Whilst the Super Rugby log might tell us quite a number of things of individual teams and how they performed, it is quite interesting to measure each country as a collective following the league rounds of the Super Rugby competition.
With the Super Rugby season quickly heading to a close, focus is quickly starting to shift to the Rugby World Cup to be hosted in New Zealand in September.
All three Southern Hemisphere sides are again tipped as favourites, more so because of the fact that the Rugby World Cup will be played in New Zealand, a Southern Hemisphere country.
As much as the Super Rugby log reflects the strength of individual teams, where the top 3 places are occupied by a franchise from each country from a total log points perspective (with less than 5 points between the top 3), the Rugby World Cup and each country’s national team will be a combination of all their franchises.
It is therefore quite interesting to note how each country, through all 5 franchises respectively, measured up.
Interestingly, the country that conceded the most tries in the competition is Australia, conceding 211 tries through 18 Rounds of competition. South Africa comes in second with 181 tries conceded and New Zealand takes the honours for the best defending nation only conceding 167 tries.
But it is the ‘tries for’ column which might surprise most with South Africa leading by scoring a total of 194 tries, against New Zealand’s 185 followed by Australia’s 180.
This statistic is also reflected in the total points scored and conceded by each country.
New Zealand only conceded 1697 points in 18 Rounds, while South Africa conceding almost 200 points more totalling 1880, but still less than Australia who conceded 1984 points.
South Africa leads the charge in points scored with 2009, followed by New Zealand on 1797 and coming in last again, although by a small margin, Australia only scoring 1755 points.
If you are interested, the average points difference for each country is lead by South Africa with 129, followed closely by New Zealand with a 100, with Australia falling out of the bus completely with a collective points difference of -229 (mainly thanks to the Rebels who has a negative 289 points difference).
The last interesting statistic I want to list is that of total log points achieved by each country as a whole.
It is quite interesting especially if you consider that it’s a total reversal from the team and which country they represent on the actual Super Rugby log! New Zealand has the highest total log points at 248, followed closely by South Africa on 239 with Australia coming in last on 217 log points.
So while New Zealand can possibly claim to be the top candidate for countries viewed as a collective on log points, South Africa may well lay claim to be the country playing the more enterprising rugby accumulating the most points and scoring the most tries with the best points differential.
Super Rugby Summary log per country
| PF | PA | PD | TF | TA | Pts | |
| New Zealand | 1797 | 1697 | 100 | 185 | 167 | 248 |
| South Africa | 2009 | 1880 | 129 | 194 | 181 | 239 |
| Australia | 1755 | 1984 | -229 | 180 | 211 | 217 |
What is also very interesting is that if we remove the bottom placed teams of each country, the log takes on a completely different look…
Log with bottom teams eliminated (Rebels (Aus), Chiefs (NZ) and Lions (SA))
| PF | PA | PD | TF | TA | Pts | |
| South Africa | 1658 | 1403 | 255 | 158 | 132 | 214 |
| New Zealand | 1465 | 1349 | 116 | 152 | 137 | 208 |
| Australia | 1474 | 1414 | 60 | 150 | 137 | 193 |
South Africa leads every stat apart from points conceded where New Zealand is just over 50 points better off.
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Sharks arrived safely in Sydney
That’s what happens when you have so many under performing Aussie teams 😛
@Charlie (Comment 1) : Great 😎
Very interesting but we can’t read to much into this as the majority of a team’s games have been against a team from their own country. In the old Super 14 format these stats would have meant more. If you know what I mean.
Another interesting fact is when you take the team lowest on each conference, and use the one with the highest log points as cut off, then New Zealand ends up with 5 teams, Sa with 4 and Aus with only 2 teams who has 40 or more log points at the ends of the season…
@Uli (Comment 5) : congrats! First time I’ve ever had to read a comment more than 3 times to understand it
@robdylan (Comment 6) : haha, me too. It is a good “fact” tho
@robdylan (Comment 6) : Still don’t get it…
Points difference is a good measure. The local derbies cancel each other out, +7 one side and -7 to the other. That means that south african teams scored 129 points more than they conceded against foreign opposition. For 8 matches, that is a difference of 16 points per game.
@Ossa (Comment 9) : Whoops 😳 8 * 5teams… 40 matches = 3points.
@Ossa (Comment 8) : Yeah…need a diagram pluuueessee…
So the aussies suck… and thus the reds and tahs don’t deserve to be there cause they play the weakest opposition twice.
@King Shark – Kanko at 12! (Comment 12) : hhhmmm.. good point!
@robdylan (Comment 6) : hehe
@King Shark – Kanko at 12! (Comment 12) : Before we get too high and mighty, for many many many of the past seasons of super rugby, SA teams have camped at or near the bottom. Recently the Lions and Cheetahs, before that, a season or two of the Sharks and Lions, before that the Bulls…
@Pablo Dinero (Comment 15) : Thats not the point, we are at least 2 teams better than aus in this Super 15 and New Zealand 3 teams better than the aussies.
In fact, looking at the bottom 4 teams in super rugby from 1996 – 2010… SA teams finished last 8 out of 11 times in super 12 and 3 out of 5 times in super 14
Super 12
1996 -Transvaal 10, WP 11
1997 – None in bottom 4
1998 – Stormers 9, Bulls 11, Cats 12
1999- Cats 11, Bulls 12
2000 – Bulls 11, Sharks 12
2001 – Bulls 12
2002 – Sharks 10, Cats 11, Bulls 12
2003 – Stormers 89, Sharks 11 Cats 12
2004 – Cats 12
2005 – Stormers 9, Cats 11, Sharks 12
Super 14
2006 – Stormers 11 Cats 13
2007 -Cheetahs 11 Lions 12
2008 -Cheetahs 13 Lions 14
2009 -Lions 12, Cheetahs 14
2010 – Cheetahs 11 Lions 14
@Ossa (Comment 8) : Look at the Conference logs, now see who ended last in each log but with the most points gained from the league phase, that would be the Chiefs with 40 points.
Now use the 40 points as a minimum barrier requirement for teams and apply it to each log.
You then lose the lions from the SA log,
The Brumbies, W F and Rebels from the Aus log and none from the NZ log.
You then sit with 5 teams from NZ,
4 from SA and only 2 teams from Aus.
Those figures shows that New Zealand teams played better overall than all other teams, then SA and finally Aus basically sucked.
@Uli (Comment 16) : Agreed, but people have been quick to point out how the Aussie teams are an embarrassment, whereas in the past it has generally been the SA teams..
@Pablo Dinero (Comment 19) : Agreed
@ Rob: “What is also very interesting is that if we remove the bottom placed teams of each country, the log takes on a completely different look…”
So what you are saying is that the Lions are to blame? 😆
@Farlington (Comment 21) : Look at post 17. They have been for the majority of super rugby!!
The other interesting fact from the Super 15 is that the top 3 teams who managed to score 4 try bonus points with only a maximum of 6 times in this super 15, namely the Sharks, Blues and Waratahs.
Now if you take each conference bonus points total into considerations it goes like this.
SA = 20
NZ= 20
Aus= 16 (With WF not able to score one bonus point for tries the whole super 15)
Another thing I just thought of is that this years super 15 must have had the most games ending as a draw as a result in one season with a total of 5 games.(to be confirmed but highly likely)
@Uli (Comment 18) : O Okay, was that so hard to explain the fist time… 😆
NZ’s weakest team is better than three other teams
@Ossa (Comment 25) : 4 other teams…
@Pablo Dinero (Comment 17) : The Cats really sucked! 😯 They even suck today, although they suck individually now. 😈
Another ‘interesting fact’ is if you take the average of all the totals above, times that by 4, subtract 456, then times your answer by the square root of Wednesday, divide that answer by August, look due west and say ‘super rugby’ three times together with the correct answer, the ghost of Danie Craven will appear through the nearest mirror.
@McLovin (Comment 28) : Hoohaa!!
@McLovin (Comment 28) : WOW I never thought of that…. 😛
@McLovin (Comment 28) : lies! Damn lies! 🙂
@McLovin (Comment 28) : Now THAT I undertsand… 😆
This is all very interesting and leaves a warm, fuzzy feeling about the Boks’ chances…but then you look over and see our coach….
@robdylan (Comment 31) : and statistics…
Is the Chartis Cup on TV in SA?
World XV v Asian Barbarians in Hong Kong
AJ Venter, Josh Lucy, Deon Carstens, Ben Gollings all in the World XV
Asia pacific Barbarians sorry
monty dumond has left the EP Kings to join the Griquas. we wish him well & thank him for his service to our cause.
cheers monty
@Megatron (Comment 37) : Hey Congrats on winning the Nations Cup BTW.
EPI TAIONE is also in there. 😯
@McLovin (Comment 28) : Just read this now. Too funny.
@KSA Shark © (Comment 38) : thanks ol dawg! jy is nie my baas nie