Stats - Tri-Nations, Week 1

It was a big collision in wet, windy Wellington and the All Blacks collided better than the Springboks and deserved their `19-8 victory. We give some statistics from the match.

Sanctions

There was fighting but no yellow card. But there was a citing which resulted in the smallest possible suspension - one week. Oh, it could have been smaller, week could have been day. It seems that slap on the wrist had not become a wrap over the knuckles - with a length of cottonwool. And the finding was "an act contrary to good sportsmanship", not a dangerous tackle. In the match he was penalised for a dangerous tackle.

Cards

None

Citing with suspension

Brad Thorn (New Zealand) - an act contrary to good sportsmanship, suspended for a week.

Penalties conceded

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

* = points conceded

Total number of penalties: 13

New Zealand: 5
South Africa: 8

The reasons for the penalties were as follows:

New Zealand:

Off-side: 2 (Hore, Wulf)
Scrum: 1 (Somerville*)
Discipline: 2 (Thorn - dangerous tackle; Thomson - obstruction)

South Africa:

Tackle/ruck: 2 (Van Niekerk, Habana)
Off-side: 3 (Botha* 2, Smit*)
Discipline: 3 (James - Late tackle; Matfield - air tackle; Burger* - early tackle)

Each side missed a penalty kick at goal.

Free kicks conceded:

New Zealand: 8 (7 tackles, 1 scrum)
South Africa: 8 (7 tackles, 1 scrum)

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.

New Zealand:

Line-outs: 18 (6 lost, 2 quick)
Scrums: 13 (1 collapse, 1 free kick)
Free-kicks: 8 (7 tackles, 1 scrum)
Drop-outs: 3

South Africa:

Line-outs: 17 (2 lost)
Scrums: 10 (2 reset, 1 collapse, 1 lost, 1 free kick, 1 penalty)
Free-kicks: 8 (7 tackles, 1 scrum)
Drop-outs: 0

The scrums were more orderly than usual.

Of the free kicks, one was turned into a scrum.

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

New Zealand vs South Africa: 81

Tries

This is the number of tries each team scored.

New Zealand vs South Africa: 2

New Zealand: 1
South Africa: 1

Tries/penalties scored

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

New Zealand: 1/4
South Africa: 1/1

The ratio of tries scored to penalties goaled is 2/5