Some Six Nations statistics, Round 1

We give some statistics from the matches in the first round of the Six nations - tight matches rather than matches of creativity and adventure.

Results:

Ireland vs Italy, 29-11
England vs Wales, 30-17
France vs Scotland, 18-9

Sanctions

There were two yellow cards - both for foul play. Gonzalo Garcia of Italy was sent to the sin bin for a dangerous tackle and Alun-Wyn Jones for tripping, as stupid an act as you will ever see on an international field. Both players cost points for their actions. Garcia was not expensive. In his absence the score was 7-5 to Ireland but Alun-Wyn Jones's absence was worth 17 points to England.

Yellow cards so far:

Gonzalo Garcia (Italy) - dangerous tackle (tipping)
Alun-Wyn Jones (Wales) - tripping

Penalties conceded

In this section we record the times a team was penalised.

* = points conceded

(i) Ireland vs Italy

Total number of penalties:  18

Ireland: 8
Italy: 10

The reasons for the penalties were as follows:

Ireland:

Tackle/ruck: 3 (O'Leary, O'Driscoll, McLaughlin*)
Off-side: 2 (O'Brien, David Wallace)
Scrum: 1 (Healey*)
Discipline: 2 (Cullen - air tackle; O'Leary - high tackle)

Italy:

Tackle/ruck: 4 (Dal Fava* 2, Castrogiovanni, Canale)
Off-side: 1 (Castrogiovanni)
Scrum: 4 (Castrogiovanni* 2, Aguero 2)
Discipline: 1 (Garcia - dangerous tackle)

Neither side missed a penalty kick at goal.

(ii) England vs Wales

Total number of penalties: 17

England: 10
Wales: 7

The reasons for the penalties were as follows:

England:

Tackle/ruck: 7 (Flood* 2, Care, Borthwick, Haskell, Shaw 2)
Off-side: 1 (Shaw)
Scrum: 2 (Wilson, Payne)

Wales:

Tackle/Ruck: 3 (Powell* 2, Roberts*)
Off-side: 1 (Powell)
Scrum: 1 (Paul James)
Discipline: 2 (Roberts - early tackle; Alun-Wyn Jones - trip)

Wales missed three penalty kicks at goal.

(iii) Scotland vs France

Total number of penalties: 15

Scotland: 5
France: 10

The reasons for the penalties were as follows:

Scotland:

Tackle/ruck: 2 (Brown* 2)
Scrum: 3 (Dickinson, Low*, Ford)

France:

Tackle/ruck: 8 (Harinordoquy** 3, Ouedraogo* 3, Nallet, Undetermined - three players)
Scrum: 1 (Domingo)
Discipline: 1 (Szarzewski - high tackle)

France missed a penalty kick at goal.

Tackles/Penalties

This gives the number of penalties at ruck/tackle as a fraction of the total number of penalties:

Ireland vs Italy: 7/18 =39%
England vs Wales: 10/18 = 56%
Scotland vs France: 10/15 = 67%

The ball was slowest in the match in which there were fewest penalties at the tackle.

Getting possession - line-outs, scrums, free-kicks, drop-outs, turn-overs

In this section the figures represent the number of times you get to play with the ball.

(i) Ireland vs Italy

Ireland:

Line-outs: 8 (1 free kick, 1 skew)
Scrums: 11 (5 reset, 5 collapses, 2 free kicks, 3 penalties)
Free-kicks: 3 (2 marks, 1 scrum)
Drop-outs: 1

Italy:

Line-outs: 19 (7 lost, 1 free kick)
Scrums: 7 ( 3 reset, 3 collapses, 2 penalties)
Free-kicks:  3 (1 scrum, 1 mark, 1 line-out)
Drop-outs:  0

(ii) England vs Wales

England:

Line-outs: 10 (1 lost, 1 quick)
Scrums: 13 (8 reset, 9 collapses, 4 free kicks, 2 penalties)
Free-kicks: 5 (2 marks, 3 scrums)
Drop-outs: 2

Wales:

Line-outs: 12 (4 lost, 1 quick, 1 skew)
Scrums: 6 (2 reset, 1 collapse)
Free-kicks: 1 (mark)
Drop-outs:  1

(iii) Scotland vs France

Scotland:

Line-outs: 12 (1 lost,)
Scrums: 11 (3 reset, 2 collapses,  2 penalties)
Free-kicks: 1 (mark)
Drop-outs: 3

France:

Line-outs: 9 (4 lost)
Scrums: 7 (6 reset, 5 collapses, 2 penalties)
Free-kicks: 1 (mark)
Drop-outs: 0

Stoppages (total of line-outs, scrums with resets, free kicks, penalties, drop-outs):

Ireland vs Italy:  78
England vs Wales:  83
Scotland vs France:  66

Kicks per match

Ireland vs Italy:  87

Ireland:  49
Italy: 38

England vs Wales:  75

England:  41
Wales:  34

Scotland vs France:  75

Scotland:  51
France: 24

Passes per match

Ireland vs Italy: 235

Ireland: 161
Italy: 74

England vs Wales:  245

England:  131
Wales:  134

Scotland vs France: 395

Scotland:  157
France: 138

Tackles made

Ireland vs Italy: 50 + 93 = 143
England vs Wales: 78 + 90 = 168
Scotland vs France: 91 + 112 = 203

Tackles missed

Ireland vs Italy: 4 + 5 = 9
England vs Wales: 8 + 9 = 17
Scotland vs France: 9 + 15 = 24

Tries

This is the number of tries each team scored.

(i) Ireland vs Italy:  4

Ireland:  3
Italy: 1

(ii) England vs Wales: 5

England:  3
Wales:  2

(iii) Scotland vs France: 2

Scotland:  0
France:  2

Tries/penalties scored

This gives the ratio of tries scored to penalties scored by each team:

Scotland: 0/3
Ireland: 2/5
France: 2/2
Wales: 2/1
Italy: 1/2
England: 3/3

The ratio of tries scored to penalties goaled is 10/16