlanders, Adam Thomson made 15 tackles. AJ Venter and Gcobani Bobo both missed four tackles for the Stormers, while Jamie Mackintosh did likewise for the Highlanders.
Turnovers Forced:
Highlanders: 17 (most – Alando Soakai, 4)
Stormers: 18 (most – Duane Vermeulen, 5)
Handling Errors:
Highlanders: 26 (most – Adam Thomson, 3)
Stormers: 19 (most – AJ Venter, 4)
Cheetahs 20 Crusaders 13
This match produced some extraordinary stats. Firstly, as one would expect from the Crusaders, they dominated the Cheetahs in a number of areas. With ball in hand, they gained more than double the metres (1433-660); had almost a hundred more runs (152-66); made twice as many line breaks (16-7) and tackle breaks (5-2); and made more offloads (10-8).
And yet they could score only one try, as opposed to the Cheetahs’ two!
In addition, the defending champions made fewer handling errors (24-23); lost fewer lineouts on their own throw (4-2); and missed far fewer tackles (26-45).
But the Cheetahs were simply outstanding on defence: they made almost three times as many tackles (198-73) as their opponents, with Bok flankers Juan Smith (27) and Heinrich Brussow (25) heroic in this regard, and utterly dominated the Kiwis in a number of crucial areas, as shown below, which helped pave the way to a famous victory:
Turnovers forced:
Cheetahs: 20 (most – Brussow, 5)
Crusaders: 4 (most – Kade Poki, 1)
Turnovers conceded:
Cheetahs: 16 (most – Hennie Daniller, 4)
Crusaders: 31 (most – Stephen Brett, 7)
Turnover tackles:
Cheetahs: 11 (most – Brussow, 4)
Crusaders: 1
Kicking metres gained:
Cheetahs: 2 057 (most – Naas Olivier, 805)
Crusaders: 1 365 (most – Brett 731)
The Cheetahs were awesome, particularly in the tackle area, but will they be able to follow up this energy-sapping performance with another against the Waratahs? And will the Stormers make it two in a row against the Chiefs? Join us again on Tuesday, when we’ll review Round 12’s matches.
Verusco are suppliers of video analysis systems to most of the South African Super 14 teams. Find out more at www.verusco.com or email info@verusco.com
