Article summarises statistics provided by Opta and some from Warren Gatland; with headline stats:
- This RWC saw fewer offloads per game than any other.
- The average number of phases per possession dropped to 1.8, compared to 3 in 2019.
- Ball in play time dropped marginally to 34.18 minutes / game - but excluding halftime breaks some games took over 100 minutes total to play out.
- Tackles per game have grown to 169, up from 129 in 2019 & 119 in 2015.
- Kicks per game (might) have grown, Gatland suggesting 57 per game, the highest since 1995.
- 25% of all kicks are box kicks.
You are viewing a single thread.
View all comments 3 points
It’s interesting that phases per possion and number of kicks both suggest teams are kicking for territory more and not keeping the ball for as long - yet there are still more tackles than before.
Even the fact there’s more tackles during less ball in play time is surprising.
Yeah its weird huh; probably need to see turnover stats (and what sort of turnover it is) to see for sure what it is. Also the more kicks was a Warren Gatland stat from the first few rounds of the World Cup, whereas most of the others were from Opta and cover the whole tournament.
