IRB Game Analysis - IRB JWC 2008 Statistical Report

JUNIOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2008

STATISTICAL REVIEW & MATCH ANALYSIS

IRB GAME ANALYSIS

The attached report does 3 things:

1 it reflects the shape of the Under 20 game as played in Junior World Championship 2008 2 it provides a basis whereby each participating country can compare its performance in major areas of the game with the other teams that played in the competition as well as perhaps being used to establish benchmarks and performance indicators for future tournaments. 3 it incorporates a comparison with the men’s game as seen in IRB Rugby World Cup 2007

CONTENTS

Commentary Final Standings & Results Summary Section 1 Summary of Constituent Game Elements Section 2 Statistical Analysis and Match Summary Scoring Try Scoring Tries Kicks at Goal Ball in Play Activity Cycles Restarts Lineouts Scrums Penalties Cards

Page 1 3 7 8

12 14 18 25 26 29 39 40 41 42 43

Section 3 Team Statistical Summaries (16 teams)

45

Section 4 A statistical comparison between Junior World championship 2008 and Rugby World Cup 2007

61

COMMENTARY The inaugural JWC 2008 was won by New Zealand. They had an impressive tournament. • • • •

all 5 matches were won with ease - with points margins of 25, 35,39,55 and 60 respectively the fewest number of tries scored in any game was 4 giving an average number of points scored per game of 48 only one try was conceded in the entire tournament thereby resulting in the best defensive record in the 2 play off games, 8 tries were scored, none were conceded and the final match was won by 38 points to 3.

Certain other teams however also had an impressive playing record; • •

South Africa won 4 games out of 5 and averaged over 50 points per game Australia also won 4 games out of 5 and averaged 44 points per game.

The result was that the 37 tries scored by South Africa and the 33 scored by both New Zealand and Australia put these three teams way ahead of any other team. In addition, these three teams had the best defensive records. The team that ended second in the tournament was however England – a team that scored far fewer tries and conceded noticeably more tries than any of the above three teams. There is however a likely explanation for this. England’s last three matches were against Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, the three teams with the most impressive attacking and defensive records. Further, those three teams did not play each other once. In looking at the data therefore, the pattern of fixtures and strength of opposition is always relevant. The format of such a tournament means that a team can average over 40 points a game, lose only once by a charge down try in the last minute or so of a game and end up 5th in the table – which is exactly what happened to Australia in JWC 2008. In any rugby world championship – at whatever level, male or female, the relative strengths of the participating teams can vary enormously. Tournaments frequently contain matches with points margins of around 100. This is hardly surprising. Not only do playing numbers vary enormously from country to country but the level of professionalism will have an inevitable impact. When a team that contains players playing professionally at the highest level finds itself opposed by a team who are completely amateur, the amateur team is likely to struggle. The data contained in the following report identifies this. It shows that while many teams finishing in the bottom half of the table manage to obtain an acceptable level of possession (New Zealand and the USA had the same amount), they find it difficult break defences and therefore end up scoring most of their points through penalty goals. They also find it difficult to sustain passing movements under opponents pressure and frequently average more kicks per game than the more successful teams as well as kicking at a higher rate. This problem with distribution can also manifest itself in try scoring. When tries are scored, they are 040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT PAGE 1

frequently scored with very few passes and rucks included in the build up; they start relatively close to the opponents goalline and are more likely to be scored by forwards. There are of course frequent exceptions to the above characteristics - which is one of the reasons why the game of rugby has such an exciting appeal. An example of this concerns the Pacific Islands. Fiji, Samoa and Tonga scored 24 of their 36 tries from over 40 metres out. This was in complete contrast to USA, Canada, Argentina and Italy who, between them, scored only 7 out of 28 tries from such a distance. Similarly, while Italy scored twice as many penalty goals as tries, Fiji on the other hand scored 5 times as many tries as penalty goals. There were also a range of other different approaches to the game – • • • • • • •

Fiji tapped their penalties and free kicks on 25 occasions – New Zealand tapped just twice Fiji scored 8 of their 13 tries from such taps. New Zealand, South Africa and Australia scored 102 tries but did not score a single try from a tap penalty or free kick On restarts, Argentina kicked long 25 times and short 10. Ireland did the complete opposite – 10 long, 25 short Only 11 of Australia’s passing movements had more than 3 passes. New Zealand and Ireland, on the other hand, had 40 and 29 respectively With almost identical possession, New Zealand made 357 more passes than Argentina – or twice as many Only one team scored fewer second half tries than England who scored 80% of their tries in the first half While the average number of kicks per game was less than 50, the Ireland v Italy game contained 110 in 80 minutes – a figure way above anything seen at any level over many years.

All these facts – and many others - are contained in the following report where the performance of each country in every major constituent element of the game is recorded.

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 2

FINAL STANDINGS

1st

NEW ZEALAND

2nd

5th 6th

ENGLAND SOUTH AFRICA WALES AUSTRALIA FRANCE

7th

SAMOA

3rd 4th

th

8

9th th

ARGENTINA IRELAND

10 11th

SCOTLAND ITALY

12th

CANADA

th

13

TONGA

14th

FIJI

15th

JAPAN

16th

USA

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 3

POOL STANDINGS

P

W D

L

F

A

TF

TC

BP

PTS

New Zealand

3

3

0

0

173

19

25

1

3

15

Argentina

3

2

0

1

47

79

6

10

1

9

Ireland

3

1

0

2

64

109

6

13

1

5

Tonga

3

0

0

3

46

123

3

16

0

0

P

W D

L

F

A

TF

TC

BP

PTS

3 3 3 3

3 2 1 0

0 0 0 0

0 1 2 3

196 60 61 38

32 39 115 169

28 7 8 3

3 4 14 25

2 1 1 0

14 9 5 0

P

W D

L

F

A

TF

TC

BP

PTS

England Australia Canada

3 3 3

3 2 1

0 0 0

0 1 2

119 147 47

48 47 151

17 23 5

6 6 24

2 3 0

14 11 4

Fiji

3

0

0

3

44

111

7

16

1

1

South Africa Samoa Scotland USA

P

W D

L

F

A

TF

TC

BP

PTS

Wales

3

3

0

0

85

39

11

4

2

14

France

3

2

0

1

104

54

13

6

3

11

Italy

3

1

0

2

48

81

4

10

0

4

Japan

3

0

0

3

47

110

7

15

1

1

P=Played W=Won D=Draw L=Lost PF=Points For PA=Points Against TF=Tries For TA=Tries Against BP=Bonus Points PTS=Points

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 4

POOL RESULTS ROUND ONE New Zealand

48

Tonga

9

Ireland

9

Argentina

17

South Africa

108

USA

18

Scotland

17

Samoa

29

England

41

Fiji

17

Australia

81

Canada

12

France

53

Japan

17

Wales

29

Italy

10

ROUND TWO New Zealand

65

Ireland

10

Tonga

10

Argentina

30

South Africa USA

72 6

Scotland Samoa

3 20

England

60

Canada

18

Australia

53

Fiji

17

France

32

Italy

14

Wales

33

Japan

10

ROUND THREE New Zealand

60

Argentina

0

Ireland

45

Tonga

27

South Africa

16

Samoa

11

Scotland

41

USA

14

England

18

Australia

13

Fiji

10

Canada

17

France

19

Wales

23

Japan

20

Italy

24

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 5

PLAY OFF RESULTS

New Zealand

31

Wales

6

England

26

South Africa

18

Australia

32

Samoa

0

France

30

Argentina

6

Scotland

15

Canada

10

Ireland

9

Italy

6

Tonga

17

Japan

5

USA

22

Fiji

27

New Zealand

38

England

3

South Africa Australia

43 42

Wales France

18 21

Argentina

10

Samoa

30

Ireland

39

Scotland

12

Italy

33

Canada

10

Fiji

20

Tonga

28

USA

8

Japan

44

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 6

SUMMARY The following Report is divided into 4 sections Section 1

takes a brief look at constituent game elements in JWC2008 and gives certain core data for each team.

Section 2

comprises a detailed statistical analysis of all matches played in the tournament, together with all the match results.

Section 3

contains a one-page-per-team summary of key statistics relating to each of the 16 participating teams

Section 4

comprises a short statistical comparison with RWC2007

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 7

SECTION 1 – SUMMARY OF CONSTITUENT GAME ELEMENTS

SUMMARY This was the first Junior World Championship u20 tournament. As a result, there are no detailed comparatives. The following data comes from the detailed report that follows and reflects in summary form the shape of the current junior game as expressed through JWC 2008. Av POINTS per game % of points from TRIES Av TRIES per game Av PENALTY GOALS per game Av DROP GOALS

JWC 2008 50 65% 6.4 3.1 1 every 8 games

TRIES SCORED BY BACKS TRIES SCORED BY FORWARDS PENALTY TRIES

66% 32% 2%

MATCHES with points margin of 20 or less MATCHES won by team scoring most tries MATCHES where tries were equal MATCHES won by team scoring least tries CONVERSION SUCCESS RATE PENALTY GOAL SUCCESS RATE DROP GOAL SUCCESS RATE

19 or 48% 37 or 92% 2 1 61% 68% 5 out of 26 – or 19%

% of TRIES FROM LINEOUT POSSESSION % of TRIES FROM SCRUM POSSESSION % of TRIES FROM PENALTY/FREE KICKS % of TRIES FROM TURNOVER/ERROR % of TRIES FROM OPPONENTS KICKS % OTHER (opp scrum / opp l’out / restarts)

24% 22% 10% 18% 16% 10%

Av PASSES per game Av RUCKS/MAULS per game Av KICKS per game

200 132 49

Av BALL IN PLAY TIME

42% - or 33min 40secs

% of all PASSES MADE BY BACKS % of all PASSES MADE BY SCRUM HALF % of all PASSES MADE BY FORWARDS

39% 45% 17%

Av LINEOUTS per game % of LINEOUT POSSESSION RETAINED Av SCRUMS per game % of SCRUM POSSESSION RETAINED Av PENALTIES per game % of RUCK/MAUL POSSESSION RETAINED

30 78% 21 87% 25 91%

Total YELLOW AND RED CARDS 040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

Yellow = 48 Red = 4 PAGE 8

SECTION 1 – SUMMARY OF CONSTITUENT GAME ELEMENTS

THE TEAMS PERFORMANCES This section comprises some brief highlights of each team’s activities and performances in certain critical areas of the game. Again, further and far more extensive analysis can be found in the main report – as well as in appendices on each country. Meanwhile, the number of tries scored by each team, the number conceded by each team and the number of penalty goals kicked is shown in the following table TRIES SCORED 2008

TRIES CONCEDED 2008

PENALTY GOALS 2008

DROP GOALS 2008

37 33

8 1

5 11

1 -

ENGLAND

33 20

9 12

6 8

-

FRANCE

19

12

9

1

FIJI

14

23

3

-

JAPAN

14

19

3

1

WALES

15 20 9

8 3 7

-

SAMOA

13 13 12

1

IRELAND

11

15

13

-

TONGA

10 7

19 18

11 5

1

CANADA

7 7

11 30

16 8

-

USA

7

36

9

-

SOUTH AFRICA NEW ZEALAND AUSTRALIA

SCOTLAND

ARGENTINA ITALY

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 9

SECTION 1 – SUMMARY OF CONSTITUENT GAME ELEMENTS The table below shows (a) how effective each team was in converting possession into tries and (b) how effective each team was in preventing opponents from converting possession into tries.

Try scoring Rate SOUTH AFRICA AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND

Try conceding Rate NEW ZEALAND

1 try scored every 2m 07secs 2m 34secs 2m 37secs

SOUTH AFRICA SAMOA

1 try conceded every 72m 10secs 10m 29secs 9m 47secs

ENGLAND

4m 43secs

AUSTRALIA

9m 10secs

FRANCE

5m 02secs

ITALY

9m 05secs

JAPAN

5m 22secs

ENGLAND

6m 52secs

FIJI

5m 25secs

FRANCE

6m 25secs

SAMOA

6m 31secs

IRELAND

6m 22secs

WALES

WALES

SCOTLAND

6m 34secs 7m 25secs

ARGENTINA

5m 22secs 4m 46secs

TONGA

7m 35secs

JAPAN

4m 25secs

7m 45secs

TONGA

4m 23secs

IRELAND ARGENTINA

12m 13secs

SCOTLAND

4m 18secs

USA

12m 16secs

FIJI

4m 05secs

CANADA

13m 19secs

CANADA

3m 08secs

ITALY

12m 28secs

USA

2m 04secs

:

Each teams overall kicking success rate is shown in the attached table:

Kick success IRELAND

81%

WALES

78%

FRANCE

75%

NEW ZEALAND

70%

ITALY

69% 67%

ARGENTINA SOUTH AFRICA

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

CANADA

65% 63%

ENGLAND

61%

AUSTRALIA USA

61% 60%

JAPAN

56%

TONGA

54%

SCOTLAND FIJI

53% 47%

SAMOA

41% PAGE 10

SECTION 1 – SUMMARY OF CONSTITUENT GAME ELEMENTS The average time in possession of the ball per game by each team is shown in the following table: JWC 2008 FRANCE

19m 07s

ENGLAND

18m 53s

SCOTLAND CANADA

18m 15s 17m 46s

NEW ZEALAND

!7m 15s

USA

17m 11s

ARGENTINA

17m 06s

WALES ITALY

17m 05s 16m 58s 16m 17s

IRELAND

15m 56s

SAMOA

15m 39s

SOUTH AFRICA

15m 39s 15m 11s

AUSTRALIA

FIJI TONGA JAPAN

15m 09s 15m 01s

The above data – and additional data - on comparative aspects of key areas of play are shown in the main body of the report which now follows.

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 11

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY

SCORING There were 1985 points scored in the 40 matches played, giving an average of 50 points per game. They were made up as follows: Type of Score

Converted Tries Unconverted Tries Penalty Goals Drop Goals Total

Total 155 102 125 5

% of points scored by Tries

Points 1085 510 375 15 1985

% 65

Of the total points scored:

Points Makeup

65% came from TRIES 19% came from PENALTY GOALS 16% came from CONVERSIONS >1% came from DROP GOALS

Drop Goals 1%

Penalty Goals 19%

Unconverted Tries 26%

Converted Tries 54%

WINNING MARGINS The winning margins in each of the 40 matches fell into the following ranges Points Difference in JWC 2008 Points Difference 0– 5 6 – 10 11 – 15 16 – 20 21 – 30 31 - 40 41 - 50 50+

No of matches 7 4 3 5 9 6 2 4

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

Cumulative 7 with 5 points or less 11 with 10 points or less 14 with 15 points or less 19 with 20 points or less 28 with 30 points or less 34 with 40 points or less 36 with 50 points or less 4 over 50

PAGE 12

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY Not surprisingly, points scored and conceded varied considerably - and the total and average points scored and conceded by each team are shown below. Points for/against per Team

SOUTH AFRICA NEW ZEALAND AUSTRALIA FRANCE

Points For TOTAL AVERAGE 257 51 242 48 221 44 166 31

Points Against TOTAL AVERAGE 76 15 28 6 68 14 102 20

ENGLAND

148

30

104

21

IRELAND

112

22

127

25

WALES

109

22

113

23

JAPAN

96

19

135

27

TONGA

91

18

148

30

FIJI

91

18

161

32

SAMOA

ITALY

90 88 87

18 18 17

81 164 100

16 33 20

USA

68

14

240

48

CANADA

67

13

199

40

ARGENTINA

63

13

139

28

SCOTLAND

PENALTY GOALS

FIJI

Penalties Goals Kicked 5 6 3

Ratio PGs : Tries 1 : 7.4 1 : 5.5 1 : 4.7

JAPAN

3

1 : 4.7

SCOTLAND NEW ZEALAND

3 11

1 : 4.3 1 : 3.0

ENGLAND

8

1 : 2.5

FRANCE

9

1 ; 2.1

SAMOA

7

1 : 1.7

There were 125 penalty goals kicked in the tournament. SOUTH AFRICA

Only five teams scored more penalty goals than tries – USA, Tonga, Italy, Canada and Ireland. All 5 teams ended in the bottom half of the table. There were some noticeable contrasts. While Italy scored over twice as many penalty goals as tries, Fiji scored almost 5 times as many tries as penalty goals.

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

AUSTRALIA

WALES

8

1 : 1.6

ARGENTINA

5

1 : 1.4

CANADA

8

1 ; 0.9

TONGA

11

1 : 0.9

IRELAND

13

1 : 0.8

USA

9

1 ; 0.8

ITALY

16

1 : 0.4 PAGE 13

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY IMPACT OF THE PENALTY GOAL ON MATCH RESULTS Tries win matches - in the Junior World Championship 2008, the winning team scored the most tries in 37 of the 40 matches or in 93%. In two games, the tries were equal and in another, one team scored fewer tries than their opponents and won the game – (Canada v Fiji)

TRY SCORING Tries – most in one game Tries – least in one game Tries – average per game

18 South Africa v USA 0 Ireland v Italy 6.4

The total number of tries, penalty goals and drop goals scored by each country in JWC 2008 was as follows: Total Tries/Penalty Goals/Drop goals per Team plus % of points from tries and kicks Tries

Drop Goals 1

ENGLAND

37 33 33 20

Penalty Goals 5 11 6 8

% of points from Tries 75% 68 75 68

% of points from Kicks 25% 32 25 32

FRANCE

19

9

1

61

39

FIJI

14

3

JAPAN

14

3

WALES

SAMOA

13 13 12

8 3 7

IRELAND

11

SOUTH AFRICA NEW ZEALAND AUSTRALIA

SCOTLAND

77

23

1

73

27

1

60 74 67

40 26 33

13

49

51

TONGA

10

11

55

45

CANADA

7

8

52

48

ARGENTINA

7

5

56

44

ITALY

7

16

40

60

USA

7

9

51

49

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

1

PAGE 14

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY RATE OF TRY SCORING An earlier table shows the number of tries scored by each country.The table does not show however how effective each team was in scoring tries in relation to the possession that it obtained. A team may obtain little possession but still manage to score a significant number of tries. The following paragraphs consider this and attempt to show how successful each team was in converting possession into tries.

This was done by adding together the time each team was in possession of the ball in each of the matches played and then dividing it by the number of tries scored. The result then gave a rate of try scoring – or a measure of how effective each country was in converting possession into tries. Rate of try scoring per Team Individual matches (no of tries scored)

Total Tries Scored

SOUTH AFRICA

2,2,7,10,16

37

AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND

1,4,6,9,13 4,4,7,9,9

33 33

Try scoring rate JWC 2008 1 try every scored 2m 07secs 2m 34secs 2m 37secs

ENGLAND

0,2,3,6,9

20

4m 43secs

FRANCE

1,3,3,4,8,

19

5m 02secs

JAPAN

1,2,2,3,6

14

5m 22secs

FIJI

2,2,2,3,5

14

5m 25secs

SAMOA

0,1,3,3,5

12

6m 31secs

WALES

TONGA

0,2,2,4,5 0,2,2,3,6 0,1,2,3,4

13 13 10

6m 34secs 7m 25secs 7m 35secs

IRELAND

0,0,1,5,5

11

7m 45secs

ARGENTINA

0,0,1,2,4

7

12m 13secs

SCOTLAND

USA

0,1,1,2,3

7

12m 16secs

ITALY

0,1,1,2,3

7

12m 28secs

CANADA

1,1,1,2,2

7

13m 19secs

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 15

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY RATE OF TRY CONCEDING Following the above exercise, the converse was looked at ie. how effective was each team in restricting tries in relation to the possession that their opponents obtained. The following paragraph tries to measure this by illustrating how successful each team was in preventing their opposition from converting possession into tries. This was done by adding together the total time the team’s opponents were in possession of the ball - and then dividing it by the number of tries conceded. The result then gave a rate of try scoring by the opposition. As an illustration of this, France conceded a try for every 6m 25seconds possession obtained by their opponents. In USA’s case, however, their opponents scored one try for every 2m 04seconds possession. Rate of try conceding per Team Individual matches (no of tries conceded)

Total tries conceded

NEW ZEALAND

0,0,0,0,1

1

SOUTH AFRICA

0,1,2,2,3

8

Try conceding rate JWC 2008 1 try conceded every 72m 10secs 10m 29secs

SAMOA

ITALY

0,1,2,2,4 0,2,2,2,3 0,1,2,4,4

9 9 11

9m 47secs 9m 10secs 9m 05secs

ENGLAND

1,2,2,3,4

12

6m 52secs

FRANCE

0,1,2,3,6

12

6m 25secs

IRELAND

0,2,2,2,9

15

6m 22secs

WALES

1,1,2,4,7

15

5m 22secs

ARGENTINA

0,1,3,5,9

18

4m 46secs

JAPAN

1,2,3,5,8

19

4m 25secs

TONGA

FIJI

1,2,4,5,7 1,1,3,5,10 1,3,4,6,9

19 20 23

4m 23secs 4m 18secs 4m 05secs

CANADA

2,3,3,9,13

30

3m 08secs

USA

3,5,6,6,16

36

2m 04secs

AUSTRALIA

SCOTLAND

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 16

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY Penalty Tries 2%

PLAYERS AND TRIES It has been noted above that there were 257 tries scored in the 40 matches: 171 or 66% of tries were scored by Backs 82 or 32% of tries were scored by Forwards 4 or 2% were penalty tries

Forw ards 32%

Backs 66%

The breakdown between the 16 competing teams is shown below: Tries scored by Backs and Forwards per Team Tries by Backs 22

% by Backs 59%

Tries by Forwards 15

% by Forwards 41%

ENGLAND

25 22 16

76% 67% 80%

8 10 4

24% 30% 20%

FRANCE

11

58%

8

42%

19

FIJI

10

71%

4

29%

14

JAPAN

6

43%

7

50%

1

7%

14

WALES

10

77%

2

15%

1

8%

13

SCOTLAND

9

69%

4

31%

13

SAMOA

8

67%

4

33%

12

IRELAND

9

81%

2

18%

11

TONGA

5

50%

5

50%

10

ITALY

4

57%

3

43%

7

ARGENTINA

7

100%

0

0%

7

USA

2

29%

4

57%

CANADA

5

71%

2

29%

SOUTH AFRICA NEW ZEALAND AUSTRALIA

Pen Tries

1

1

% Pen Tries

3%

14%

Total 37 33 33 20

7 7

Of tries scored by the top 4 teams – New Zealand, England, South Africa and Wales – 72% were scored by backs. By contrast, the comparable figure for the bottom 4 teams – USA, Japan, Fiji and Tonga - was 51%.

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 17

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY

TRIES 1.

SOURCE OF TRIES

There were 257 tries scored in JWC 2008. The teams scoring the tries obtained possession of the ball prior to the scoring of the try from a variety of sources. This is shown in the following table: The source of possession from which tries were scored was as follows: Possession source Lineout – Own Scrum –Own Turnover/Handling Error Opponents Kick Penalty/Free Kick Lineout - Opp Restart – Opp Scrum – Opp

JWC 2008 24% 22% 18% 16% 10% 6% 2% 2%

The following table shows the possession source from which tries were scored by the 16 teams: Source of Tries Scored per Team Lineout

Scrum

Kick

Turnover

Restart

Total Scored

ENGLAND

17 13 4 6

4 9 16 4

1

8 5 6 4

6 5 5 5

2 1 2 -

37 33 33 20

FRANCE

5

6

2

4

2

-

19

JAPAN WALES

7

1

2

1

3

-

14

FIJI

5 5 1

2 1

4 8

1 2 3

3 4 1

-

13 13 14

SAMOA

2

2

3

2

3

-

12

IRELAND

-

5

-

2

4

-

11

TONGA

2

2

2

1

3

-

10

CANADA

1

1

3

-

2

-

7

ITALY

3

1

-

2

1

-

7

ARGENTINA

2

3

-

-

2

-

7

USA

3

2

2

-

-

-

7

SOUTH AFRICA NEW ZEALAND AUSTRALIA

SCOTLAND

Pen/ FK

-

An interesting statistic from the above schedule is that Fiji scored 8 of their 13 tries from tap penalties and free kicks. This contrasts with New Zealand, South Africa and Australia who, while scoring 102 tries did not score a single one from a quickly taken penalty.

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 18

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY The next table shows the possession source from which their opponent’s tries came: Source of Tries Conceded per Team Lineout

Scrum

Pen/ FK

Kick

Turnover

Restart

Total Conceded

NEW ZEALAND

-

1

-

-

-

-

1

SOUTH AFRICA

4

1

1

1

1

-

8

SAMOA

ENGLAND

3 2 1

2 1 4

2 2

3 3 2

1 1 3

-

9 9 12

ITALY

2

1

3

3

2

-

11

FRANCE

5

3

-

1

3

-

12

WALES

5

2

2

4

2

-

15

IRELAND

5

2

1

2

5

-

15

ARGENTINA

4

7

1

2

3

1

18

TONGA

8

4

1

2

4

-

19

JAPAN

FIJI

5 7 8

5 3 7

5 2 2

3 4

4 4 2

1 -

19 20 23

CANADA

5

10

2

5

6

2

30

USA

12

6

3

6

8

1

36

AUSTRALIA

SCOTLAND

2.

ORIGIN OF TRIES

Tries originate from various parts of the pitch – this is illustrated below:

OWN HALF

HW to 10m

10m to 22m

22m to TRY LINE

24%

12%

25%

39%

62 Tries

30 Tries

63 Tries

102 Tries

The origin is that point on the pitch where the team scoring last obtained possession before scoring a try.

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 19

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY Origin of Tries scored per team

ENGLAND

Own Half 7 8 7 6

Halfway to 10m 4 4 1 2

10m to 22m 11 11 11 7

22m to Try-line 15 10 14 5

Total Scored 37 33 33 20

FRANCE

3

2

6

8

19

FIJI

6

4

1

3

14

JAPAN

4

0

1

9

14

WALES

SAMOA

2 4 3

1 1 5

3 4 1

7 4 3

13 13 12

IRELAND

5

0

2

4

11

TONGA

1

5

1

3

10

CANADA

1

1

0

5

7

ARGENTINA

2

0

2

3

7

ITALY

2

0

2

3

7

USA

1

0

0

6

7

SOUTH AFRICA NEW ZEALAND AUSTRALIA

SCOTLAND

The following table provides the converse to the above ie. It shows – for each team – the origin of all tries conceded. This shows for example that Ireland, unlike any other team, conceded well over half their tries from 40 metres or more Origin of Tries conceded per team Opp Half 0

Halfway to 10m 0

10m to 22m 0

22m to Try-line 1

Total Conceded 1

SAMOA

1 3 3

2 1 1

1 2 2

4 3 3

8 9 9

ITALY

2

1

1

7

11

ENGLAND

2

2

3

5

12

FRANCE

2

0

4

6

12

WALES

4

0

5

6

15

IRELAND

3

6

2

4

15

ARGENTINA

7

2

4

5

18

TONGA

3

0

6

10

19

JAPAN

FIJI

1 9 2

3 2 3

7 1 5

8 8 13

19 20 23

CANADA

10

2

10

8

30

USA

10

5

10

11

36

NEW ZEALAND SOUTH AFRICA AUSTRALIA

SCOTLAND

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 20

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY 3.

TRY LOCATIONS

The chart below indicates where across the goal-line tries were scored. It shows that: 13% were scored under the posts 41% the left side of the posts, and 46% on the right side of the posts. Overall position of tries scored (%)

30 Tries 12% 4.

43 Tries 17%

31 Tries 12%

32 Tries 13%

37 Tries 14%

51 Tries 20%

30 Tries 12%

BUILD-UP TO TRIES

Possession of the ball that leads to tries is obtained from a number of sources – and they are listed above. More often than not, other actions – second phase, kicks and passes – then take place before the try is scored. The first table below shows the number of rucks and mauls (2nd phase) that preceded each of the 257tries scored in JWC 2008. Build Up to Tries - Ruck/Mauls

0 R/Ms 1 R/Ms 2 R/Ms 3 R/Ms 4 R/Ms 5 R/Ms 6 R/Ms 7 R/Ms 8 R/Ms 9 R/Ms 10+ R/Ms Total

Number 94 73 34 20 13 10 ) ) 13 ) ) ) 257

% 37% 28% 13% 8% 5% 4% 2%

Cumulative % 30% 65% 78% 86% 91% 95% 97%

1%

98%

2% 100%

100%

The table shows that 86% of tries were preceded by 3 or fewer second phases.

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 21

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY The next table below shows the number of passes that preceded each of the 257 tries scored in JWC 2008 Build Up to Tries - Passes

0 pass 1 pass 2 passes 3 passes 4 passes 5 passes 6 passes 7 passes 8 passes 9 passes 10 +passes Total

Number 55 33 39 36 31 20 9 8 7 8 11 257

% 21% 13% 15% 14% 12% 8% 4% 3% 3% 3% 4% 100%

Cumulative % 21% 34% 49% 63% 75% 83% 87% 90% 93% 96% 100%

The table shows that 63% of tries were preceded by 3 or fewer passes. This was not a figure that was seen consistently throughout all teams. In Canada’s case for example, 4 of their 7 tries contained no passes and only one had more than two – and 5 of the 7 tries contained no rucks.

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 22

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY TIMING OF SCORES - TRIES 47% of tries were scored in the first half - 53% in the second half. The following table breaks down these figures further and shows the halves in which teams scored tries and the halves which they conceded tries.

1st Half 47%

2nd Half 53%

Timing of Tries Scored and Conceded per Team

NEW ZEALAND

Tries scored 1st half 10

ENGLAND

16

4

3

9

SOUTH AFRICA

FRANCE

17 6 18 7

20 7 15 12

5 6 3 6

3 9 6 6

SAMOA

3

9

4

5

ARGENTINA

4

3

5

13

IRELAND

2

9

6

9

SCOTLAND ITALY

4 2

8 + 1 (ET) 5

6 7

14 4

CANADA

3

4

17

12 + 1 (ET)

TONGA

5

5

5

14

FIJI

4

10

16

7

JAPAN

8

6

9

10

USA

3

4

14

22

WALES AUSTRALIA

Tries scored 2nd half 23

Tries conceded 1st half 0

Tries conceded 2nd half 1

Only 4 of the 16 teams scored the majority of their tries in the first half. One interesting point arose – despite England reaching the final, only one team scored fewer second half tries than England – and that was Argentina.

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 23

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY TIMING OF SCORES - PENALTY GOALS There was a noticeable difference between the time when tries were scored and the time when penalties were kicked. While 47% of tries were scored in the first half, the equivalent first half penalty count was 69%.

The following chart shows the number of penalties kicked and conceded by each team divided into 1st half and 2nd half:

2nd Half 31%

1st Half 69%

Timings of Penalty Goals kicked and Conceded per Team

NEW ZEALAND

PGs scored 1st half 6

PGs scored 2nd half 5

PGs conceded 1st half 7

PGs conceded 2nd half 0

ENGLAND

6

2

6

4

SOUTH AFRICA

FRANCE

4 7 5 5

1 1 1 4

8 3 3 10

2 4 0 0

SAMOA

5

2

6

2

ARGENTINA

4

1

5

4

IRELAND

6

6 + 1 (ET)

8

2

SCOTLAND ITALY

2 11

1 5

7 3

3 5 + 1 (ET)

CANADA

4

4

5

2

TONGA

9

2

5

3

FIJI

3

0

6

2

JAPAN

1

2

4

2

USA

8

1

0

3

WALES AUSTRALIA

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 24

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY

KICKS AT GOAL Kicking success rates were as follows:

Conversions Penalty goals Drop goals Map of Conversion Success

32/73 44%

26/31 84%

32/32 100%

26/37 70%

Kicking success rates 61% 68% 19% - 5 out of 26

39/80 49%

The kicking success for penalty goals, conversions and drop kicks – of each of the participating countries is shown below. The table gives the kicking success rate of each participating team. The percentages should however only be regarded as indicative since success depends on a number of factors. Some tries are scored near the touchline – others under the post. Further, when few kicks at goal are taken, the success or failure of relatively few can have a disproportionate effect on percentages. Certain teams may take tap penalties, scrums and lineouts instead of eminently kickable penalties. Other teams may chose to kick for goal whenever 3 points are more or less guaranteed. The table should therefore be looked at within such potential constraints. Kicks at Goal Success Penalty Success %

Conversion Success %

Overall Success %

Drop goal Success

IRELAND

81%

82%

81%

0 of 2

WALES

80

77

78

0 of 2

FRANCE

69

79

75

1 of 5

NEW ZEALAND

79

67

70

0 of 1

ITALY

84

29

69

0 of 1

ARGENTINA

63 42

71 73

67 65

1 of 2 1 of 1

ENGLAND

67 75 62

57 58 60

63 61 61

0 if 2 0 of 0 0 of 1

USA

69

43

60

0 of 0

JAPAN

75

50

56

1 of 1

TONGA

61 43 60

40 58 44

54 53 47

0 of 2 0 of 3 0 of 0

SOUTH AFRICA CANADA AUSTRALIA

SCOTLAND FIJI

58 25 41 1 of 3 There were just 5 successful drop goals from 26 attempts. 5 teams attempted none while France attempted 5 and succeeded once. 040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT PAGE 25 SAMOA

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY

BALL IN PLAY In percentage terms, JWC 2008 matches produced an average ball in play time of 33min 40secs – or 42% The highest Ball in play figure was 51% or 40 mins 30 secs (Fiji v Canada) The lowest Ball in play figure was 34% or 27 mins 01 secs (NZ v Ireland) In percentage terms, the 2008 matches produced the following ball in play times Ball in Play % and Times per match MATCH FIJI v CANADA AUSTRALIA v ENGLAND IRELAND v ITALY SCOTLAND v CANADA ARGENTINA v IRELAND ENGLAND v CANADA WALES v ITALY WALES v FRANCE NEW ZEALAND v ENGLAND ARGENTINA v FRANCE USA v FIJI SAMOA v SCOTLAND FRANCE v AUSTRALIA SOUTH AFRICA v SAMOA ENGLAND v SOUTH AFRICA NEW ZEALAND v WALES IRELAND v SCOTLAND ITALY v CANADA JAPAN v ITALY SCOTLAND v USA FRANCE v ITALY TONGA v JAPAN ARGENTINA v TONGA NEW ZEALAND v ARGENTINA IRELAND v TONGA FRANCE v JAPAN SAMOA v AUSTRALIA SAMOA v ARGENTINA SOUTH AFRICA v SCOTLAND AUSTRALIA v FIJI SOUTH AFRICA v USA SAMOA v USA ENGLAND v FIJI FIJI v TONGA WALES v JAPAN AUSTRALIA v CANADA JAPAN v USA WALES v SOUTH AFRICA NEW ZEALAND v TONGA NEW ZEALAND v IRELAND

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

BALL IN PLAY % 51% 49 47 47 46 45 45 45 45 44 44 44 44 43 43 43 43 43 42 42 42 42 42 41 41 41 41 41 40 40 40 39 39 39 38 36 36 36 35 34

BALL IN PLAY TIME 40min 30s 39min 06s 37min 55s 37min 41s 37min 01s 36min 14s 36min 05s 35min 56s 35min 52s 35min 24s 35min 19s 35min 06s 34min 48s 34min 36s 34min 23s 34min 21s 34min 20s 34min 11s 33min 50s 33min 34s 33min 34s 33min 32s 33min 22s 33min 01s 32min 57s 32min 52s 32min 44s 32min 36s 32min 13s 31min 50s 31min 36s 31min 17s 31min 14s 30min 57s 30min 25s 28min 53s 28min 37s 29min 11s 28min 10s 27min 01s

PAGE 26

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY The following tables show how much possession was obtained by each team in the 40 matches. There are some noticeable differences. At one extreme, in the Wales v Italy match, Wales had the ball in their possession twice as long as their opponents. Possession % and Times per team per match POOL A

POOL B

POOL C

POOL D

MATCH

B-I-P

%

NZL v TON

28min 10s

35%

ARG v IRE

37min 01s

46%

ARG v TON

33min 22s

42%

NZL v IRE

27min 01s

34%

IRE v TON

32min 57s

41%

NZL v ARG

33min 01s

41%

MATCH

B-I-P

%

RSA v USA

31min 36s

40%

SAM v SCO

35min 06s

44%

SAM v USA

31min 17s

39%

RSA v SCO

32min 13s

40%

SCO v USA

33min 34s

42%

RSA v SAM

34min 36s

43%

MATCH

B-I-P

%

AUS v CAN

28min 53s

36%

ENG v FJI

31min 14s

39%

ENG v CAN

36min 14s

45%

AUS v FJI

31min 50s

40%

AUS v ENG

39min 06s

49%

FJI v CAN

40min 30s

51%

MATCH

B-I-P 32min 52s

% 41%

FRA v JAP WAL v ITA FRA v ITA WAL v JAP JAP v ITA WAL v FRA

36min 05s

NZL 16m 59 60%

TON 11m 11 40%

14m 31 44%

42%

30min 25s

38%

33min 50s

42%

35min 56s

45%

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

IRE

17m 31 47% 18m 51 56%

19m 30 53%

15m 10 56%

11m 51 44% 13m 45 42%

19m 12 58% 17m 16 52% RSA 14m 25 46%

USA 17m 11 54%

14m 39 47%

15m 45 48% SAM

14m 35 42% 16m 38 53%

15m 54 49%

19m 19 56% AUS 15m 06 52%

CAN 13m 47 48%

18m 39 51% 17m 15 54% 19m 14 49%

FRA 19m 45 60%

15m 17 44% ENG

19m 27 62% 17m 35 49%

20m 31 58%

FIJI

11m 47 38%

14m 35 46% 19m 52 51% 20m 45 51% JAP 13m 07 40%

WAL

24m 03 67% 18m 39 56% 15m 47 52% 14m 24 43% 20m 02 56%

SCO

16m 19 51% 15m 46 46%

18m 07 54%

45%

33min 34s

ARG

19m 45 49% ITA

12m 02 33% 14m 55 44%

14m 38 48% 19m 26 57% 15m 54 44% PAGE 27

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY Possession % and Times per team per match MATCH PLAY OFFS

B-I-P

%

TEAM

TON v JAP

33min 32s

42%

TON

SCO v CAN

37min 41s

47%

SCO

ARG v FRA

35min 24s

44%

ARG

SAM v AUS

32min 44s

41%

SAM

USA v FJI

35min 19s

44%

USA

IRE v ITA

37min 55s

47%

IRE

NZL v WAL

34min 21s

43%

NZL

ENG v RSA

34min 23s

45%

ENG

MATCH

B-I-P

%

TEAM

15th/16th

JAP v USA

28min 37s

36%

JAP

13th/14th

FJI v TON

30min 57s

39%

FJI

11 /12

ITA v CAN

34min 11s

43%

ITA

9th/10th

IRE v SCO

34min 20s

43%

IRE

7th/8th

SAM v ARG

32min 36s

41%

SAM

5th/6th

FRA v AUS

34min 48s

44%

FRA

3rd/4th

WAL v RSA

29min 11s

36%

WAL

1st/2nd

NZL v ENG

35min 52s

45%

NZL

th

th

TEAM 18m 25 55% 20m 07 53% 17m 38 50% 14m 52 45% 24m 02 68% 19m 02 50% 19m 56 58% 18m 29 54% 16m 40 58% 18m 29 60% 16m 08 47% 15m 30 45% 16m 51 52% 19m 25 56% 16m 27 56% 16m 54 47%

JAP CAN FRA AUS FJI ITA WAL RSA TEAM USA TON CAN SCO ARG AUS RSA ENG

15m 07 45% 17m 34 47% 17m 46 50% 17m 52 55% 11m 17 32% 18m 53 50% 14m 25 42% 15m 54 44% 11m 57 42% 12m 28 40% 18m 03 53% 18m 50 55% 15m 45 48% 15m 23 44% 12m 44 44% 18m 58 53%

As a formula for winning, having the most possession is not always a guarantee of success. In JWC 2008, the winning team had the most possession in 22 of the 40 games

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 28

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY The following table is a summary of the above, showing the overall average possession time obtained by all 16 teams:

FRANCE

Average Possession 19m 07s

SCOTLAND

18m 53s 18m 15s

CANADA

17m 46s

NEW ZEALAND

17m 15s

USA

17m 11s

ARGENTINA

17m 06s

WALES ITALY

17m 05s 16m 58s 16m 17s

IRELAND

15m 56s

SOUTH AFRICA

15m 39s

SAMOA

15m 39s

FIJI

15m 11s

TONGA

15m 09s

JAPAN

15m 01s

ENGLAND

AUSTRALIA

ACTIVITY CYCLES

Activity cycles comprise - ruck/mauls, passes, and kicks. The following paragraphs show the number of rucks/mauls, passes and kicks made in JWC 2008. Summary Average per match

Passes Rucks/Mauls Kicks

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

JWC 2008 200 132 48

PAGE 29

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY PASSING Games, on average, contained 200 passes The most in any game was 259 (Ireland v Scotland) – the least was 136 (England v South Africa). The most by any team in a game was 182 – the fewest, 51. The following table shows the average passes per game per team Average Passes per Team per game

NEW ZEALAND

JWC 2008 144

FRANCE

114

SCOTLAND

112

IRELAND

107

SAMOA

TONGA

105 102 102 101

WALES

99

ENGLAND

97

USA SOUTH AFRICA

96 91

JAPAN

90

FIJI

84

CANADA

81

ARGENTINA

73

AUSTRALIA ITALY

Again, there were noticeable differences between the 16 teams with New Zealand making twice as many passes as Argentina despite having a similar level of possession. A team may also make more passes than another simply because it had more possession. When an adjustment is made to take account of this, then the above table changes – albeit slightly.

This next table now shows the average number of passes per minute’s possession ie the rate of passing.

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 30

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY Rate of Passing per Team (passes per minutes possession )

NEW ZEALAND

JWC 2008 8.4

TONGA

6.8

SAMOA

6.7

IRELAND

6.7

ITALY

6.3 6.1 6.0 6.0

SCOTLAND AUSTRALIA JAPAN

USA

5.8 5.8 5.6

FIJI

5.5

ENGLAND

5.1

FRANCE

5.0

CANADA

4.6

WALES SOUTH AFRICA

ARGENTINA 4.3 Under this method of calculation, when passing is related to possession, then France, for example, while they made over 50% more passes than Argentina, passed at a rate that was only 16% higher. The number of passes made by a team can also vary considerably from match to match. The following table shows the average number of passes per country per game as shown above together with the most in a game and the least in a game

Average, Most and Least per Team

NEW ZEALAND

Average 144

Most 182

Least 101

Difference 81

FRANCE

114

136

85

51

SCOTLAND

112

146

82

64

IRELAND

107

168

68

100

SAMOA

105

137

81

56

ITALY

WALES

102 102 101 99

125 129 140 158

59 79 61 51

66 50 79 107

ENGLAND

97

143

77

66

USA SOUTH AFRICA

96 91

152 107

62 59

90 48

JAPAN

90

107

71

36

FIJI

84

108

51

57

CANADA

81

111

68

43

85

57

28

AUSTRALIA TONGA

73 040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT ARGENTINA

PAGE 31

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY It can be seen from the table that there were noticeable contrasts between the highs and lows of certain teams. In Ireland’s case, for example, they made 100 more passes in their highest passing game compared to their lowest. PLAYER PASSING Total passes made in the championship were broken down into 3 groups: • Passes made by forwards • Passes made by the scrum half • Passes made by backs All the passes made in JWC 2008 have been allocated into these 3 groups, and are shown in the attached table:

Passing % by forwards Passing % by scrum half Passing % by backs

The percentages for each country in each of the categories are shown below:

JWC 2008 17% 45% 39% 100%

Total number of passes made by Forwards/Scrum Half/Backs per Team

NEW ZEALAND

Passes by Forwards 160

Passes by Scrum half 288

Passes by Backs 274

ENGLAND

86

220

181

SOUTH AFRICA

105

190

161

WALES

FRANCE

67 74 116

232 245 241

194 192 211

SAMOA

107

229

190

ARGENTINA

69

168

128

IRELAND

77

230

247

SCOTLAND ITALY

94 60

247 258

246 213

CANADA

51

207

157

TONGA

92

237

178

FIJI

100

148

173

JAPAN

65

224

163

USA

65

231

183

AUSTRALIA

What the above table shows is the number of passes made by the three groups of players. It simply shows how active they were in passing the ball. The following table takes this further. It shows the proportion of a team’s passes made by each group. In other words – of all the passes made by a team, what proportion were made by the forwards? what proportion by the scrum half? and what proportion by the backs. Such tables can show if certain teams use forwards more as suppliers of the ball for onward transmission by the backs, rather than the forwards themselves being more involved in the distribution process. 040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 32

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY This is what the table shows: Percentage of total passes made by forwards/scrum half /backs % by Forwards 24%

% by Scrum Half 35%

% by Backs 41%

NEW ZEALAND

23% 22%

42% 40%

35% 38%

FRANCE

20%

43%

37%

SAMOA

20%

43%

37%

ARGENTINA

19%

46%

35%

ENGLAND

18%

45%

37%

TONGA SCOTLAND

18% 16%

47% 42%

35% 42%

IRELAND

14%

42%

44%

WALES

14%

47%

39%

USA

JAPAN

14% 14% 14%

48% 48% 50%

38% 38% 36%

CANADA

12%

50%

38%

ITALY

11%

49%

40%

FIJI SOUTH AFRICA

AUSTRALIA

Ratio of Passes to Receipts – by Forwards per Team The table shows the number of times each countries’ forwards had the ball in their hands and then notes the number of times they passed it. This is then expressed as a ratio so that if a team’s forwards passed the ball 20 times having received it 100 times, the ratio would be JWC 2008 expressed as 1 to 5 – ie 1 pass for every 5 NEW ZEALAND possessions. Again, the table shows major 1 in 2.4 differences between the countries. TONGA 1 in 2.9 What the table shows, for example, is that while Tonga and Scotland’s forwards made a similar number of passes, Scotland’s forwards were 25% less likely to pass the ball when they had it in their hands.

SAMOA

1 in 3.0

FRANCE

1 in 3.1

SOUTH AFRICA FIJI

1 in 3.2 1 in 3.3

ENGLAND

1 in 3.3

JAPAN

1 in 3.5

ARGENTINA SCOTLAND

1 in 3.6 1 in 3.6

IRELAND

1 in 3.7

AUSTRALIA

WALES

1 in 3.9 1 in 4.1 1 in 4.2

CANADA

1 in 4.4

USA

1 in 4.4

ITALY

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 33

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY PASSING MOVEMENTS Passes are grouped into passing movements – i.e. one pass movement, two pass movements and so on. The data shows that some 83% of all passing movements contained two passes or less. There were however noticeable differences between the various countries as shown below:

NEW ZEALAND

% of passing movements with 2 or fewer passes 75%

IRELAND

77%

FIJI

WALES

78% 80% 84%

JAPAN

84%

FRANCE

84%

SAMOA

84%

USA

84% 85% 85%

SCOTLAND

AUSTRALIA TONGA

SOUTH AFRICA

85% 86%

ENGLAND

86%

ITALY

87%

CANADA

90%

ARGENTINA

The data also shows that Australia had just 11 passing movements with more than 3 passes. This contrasts with New Zealand who had 40 and Ireland who had 29.

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 34

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY RUCKS/MAULS (2nd PHASE) The average number per game was 132. The most in any game was 163 – Fiji v Canada; the fewest was 98 – Samoa v Australia The most by any team in a game was 113 (USA) – the least, 35 (USA) The average for all countries is shown below: Average Ruck/Mauls per Team per Game

FRANCE

JWC 2008 77

ENGLAND SCOTLAND USA

76 74 70

NEW ZEALAND

69 69 69

WALES

66

ITALY

65

FIJI

ARGENTINA

63 63 61

TONGA

60

IRELAND

59

SAMOA

59

JAPAN

57

CANADA AUSTRALIA

SOUTH AFRICA

The above table indicates the total number of rucks/mauls created by each team in the competition expressed as average per game. However, and just as in the case of passes, the number of rucks and mauls made by one team may be constrained because it obtained only limited possession of the ball. In order to address this, an alternative calculation has been made which relates the number of rucks/mauls to the share of ball in play time won by each team. This is expressed in the number of rucks created for every minutes’ possession obtained by a team and shows, for example, that Wales’ rate of rucking exceeded that of the other 5 teams.

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

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SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY .

Rate of Rucks/Mauls per Team (rucks/mauls per minutes possession)

USA

JWC 2008 4.2 4.1 4.1 4.1

ENGLAND

4.0

FRANCE

4.0

SOUTH AFRICA

TONGA

4.0 4.0 4.0

NEW ZEALAND

4.0

CANADA

3.9

WALES

3.9

SAMOA

3.8

JAPAN

3.8

IRELAND

3.7

ARGENTINA

3.6

FIJI AUSTRALIA SCOTLAND

ITALY

Again this table shows, for example, that while England made over 25% more rucks than Tonga, both teams made the same number of rucks per minute’s possession. BREAKDOWN RETENTION

At the breakdown the team taking in the ball retained possession by either winning the ball or being awarded a penalty on 91% of occasions. The percentage success rate for each team was very similar and is shown in the attached table:

Rucks/Mauls success per Team

NEW ZEALAND

WALES

93% 93% 92% 91% 91%

SAMOA

91%

JAPAN

91%

USA

91%

FRANCE

90%

ARGENTINA

90%

IRELAND

90%

AUSTRALIA FIJI

90% 90%

CANADA

89%

ENGLAND

88%

SOUTH AFRICA ITALY TONGA SCOTLAND

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

JWC 2008 93%

PAGE 36

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY KICKING The average number per game was 49 The most open play kicks in a game was 110 – Ireland v Italy (normal time); the fewest 24 (Australia v Fiji) The most by a team was 58 – the least 10 It should be noted that the 110 kicks that were made in normal time in the Ireland v Italy game were greater than any figure recorded at any international level over recent years. There average number of kicks per team per game are shown in the table below: Average Kicks per Team per Game

ITALY

JWC 2008 32

IRELAND

29

ARGENTINA

27

JAPAN

27

SAMOA

NEW ZEALAND

26 26 25 24 24

CANADA

24

ENGLAND

23

TONGA SOUTH AFRICA

23 23

FRANCE

22

FIJI

19

USA

18

SCOTLAND WALES AUSTRALIA

When an adjustment is made to take account of possession obtained, by each team, then the kicking table changes slightly. It shows that Italy kicked at a higher rate than the other teams as well as making most kicks. The table below shows the average number of kicks per team per minute’s possession:

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 37

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY Rate of Kicking per Team (kicks per minutes possession)

ITALY

JWC2008 1.9

IRELAND

1.8

JAPAN

1.8

SAMOA

1.7

ARGENTINA

1.6

TONGA

NEW ZEALAND

1.5 1.5 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4

CANADA

1.4

FIJI

1.2

ENGLAND

1.2

FRANCE

1.1

USA

1.0

WALES AUSTRALIA SOUTH AFRICA SCOTLAND

SUMMARY A summary of previous tables is shown below – it shows the average number of rucks, passes, and kicks per game and the rate for each per minute possession. Activity Cycle Summary Average per game and Rate per minute possession

NEW ZEALAND

Rucks/Mauls Average Rate 69 4.0

Passes Average Rate 144 8.4

Kicks Average Rate 24` 1.4

ENGLAND

76

4.0

97

5.1

23

1.2

SOUTH AFRICA

FRANCE

63 66 69 77

4.0 3.9 4.1 4.0

91 99 102 114

5.8 5.8 6.0 5.0

23 25 24 22

1.4 1.5 1.4 1.1

SAMOA

59

3.8

105

6.7

26

1.7

ARGENTINA

61

3.6

73

4.3

27

1.6

IRELAND

59

3.7

107

6.7

29

1.8

SCOTLAND ITALY

74 65

4.1 4.0

112 102

6.1 6.3

26 32

1.4 1.9

CANADA

69

3.9

81

4.6

24

1.4

TONGA

60

4.0

101

6.8

23

1.5

FIJI

63

4.2

84

5.5

19

1.2

JAPAN

57

3.8

90

6.0

27

1.8

USA

70

4.1

96

5.6

18

1.0

WALES AUSTRALIA

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 38

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY

RESTARTS Of 50m restarts, 56% were kicked long – 44% were kicked short and were contestable. When restarts were kicked short, the kicking team regained possession on 1 in 4 occasions. The table shows the type of restart kicked by each team at 50m and 22m and retention rates of all short restarts. It can be seen that there was a major contrast between many of the teams. While some kicked short far more often than long, other countries kicked long on the majority of occasions. Further, success rate and restart type varied between the 16 teams. The most effective teams in retaining short restarts can be seen. Restart Success per Team 50m Restarts

22m Restarts

ARGENTINA

Short 9

Long 20

Short 1

Long 5

Retention rate Short 1 in 1.7

IRELAND

22

8

3

2

1 in 2.3

TONGA

14

18

0

4

1 in 2.8

NEW ZEALAND

9

4

0

7

1 in 3.0

USA

24

18

0

5

1 in 3.0

FRANCE

9

15

2

1

1 in 3.7

SAMOA

8 9 26

13 8 12

1 0 1

6 5 4

1 in 4.5 1 in 4.5 1 in 4.5

20 15 15

14 20 13

0 0 1

7 7 5

1 in 5.0 1 in 5.0 1 in 5.3

SOUTH AFRICA

6 7

18 16

0 0

4 2

1 in 7.0 1 in 7.0

ENGLAND

13

12

0

4

0 in 13.0

WALES

17

9

1

6

1 in 18.0

AUSTRALIA CANADA FIJI SCOTLAND JAPAN ITALY

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 39

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY

LINEOUTS The average number of lineouts per game was 30 The most line outs in a game was 48 – the least 15.

Average no per game Percentage competed Possession retained

JWC 2008 30 70% 78%

All teams had high success rates on their own throw while rates of success on opponents throw-ins showed more variation. Lineout success on own throw and opposition throw are shown below. It also highlights lineout steals won and lost: Lineout Success (Own Throw and Opposition Throw) Success % Own Throw

Opposition Throw

NEW ZEALAND

88%

SOUTH AFRICA

Lineout Steals

18%

Lost on Own Throw 6

Won on Opposition Throw 8

ENGLAND

88% 87% 86%

29% 34% 26%

7 3 7

WALES

83%

14%

JAPAN

82%

FRANCE

AUSTRALIA

Not straight / Pen/FK / Knock-on Own Opposition Throw Throw 3

3

18 13 12

1 5 3

4 4 4

8

9

5

1

24%

7

15

6

6

80%

21%

7

10

6

4

TONGA

79%

14%

12

3

4

7

ARGENTINA

77%

26%

9

14

10

5

ITALY

76%

12%

14

6

7

3

IRELAND

75%

26%

6

16

8

10

CANADA

73%

27%

15

13

7

9

SCOTLAND SAMOA

71% 67%

22% 19%

17 24

14 2

9 5

5 12

USA

68%

22%

12

11

11

6

FIJI

65%

18%

17

7

6

5

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 40

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY

SCRUMS

The average number of scrums per game was 21 The most scrums in a game was 30 – the least 11

Average no per game Possession retained

JWC 2008 21 87%

The Scrum success on own feed and opposition feed are shown below: Scrum Success (Own feed and Opposition feed)

ENGLAND

Scrum Success % Own Opposition Feed Feed 98% 15%

Heels against the head Own Opposition Feed Feed 0 3

NEW ZEALAND

96%

15%

0

4

IRELAND

95%

15%

0

2

AUSTRALIA

USA

93% 91% 89% 89%

17% 10% 7% 7%

0 3 2 0

5 1 0 0

WALES

88%

23%

1

1

TONGA

87%

14%

3

1

FRANCE

86%

10%

3

0

JAPAN

85%

19%

2

1

SOUTH AFRICA ARGENTINA

82% 82%

13% 7%

2 2

2 1

CANADA

81%

7%

5

1

FIJI

81%

6%

2

2

ITALY

76%

14%

1

2

SAMOA SCOTLAND

Again, ball retention was relatively high for all teams. With such high percentage of possession retained, it is no surprise that heels against the head were few and far between. In total there were just 26 in 824 scrums – or 1 scrum in 32.The table above shows the tight heads won and lost by each country.

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 41

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY

PENALTIES In JWC 2008, the average number of penalties and free kicks awarded in a game was 25. There was a wide spread between the matches. The most awarded in a single game was 35 – the least, 15. The most conceded by a team in one match was 23: the least 5. The following table comprises the total penalties awarded to and conceded by each team. However, because the number of penalties can vary from match to match, a better measure is the proportion of penalties conceded by a team in all their matches compared with their opponents. This shows that Ireland were the least penalised team in relation to their opponents. Penalties For and Against Proportion of Penalties per Team per Game For and Against per Team

TONGA

Pen/FK For 72 65 60

Pen/FK Against 57 52 48

% Pen/FK For 56% 56% 56%

% Pen/FK Against 44% 44% 44%

USA

67

56

54%

46%

ARGENTINA

76

64

54%

46%

CANADA

70

62

53%

47%

ENGLAND

65

61

52%

48%

JAPAN

55

54

50%

50%

SAMOA

FIJI

66 56 59 60 61

65 57 64 65 69

50% 50% 48% 48% 47%

50% 50% 52% 52% 53%

IRELAND

61

75

45%

55%

NEW ZEALAND

55

66

45%

55%

FRANCE

53

76

41%

59%

ITALY WALES

AUSTRALIA SOUTH AFRICA SCOTLAND

Of the penalties and free kicks awarded, teams took around 25% as tap penalties. The differences between the teams however showed major differences. While overall, teams took an average of 16 tap penalties in the tournament, Fiji tapped on 25 occasions while New Zealand tapped on just 2 occasions.

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 42

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY CATEGORIES OF OFFENCES PENALISED The following table groups the penalties awarded into 9 categories – these are as follows. % of Offences Penalised

Ruck/tackle on ground Offside Scrum Dangerous tackle Other Lineout Obstruction Maul pulling down Foul play

% 45% 21% 10% 6% 6% 4% 4% 2% 2% 100%

CARDS – YELLOW & RED The following paragraphs examine the circumstances and effects of the issue of red and yellow cards during JWC 2008. RED CARDS There were four red cards issued – against players from Fiji, France, England and Scotland. The offences were: 2 x Dangerous Tackles, Head-butting and Kicking. YELLOW CARDS There were 48 yellow cards issued during the championship.

Of the 40 matches, there were 30 which contained at least one yellow card, meaning 10 (or 25%) of all matches did not contain a single yellow card. The most yellow cards in one match was 3 – this happened on 6 occasions (Ireland v Scotland, Japan v USA, Wales v France, Japan v Italy, Wales v Japan and Argentina v Ireland) The table attached shows the breakdown of yellow cards per team.

Yellow cards conceded

SOUTH AFRICA

JWC 2008 5

JAPAN

5

SAMOA

5

WALES

ARGENTINA

4 4 3

FRANCE

3

IRELAND

3

ITALY

3

FIJI

3

ENGLAND

2

NEW ZEALAND

2

CANADA

2

USA

2

TONGA

1 1

SCOTLAND

AUSTRALIA

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 43

SECTION 2 – STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND MATCH SUMMARY The reasons for each of the yellow cards were as follows: Reason for Cards

Ruck/Tackle - Hands in Ruck Ruck/Tackle - Preventing Release Foul Play (punching/kicking/trampling) Ruck/Tackle – Incorrect joining Maul collapse Ruck/Tackle – Not staying on feet Obstruction Dangerous Charging Offside Not 10m Dangerous Tackle Scrum collapsing Throw ball into touch Total

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

JWC 2008 11 7 6 5 4 3 3 3 2 1 1 1 1 48

PAGE 44

SECTION 3 – TEAM STATISTICAL SUMMARIES ARGENTINA

POSSESSION SCORES Total points

17min 06 secs av per game

17min 10 secs opp av per game

RESULTS v IRELAND v TONGA v N ZEALAND v FRANCE v SAMOA

WON 17 – 9 WON 30 – 10 LOST 0 – 60 LOST 6 – 30 LOST 10 - 30

For: 63 Against:139

av per game 13 av per game 28

For: 7 71% success 5 = 63% success 1 of 2

Against: 18

PASSES

Ave: 73

Most: 85

Least: 57

JWC AV 100

RUCKS/MAULS - retained - lost

Ave: 61 90% 10%

Most: 77

Least: 49

66

KICKS

Ave: 27

Most: 35

Least: 23

25

GENERAL PLAY TURNOVERS

Ave: 8

Most: 11

Least: 3

10

LINEOUTS - own won - won on opp throw

77% 26%

JWC AV 78% 22%

SCRUMS - own won - won on opp put in

82% 7%

JWC AV 87% 13%

25 10 1 in 1.7

JWC AV 18 15 1 in 4

Tries Conversions Penalty goals Drop goals

RESTARTS - long - short - regained PENALTIES F/K AGAINST

76 of 140 = 54%

YELLOW / RED CARDS

3 yellow 0 red

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 45

SECTION 3 – TEAM STATISTICAL SUMMARIES AUSTRALIA

POSSESSION SCORES Total points

16min 58 secs av per game

16min 30 secs opp av per game

RESULTS v CANADA v FIJI v ENGLAND v SAMOA v FRANCE

WON 81 -12 WON 53 -17 LOST 13 -18 WON 32 - 0 WON 42 - 21

For: 221 Against: 68

av per game 44 av per game 14

For: 33 58% success 6 = 75% success None

Against: 10

PASSES

Ave: 102

Most: 129

Least: 79

JWC AV 100

RUCKS/MAULS - retained - lost

Ave: 69 90% 10%

Most: 87

Least: 54

66

KICKS

Ave: 24

Most: 45

Least:14

25

GENERAL PLAY TURNOVERS

Ave: 11

Most: 15

Least: 7

10

LINEOUTS - own won - won on opp throw

87% 34%

JWC AV 78% 22%

SCRUMS - own won - won on opp put in

93% 17%

JWC AV 87% 13%

13 9 1 in 4.5

JWC AV 18 15 1 in 4

Tries Conversions Penalty goals Drop goals

RESTARTS - long - short - regained PENALTIES F/K AGAINST

56 of 113 = 50%

YELLOW / RED CARDS

1 yellow 0 red

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 46

SECTION 3 – TEAM STATISTICAL SUMMARIES CANADA

POSSESSION SCORES Total points

17min 46 secs av per game

17min 44 secs opp av per game

RESULTS v AUSTRALIA v ENGLAND v FIJI v SCOTLAND v ITLAY

LOST 12 - 81 LOST 18 - 60 WON 17 - 10 LOST 10 - 15 LOST 10 - 33

For: 67 Against: 199

av per game 13 av per game 40

For: 7 57% success 8 = 67% success 0 of 2

Against: 30

PASSES

Ave: 81

Most: 111

Least: 68

JWC AV 100

RUCKS/MAULS - retained - lost

Ave: 69 89% 11%

Most: 89

Least: 53

66

KICKS

Ave: 24

Most: 32

Least: 16

25

GENERAL PLAY TURNOVERS

Ave: 11

Most: 14

Least: 7

10

LINEOUTS - own won - won on opp throw

73% 27%

JWC AV 78% 22%

SCRUMS - own won - won on opp put in

81% 7%

JWC AV 87% 13%

16 27 1 in 4.5

JWC AV 18 15 1 in 4

Tries Conversions Penalty goals Drop goals

RESTARTS - long - short - regained PENALTIES F/K AGAINST

70 of 123 = 53%

YELLOW / RED CARDS

2 yellow 0 red

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 47

SECTION 3 – TEAM STATISTICAL SUMMARIES ENGLAND

POSSESSION SCORES Total points

18min 53 secs av per game

16min 30 secs opp av per game

RESULTS v FIJI v CANADA v AUSTRALIA v S AFRICA v N ZEALAND

WON WON WON WON LOST

41 - 17 60 - 18 18 - 13 26 - 18 3 - 38

For: 148 Against: 104

av per game 30 av per game 20

For: 20 60% success 8 = 62% success 0 of 1

Against: 12

PASSES

Ave: 97

Most: 143

Least: 77

JWC AV 100

RUCKS/MAULS - retained - lost

Ave: 76 88% 12%

Most: 84

Least: 67

66

KICKS

Ave: 23

Most: 28

Least: 15

25

GENERAL PLAY TURNOVERS

Ave: 12

Most: 20

Least: 7

10

LINEOUTS - own won - won on oppo throw

86% 26%

JWC AV 78% 22%

SCRUMS - own won - won on oppo put in

98% 15%

JWC AV 87% 13%

16 13 0 in 13

JWC AV 18 15 1 in 4

Tries Conversions Penalty goals Drop goals

RESTARTS - long - short - regained PENALTIES F/K AGAINST

61 of 126 = 48%

YELLOW / RED CARDS

1 yellow 2 red

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 48

SECTION 3 – TEAM STATISTICAL SUMMARIES FIJI

POSSESSION SCORES Total points

15min 11 secs av per game

18min 47 secs opp av per game

RESULTS v ENGLAND v AUSTRALIA v CANADA v USA v TONGA

LOST 17 - 41 LOST 17 - 53 LOST 10 - 17 WON 27 - 22 LOST 20 - 28

For: 91 Against: 161

av per game 18 av per game 32

For: 14 44% success 3 = 60% success None

Against: 23

PASSES

Ave: 84

Most: 108

Least: 51

JWC AV 100

RUCKS/MAULS - retained - lost

Ave: 63 90% 10%

Most: 95

Least: 39

66

KICKS

Ave: 19

Most: 25

Least: 17

25

GENERAL PLAY TURNOVERS

Ave: 19

Most: 25

Least: 17

10

LINEOUTS - own won - won on opp throw

65% 18%

JWC AV 78% 22%

SCRUMS - own won - won on opp put in

81% 6%

JWC AV 87% 13%

RESTARTS - long - short - regained

21 20 1 in 5

JWC AV 18 15 1 in 4

Tries Conversions Penalty goals Drop goals

PENALTIES F/K AGAINST

61 of 130 = 47%

YELLOW / RED CARDS

3 yellow 1 red

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 49

SECTION 3 – TEAM STATISTICAL SUMMARIES FRANCE

POSSESSION SCORES Total points

19min 07 secs av per game

15min 23 secs opp av per game

RESULTS v JAPAN v ITALY v WALES v ARGENTINA v AUSTRALIA

WON 53 - 17 WON 32 - 14 LOST 19 - 23 WON 30 - 6 LOST 21 - 42

For: 166 Against: 102

av per game 31 av per game 20

For: 19 79% success 9 = 69% success 1 of 5

Against: 12

PASSES

Ave: 114

Most: 136

Least: 85

JWC AV 100

RUCKS/MAULS - retained - lost

Ave: 77 90% 10%

Most: 90

Least: 61

66

KICKS

Ave: 22

Most: 27

Least: 16

25

GENERAL PLAY TURNOVERS

Ave: 10

Most: 15

Least: 5

10

LINEOUTS - own won - won on opp throw

80% 21%

JWC AV 78% 22%

SCRUMS - own won - won on opp put in

86% 10%

JWC AV 87% 13%

16 11 1 in 3.7

JWC AV 18 15 1 in 4

Tries Conversions Penalty goals Drop goals

RESTARTS - long - short - regained PENALTIES F/K AGAINST

53 of 129 = 41%

YELLOW / RED CARDS

3 yellow 1 red

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 50

SECTION 3 – TEAM STATISTICAL SUMMARIES IRELAND

POSSESSION SCORES Total points

15min 56 secs av per game

17min 53 secs opp av per game

RESULTS v ARGENTINA v N ZEALAND v TONGA v ITALY v SCOTLAND

LOST 9 - 17 LOST 10 - 65 WON 45 - 27 WON 9 - 6 WON 39 - 12

For: 112 Against: 127

av per game 22 av per game 25

For: 11 82% success 13 = 81% success 0 of 2

Against: 15

PASSES

Ave: 107

Most: 168

Least: 68

JWC AV 100

RUCKS/MAULS - retained - lost

Ave: 59 90% 10%

Most: 97

Least: 44

66

KICKS

Ave: 29

Most: 58

Least: 16

25

GENERAL PLAY TURNOVERS

Ave: 9

Most: 14

Least: 5

10

LINEOUTS - own won - won on opp throw

75% 26%

JWC AV 78% 22%

SCRUMS - own won - won on opp put in

95% 15%

JWC AV 87% 13%

10 25 1 in 2.3

JWC AV 18 15 1 in 4

Tries Conversions Penalty goals Drop goals

RESTARTS - long - short - regained PENALTIES F/K AGAINST

61 of 136 = 45%

YELLOW / RED CARDS

3 yellow 0 red

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 51

SECTION 3 – TEAM STATISTICAL SUMMARIES ITALY

POSSESSION SCORES Total points

16min 17 secs av per game

18min 50 secs opp av per game

RESULTS v WALES v FRANCE v JAPAN v IRELAND v CANADA

LOST 10 - 29 LOST 14 - 32 WON 24 - 20 LOST 6 - 9 WON 33 - 10

For: 87 Against: 100

av per game 17 av per game 20

For: 7 29% success 16 = 84% success 0 of 1

Against: 11

PASSES

Ave: 102

Most: 125

Least: 59

JWC AV 100

RUCKS/MAULS - retained - lost

Ave: 65 93% 7%

Most: 92

Least: 41

66

KICKS

Ave: 32

Most: 52

Least: 20

25

GENERAL PLAY TURNOVERS

Ave: 10

Most: 15

Least: 4

10

LINEOUTS - own won - won on opp throw

76% 12%

JWC AV 78% 22%

SCRUMS - own won - won on opp put in

76% 14%

JWC AV 87% 13%

RESTARTS - long - short - regained

22 6 1 in 7

JWC AV 18 15 1 in 4

Tries Conversions Penalty goals Drop goals

PENALTIES F/K AGAINST

72 of 129 = 56%

YELLOW / RED CARDS

3 yellow 0 red

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 52

SECTION 3 – TEAM STATISTICAL SUMMARIES JAPAN

POSSESSION SCORES Total points

15min 01 secs av per game

16min 50 secs opp av per game

RESULTS v TONGA v WALES v ITALY v TONGA v USA

LOST 5 - 17 LOST 10 - 33 LOST 20 - 24 LOST 5 - 17 WON 44 - 8

For: 96 Against: 135

av per game 19 av per game 27

For: 14 50% success 3 = 75% success 1 of 1

Against: 19

PASSES

Ave: 90

Most: 107

Least: 71

JWC AV 100

RUCKS/MAULS - retained - lost

Ave: 57 91% 9%

Most: 66

Least: 41

66

KICKS

Ave: 27

Most: 35

Least: 19

25

GENERAL PLAY TURNOVERS

Ave: 8

Most: 11

Least: 6

10

LINEOUTS - own won - won on opp throw

82% 24%

JWC AV 78% 22%

SCRUMS - own won - won on opp put in

85% 19%

JWC AV 87% 13%

18 16 1 in 5.3

JWC AV 18 15 1 in 4

Tries Conversions Penalty goals Drop goals

RESTARTS - long - short - regained PENALTIES F/K AGAINST

55 of 109 = 50%

YELLOW / RED CARDS

5 yellow 0 red

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 53

SECTION 3 – TEAM STATISTICAL SUMMARIES NEW ZEALAND

POSSESSION SCORES Total points

17min 15 secs av per game

14min 26 secs opp av per game

RESULTS v TONGA v IRELAND v ARGENTINA v WALES v ENGLAND

WON 48 - 9 WON 65 - 10 WON 60 - 0 WON 31 - 6 WON 38 - 3

For: 242 Against: 28

av per game 48 av per game 6

For: 33 67% success 11 = 79% success 0 of 1

Against: 1

PASSES

Ave: 144

Most: 182

Least: 101

JWC AV 100

RUCKS/MAULS - retained - lost

Ave: 69 93% 7%

Most: 88

Least: 54

66

KICKS

Ave: 24

Most: 33

Least: 16

25

GENERAL PLAY TURNOVERS

Ave: 10

Most: 14

Least: 7

10

LINEOUTS - own won - won on opp throw

88% 18%

JWC AV 78% 22%

SCRUMS - own won - won on opp put in

96% 15%

JWC AV 87% 13%

RESTARTS - long - short - regained

11 9 1 in 3

JWC AV 18 15 1 in 4

Tries Conversions Penalty goals Drop goals

PENALTIES F/K AGAINST

55 of 121 = 45%

YELLOW / RED CARDS

2 yellow 0 red

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 54

SECTION 3 – TEAM STATISTICAL SUMMARIES SAMOA

POSSESSION SCORES Total points

15min 39 secs av per game

17min 37 secs opp av per game

RESULTS v SCOTLAND v USA v S AFRICA v AUSTRALIA v ARGENTINA

WON 29 - 17 WON 20 - 6 LOST 11 - 6 LOST 0 - 32 WON 30 - 10

For: 90 Against: 81

av per game 18 av per game 16

For: 12 25% success 7 = 58% success 1 of 3

Against: 9

PASSES

Ave: 105

Most: 137

Least: 81

JWC AV 100

RUCKS/MAULS - retained - lost

Ave: 59 91% %9

Most: 71

Least: 44

66

KICKS

Ave: 26

Most: 45

Least: 18

25

GENERAL PLAY TURNOVERS

Ave: 10

Most: 13

Least: 7

10

LINEOUTS - own won - won on opp throw

67% 19%

JWC AV 78% 22%

SCRUMS - own won - won on opp put in

91% 10%

JWC AV 87% 13%

19 9 1 in 4.5

JWC AV 18 15 1 in 4

Tries Conversions Penalty goals Drop goals

RESTARTS - long - short - regained PENALTIES F/K AGAINST

66 of 131 = 50%

YELLOW / RED CARDS

5 yellow 0 red

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 55

SECTION 3 – TEAM STATISTICAL SUMMARIES SCOTLAND

POSSESSION SCORES Total points

18min 15 secs av per game

16min 20 secs opp av per game

RESULTS v SAMOA v S AFRICA v USA v CANADA v IRELAND

LOST 17 - 29 LOST 3 - 72 WON 41 - 14 WON 15 - 10 LOST 12 - 39

For: 88 Against: 164

av per game 18 av per game 33

For: 13 58% success 3 = 43% success 0 of 3

Against: 20

PASSES

Ave: 112

Most: 146

Least: 82

JWC AV 100

RUCKS/MAULS - retained - lost

Ave: 74 91% 9%

Most: 77

Least: 69

66

KICKS

Ave: 26

Most: 41

Least: 18

25

GENERAL PLAY TURNOVERS

Ave: 10

Most: 13

Least: 8

10

LINEOUTS - own won - won on opp throw

71% 22%

JWC AV 78% 22%

SCRUMS - own won - won on opp put in

89% 7%

JWC AV 87% 13%

RESTARTS - long - short - regained

27 15 1 in 5

JWC AV 18 15 1 in 4

Tries Conversions Penalty goals Drop goals

PENALTIES F/K AGAINST

60 of 125 = 48%

YELLOW / RED CARDS

4 yellow 1 red

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 56

SECTION 3 – TEAM STATISTICAL SUMMARIES SOUTH AFRICA

POSSESSION SCORES Total points

15min 39 secs av per game

16min 46 secs opp av per game

RESULTS v USA v SCOTLAND v SAMOA v ENGLAND v WALES

WON 108 - 18 WON 72 - 3 WON 16 - 11 LOST 18 - 26 WON 42 - 21

For: 257 Against: 76

av per game 51 av per game 15

For: 37 73% success 5 = 42% success 1 of 1

Against: 8

PASSES

Ave: 91

Most: 107

Least: 59

JWC AV 100

RUCKS/MAULS - retained - lost

Ave: 63 93% 7%

Most: 88

Least: 43

66

KICKS

Ave: 23

Most: 32

Least: 16

25

GENERAL PLAY TURNOVERS

Ave: 13

Most: 20

Least: 9

10

LINEOUTS - own won - won on opp throw

88% 29%

JWC AV 78% 22%

SCRUMS - own won - won on opp put in

82% 13%

JWC AV 87% 13%

RESTARTS - long - short - regained

18 7 1 in 7

JWC AV 18 15 1 in 4

Tries Conversions Penalty goals Drop goals

PENALTIES F/K AGAINST

69 of 123 = 48%

YELLOW / RED CARDS

5 yellow 0 red

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 57

SECTION 3 – TEAM STATISTICAL SUMMARIES TONGA

POSSESSION SCORES Total points

15min 09 secs av per game

16min 38 secs opp av per game

RESULTS v N ZEALAND v ARGENTINA v IRELAND v JAPAN v FIJI

LOST 9 - 48 LOST 10 - 30 LOST 27 - 45 WON 17 - 5 WON 28 - 10

For: 91 Against: 148

av per game 18 av per game 30

For: 10 40% success 11 = 61% success 0 of 2

Against: 19

PASSES

Ave: 101

Most: 140

Least: 61

JWC AV 100

RUCKS/MAULS - retained - lost

Ave: 60 92% 8%

Most: 77

Least: 37

66

KICKS

Ave: 23

Most: 33

Least: 16

25

GENERAL PLAY TURNOVERS

Ave: 8

Most: 11

Least: 5

10

LINEOUTS - own won - won on opp throw

79% 14%

JWC AV 78% 22%

SCRUMS - own won - won on opp put in

87% 14%

JWC AV 87% 13%

22 14 1 in 2.8

JWC AV 18 15 1 in 4

Tries Conversions Penalty goals Drop goals

RESTARTS - long - short - regained PENALTIES F/K AGAINST

60 of 108 = 56%

YELLOW / RED CARDS

1 yellow 0 red

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 58

SECTION 3 – TEAM STATISTICAL SUMMARIES USA

POSSESSION SCORES Total points

17min 11 secs av per game

14min 53 secs opp av per game

RESULTS v S AFRICA v SAMOA v SCOTLAND v FIJI v JAPAN

LOST 18 - 108 LOST 6 - 20 LOST 14 - 41 LOST 22 - 27 LOST 8 - 44

For: 68 Against: 240

av per game 14 av per game 48

For: 7 43% success 9 = 69% success None

Against: 36

PASSES

Ave: 96

Most: 152

Least: 62

JWC AV 100

RUCKS/MAULS - retained - lost

Ave: 70 91% 9%

Most: 113

Least: 35

66

KICKS

Ave: 18

Most: 23

Least: 13

25

GENERAL PLAY TURNOVERS

Ave: 9

Most: 12

Least: 6

10

LINEOUTS - own won - won on opp throw

68% 22%

JWC AV 78% 22%

SCRUMS - own won - won on opp put in

89% 7%

JWC AV 87% 13%

RESTARTS - long - short - regained

23 24 1 in 3

JWC AV 18 15 1 in 4

Tries Conversions Penalty goals Drop goals

PENALTIES F/K AGAINST

67 of 133 = 54%

YELLOW / RED CARDS

2 yellow 0 red

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 59

SECTION 3 – TEAM STATISTICAL SUMMARIES WALES

POSSESSION SCORES Total points

17min 05 secs av per game

16min 06 secs opp av per game

RESULTS v ITALY v JAPAN v FRANCE v N ZEALAND v S AFRICA

WON 29 - 10 WON 33 - 10 WON 23 - 19 LOST 6 - 31 LOST 18 - 43

For: 109 Against: 113

av per game 22 av per game 23

For: 13 77% success 8 = 80% success 0 of 2

Against: 15

PASSES

Ave: 99

Most: 158

Least: 51

JWC AV 100

RUCKS/MAULS - retained - lost

Ave: 66 91% 9%

Most: 96

Least: 53

66

KICKS

Ave: 25

Most: 33

Least: 14

25

GENERAL PLAY TURNOVERS

Ave: 8

Most: 12

Least: 6

10

LINEOUTS - own won - won on opp throw

83% 14%

JWC AV 78% 22%

SCRUMS - own won - won on opp put in

88% 23%

JWC AV 87% 13%

15 18 1 in 18

JWC AV 18 15 1 in 4

Tries Conversions Penalty goals Drop goals

RESTARTS - long - short - regained PENALTIES F/K AGAINST

65 of 117 = 51%

YELLOW / RED CARDS

4 yellow 0 red

040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

PAGE 60

SECTION 4 – COMPARISON BETWEEN JWC 2008 & RWC 2007 A STATISTICAL COMPARISON BETWEEN JUNIOR WORLD CUP 2008 & RUGBY WORLD CUP 2007 The table below comprises a statistical comparison between JWC 2008 and RWC 2007. It can be seen that there is a close correlation of figures between the two tournaments, but with the senior tournament showing some 10% greater intensity of activity but fewer penalties. SUMMARY

Av POINTS per game % of points from TRIES Av TRIES per game Av PENALTY GOALS per game Av DROP GOALS

JWC 2008 40 matches 50 65% 6.4 3.1 1 every 8 games

RWC 2007 48 matches 52 60% 6.2 3.7 1 every 3.5 games

TRIES SCORED BY BACKS TRIES SCORED BY FORWARDS PENALTY TRIES

66% 32% 2%

61% 39%

MATCHES with points margin of 20 or less MATCHES won by team scoring most tries MATCHES where tries were equal MATCHES won by team scoring least tries

48% 92% 5% 3%

50% 81% 11% 8%

61% 68% 5 out of 26 (19%)

71% 72% 14 out of 83 (17%)

% of TRIES FROM LINEOUT POSSESSION % of TRIES FROM SCRUM POSSESSION % of TRIES FROM PENALTY/FREE KICKS % of TRIES FROM TURNOVER/ERROR % of TRIES FROM OPPONENTS KICKS % OTHER (opp scrum / opp l’out / restarts)

24% 22% 10% 18% 16% 10%

32% 18% 9% 17% 19% 5%

Av PASSES per game Av RUCKS/MAULS per game Av KICKS per game

200 132 48

224 144 56

Av BALL IN PLAY TIME

42%

44%

% of all PASSES MADE BY BACKS % of all PASSES MADE BY SCRUM HALF % of all PASSES MADE BY FORWARDS

39% 45% 17%

37% 44% 19%

Av LINEOUTS per game % of LINEOUT POSSESSION RETAINED Av SCRUMS per game % of SCRUM POSSESSION RETAINED Av PENALTIES per game % of RUCK/MAUL POSSESSION RETAINED

30 78% 21 87% 25 91%

31 80% 19 89% 19 92%

Yellow = 48 Red = 4

Yellow = 35 Red = 2

CONVERSION SUCCESS RATE PENALTY GOAL SUCCESS RATE DROP GOAL SUCCESS RATE

Total YELLOW AND RED CARDS 040708 IRB ANALYSIS JWC 2008 REPORT

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