Let’s have one final look at the 2012 Super Rugby campaign, by looking at the aggregate statistics for the entire campaign. These numbers, as always, are based on Verusco’s week-by-week match analyses.
We’ll start by looking at games played and also individual minutes on the field. The top five players in terms of appearances were Anton Bresler, Marcell Coetzee, Keegan Daniel, Charl McLeod and Lwazi Mvovo, each of whom played at least some part in each and every one of the Sharks’ 19 Super Rugby games in 2012. Mvovo emerged as the most-played player, with a staggering 1500 minutes on the field out of a possible total of 1520. Next was Daniel (1459), followed by McLeod (1350), JP Pietersen (1307) and Coetzee (also 1307).
Moving on to defence, Marcell Coetzee made the most successful tackles (312), followed by Bresler (260), Daniel (223), Tim Whitehead (186) and Bismarck du Plessis (158). Kyle Cooper managed 100% tackle success in the only game he played all season, but taking him out of the equation, the statistically best tackler was Craig Burden, with 97%. Next best were Louis Ludik (96%), Jandre Marais (93%), Coetzee (92%) and Bresler (also 92%). Looking at mean time between tackles, Coetzee made a tackle, on average, for every 4.18 minutes of playing time. After that came Jean Deysel (4.28), Bresler (4.82), Jacques Botes (4.92) and Willem Alberts (5.30).
Looking at the negative side, Charl McLeod missed the most tackles (39), followed by Alberts (32), Bismarck du Plessis (28), JP Pietersen (27) and Coetzee (also 27). Pieter-Steph du Toit and Odwa Ndungane came in with the joint lowest overall effectiveness (70%), followed by Riaan Viljoen (73%), McLeod (76%) and Ryan Kankowski (77%). Every other player in the squad averaged over 80% across the whole campaign. A special shout-out must go to Louis Ludik – his mean time between missed tackles was a staggering 189 minutes.
Lwazi Mvovo made the most metres over the campaign (1157), followed by Pietersen (1120), Coetzee and Pat Lambie (1108 each) and Keegan Daniel (1087). Mvovo and Daniel each made 15 line breaks, followed by Whitehead (11), Pietersen (9) and Lambie (8). Coetzee made the most offloads (33), then Daniel (28), Pietersen (19), Mvovo (18) and McLeod (16). Excluding the halfbacks, the most passes were made by Daniel (196), Meyer Bosman (98), Steven Sykes (72), Bismarck (72) and Whitehead (71).
Keegan Daniel hit the most rucks over all (357), followed by Jacques Botes (337), Anton Bresler (307), Marcell Coetzee (247) and Steven Sykes (243). Looking at mean time between rucks, Botes hit one ruck for every 2.64 minutes on the field, followed by Marais (2.84), Ross Skeate (3.2), Deysel (3.63) and Dale Chadwick (3.71).
Penalties and lost possession obviously count against players and captain Keegan was no saint, giving away the most total penalties (29). After that came Bismarck (24), Sykes (19), Coetzee (11) and McCleod (10). Bismarck lost the most possession (43), followed by Daniel (26), McLeod (18), Pietersen (18) and Bresler and Mvovo, who were joint fifth with 14 each.
Looking at these numbers, our five joint season MVP’s are: (drum-roll)
Keegan Daniel
Marcell Coetzee
Anton Bresler
Lwazi Mvovo
JP Pietersen
with honourable mentions also going to Louis Ludik and Jacques Botes.
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Nice to see that our MVP list features our captain (respect, Spidershark!), two youngsters, and two wings (the supposed danger men).
Wow, Coetzee has really been valuable this season for us. Adn that for such a young player. To make 312 tackles with a 92% accuracy is spectacular. If I am not mistalen he also made the most tackles in the comp. Most offloads for the sharks. No wonder this guys has made it to the bokke squad. Go Coetzee!!!
Really glad for Bresler as well for making the step up. He is still young for a lock. Watch this space!!!
Coetzee and Bresler are in positions 1 and 2 overall in terms of tackles made.
Wow.. Awesome stats, thanks Rob!
Amazing stats. Especially Ludik’s 189mins between missed tackles.
Jacques Botes is the rucks-master.
Nice!
@Richard Ferguson (Comment 5) : i have a spreadsheet, if you want?
Keegan and Bissie cut down on their error rate in the second half of the season, stepping up as leaders.
Have you compiled these stats using a spreadsheet from the individual games? So a comparison between the Sharks and other teams would be a gigantic exercise?
The big problem for me is the Sharks leading all teams on missed tackles as well as most tackles made. If you rate us on tries conceded vs. tackles made it means we are not a very efficient team defensively – something that needs to be worked on next year.
Would love to see an SA by the numbers for Super Rugby, or even a positional comparison.
@Bokhoring (Comment 11) : sorry dude… I simply cannot spend the time required to do that 🙁
@King Shark (Comment 12) : Maybe if I get time I’ll work on writing a program to do it.
@robdylan (Comment 13) : Not expecting you 🙂 – would not even think of attempting it myself
@Bokhoring (Comment 15) : it would be cool though, wouldn’t it?
This kind of analysis, though, does make me realise that I’m doing the stats stuff wrong.
It makes no sense to compare each player in the team to each other, because different players do different things on the field. You actually need to compare players, per position, to the other performances in the same position for other teams. HUGE amount of work, though.
@robdylan (Comment 16) : Could probably whip up an app that extracts from all the Verusco pages – when I have a bit of time I will have a look at that
Thanks Rob, some very interesting reading in there!
Bismarck made 72 passes? 😯 Wonder what the number was for last season? Half?
@robdylan (Comment 16) : @Bokhoring (Comment 18) : That would be totally awesome.
@robdylan (Comment 17) : That’s a full time job.
Anyone keen on comparing Lambie’s stats to Morne Steyn’s???
…YES I AM:
I get my attacking stats from FoxSport so I urge someone to bring up Verusco’s equivalent.
LAMBIE:
– RM gained: 380m in 13 games (30m/game)
– 14 Tackle Busts & 4 Linebreaks
– 80%+ tackle efficiency
– Goal Conversion rate 80%
STEYN:
– RM gained: 150m in 17 games (9m/game)
– 6 Tackle busts & 1 Linebreak
– ???? DONT KNOW TACKLE EFFICIENCY
– Goal Conversion rate: 76%
Thanx Rob. As soon as we cut down on mistakes we became contenders!
On a completely unrelated topic, although also awesome, I was watching Euronews this morning.
In a story about the sentencing of the Pussy Riot women, at one stage they were interviewing a Russian policeman in Moscow, who thought the two year jail term was too lenient.
Right next to him, wearing some kind of Russian fur hat, stood some dude kitted out in an old RED-sponsored Sharks jersey. 😆 😆 😆
I would pick bresler before Kruger any day…matfield makes kruger spesial jumper, and there the buck stops.
I believe the 🙄 Sharks should come in at around 12-15 points today. They will be remembering the defeat in jhb by lions which i think was there turning point in the final of the super 15 which could have been in there favor