England Losing out in the Numbers Game

They say that you can show anything with statistics if you know what you are doing. Well I don’t know what I am doing but I never the less decided to compile some statistics from the first three rounds of the 6 Nations matches (many thanks to RTE for the source stats link) They make (to me anyway), very interesting reading. I have picked out what I consider the most illuminating:

 

	Eng	Fra	Ire	Sco	Wal	Ita
offloads	16	24	24	30	37	19
tackles	190	316	216	304	246	284
line breaks	11	11	12	10	10	4
tackle success %	88	89	93	91	89	89
kicked	96	91	99	83	87	115
% kicked to touch	11	21	26	31	10	15
Mins possession	90	73	85	86	79	84
turnovers won	5	15	13	7	6	8

 

Interestingly, England has had to make fewer tackles than any other side. How come? Well, look at the possession stats. England has enjoyed more of the ball than any other team so far, a whopping 90 minutes with the pill in fact. Contrast this with France’s meagre 73 minutes and body sapping 316 tackles, yet they are in pole for the slam! Seems it is what you do with it that counts and here the numbers don’t lie. Kicking wise, it is untrue that England kick more ball than anybody else. In fact they are about average compared to the rest. Look closer though at the kicked to touch stat. Only Wales kick fewer balls out than England. Strange when England is meant to have such a good lineout. It also proves that England are kicking good ball away to the opposition.
Line breaks wise England are on par with the rest but offloads in the tackle number perhaps explains why England cannot convert chances. Fact is, England don’t offload! Even Italy does it more. Wales did it a whopping 37 times! This is one of the keys to the modern game and England are not doing it enough. The other key in the modern game is how effective you are at the breakdown in winning turnovers and here again, the stats are damning for England. The red rose boys are bottom of the table with a frankly pathetic 5 turnovers in their three matches so far (no surprise really given they continue to play without a genuine 7). Les Bleus show their ruthlessness with a winning 15 turnovers. So France has less possession than anyone else, but make count what they do have and are able to absorb opposition pressure and force turnovers, while England lumber along with oodles of the ball but no clue how to use it, and they are unable to break up opposition attacks at the breakdown. Hmm, for once the stats don’t lie.