Statistics: Currie Cup Final

The Sharks outplayed Western Province to win Saturday's Currie Cup Final 30-10. We give some statistics from this match in Durban.

Spectators

52,000.

In Port Elizabeth on Friday night there were 45,000 when Eastern Province played the Pumas in a promotion-relegation match.

In Hong Kong there were 26,000 when Australia beat New Zealand.

In Christchurch, Canterbury played Wellington in an ITM Cup semifinal. There were 7 000 spectators.
In Auckland, Auckland played Waikato in a semifinal. There were 10,200 spectators.

South Africans still turn up.

Sanctions

Sanctionary cards

There were no cards, yellow or red.

Penalties conceded

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

Sharks vs Western Province

Total number of penalties: 21

Sharks: 10
Western Province: 11

The reasons for the penalties were as follows:

* = points conceded

Sharks:
Tackle/ruck/maul: 8 (Terblanche*, Bismarck du Plessis 2, Kankowski, Alberts, Hargreaves, Strauss, Kockott)
Offside: 1 (Hargreaves)
Discipline: 1 (Hargreaves - air tackle)

Western Province:
Tackle/ruck/maul: 9 (Habana*, De Villiers 2, Francois Louw 2, Harris*, Fondse, Aplon 2)
Discipline: 2 (Aplon* - striking an opponent; Burger - high tackle)

Sharks and Western Province each missed two penalty kicks at goal.

Tackles/Penalties

This gives the number of penalties at ruck/tackle as a fraction of the total number of penalties: 17/21 - 81%

That is exceptionally high.

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.

Sharks:
Line-outs: 3 (1 lost)
Scrums: 12 (2 resets, 1 collapse)
Free-kicks: 0
Drop-outs: 2

Western Province:
Line-outs: 14 (2 lost, 1 skew, 1 quick)
Scrums: 3
Free-kicks: 0
Drop-outs: 2

Stoppages (total of line-outs, scrums with resets, free kicks, penalties, drop-outs): 59

Ball in play: 17 minutes 43 seconds + 18 minutes17 = 36 minutes 00 seconds

This is six minutes longer than it was in play in the Bledisloe Cup but then the scrums were not as messy.

Using possession

Tries

This is the number of tries each team scored.

Sharks: 3 (McLeod, Lambie 2)
Western Province: 1 (Burger)

Tries/penalties scored: 3/3

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

Sharks: 3/3
Western Province: 1/1

The ratio of tries scored to penalties goaled is 4/4

Kicks

Sharks: 15
Western Province: 9

Passes

Sharks: 116
Western Province: 161

Runs

Sharks: 113 times for 574 metres
Western Province: 122 times for 651 metres

Over advantage line

Sharks: 43
Western Province: 38

Line breaks

Sharks: 1
Western Province: 2

Tackles made

Sharks: 131
Western Province: 144

Tackles missed

Sharks: 39
Western Province: 35

Rucks won

Sharks: 138
Western Province: 120

Turnovers won

Sharks: 12
Western Province: 9