Let’s look at a few of the statistics to come out of the weekend win over the Stormers, courtesy of www.rugbystats.com.au.
We’ll need to change the way we do this, this year, since it seems Verusco no longer has their stats on-line. The thing to bear in mind with any statistics, though, is that they are always very subjective, depending on the means used to collate them. These numbers are probably, then, more interesting in a relative, than in an absolute sense.
Looking at defence, as we usually do first up, the Sharks’ best defender was Marcell Coetzee, who made 17 tackles and missed just 1 (94% effectiveness). Ryan Kankowski wasn’t far behind, with 16 tackles and no misses. Paul Jordaan and Franco van der Merwe each made 13 good tackles, again with no misses to their names. Missed tackles were low across the board, with no player missing more than 2 attempts. Jacques Botes came out with the lowest statistical success rate (67%), having missed 2 tackles from 6 attempts.
Marcell Coetzee made the most runs (9), followed by Jean Deysel(8), but it was Frans Steyn who made the most metres, with 40. Next best were Lwazi Mvovo (38m) and Deysel (33m). Louis Ludik made the only(!!!) line break of the game for the Sharks, while Steyn and Kyle Cooper made the only offloads (1 each).
Deysel hit the most rucks (9), followed by Coetzee and Beast Mtawarira (8 each).
Beast Mtawarira gave away 3 penalties, which was the most, while Craig Burden (5) conceded the most turnovers, with Coetzee giving away 3. In terms of total errors, it was Burden who recorded the highest total error score, with 5, just ahead of Mtawarira, Jannie du Plessis, Coetzee and Ludik (4 each). That’s made up by combining the number of penalties, turnovers and missed tackles conceded by a player..
These numbers make it hard to pick an MVP, with Coetzee’s high turnover count detracting from an otherwise great performance. We’re thus going to share the award between Marcell Coetzee and Jean Deysel, while handing the runner-up gong to captain Frans Steyn.
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Wow, 2 offloads the whole game and just one line break. Scintillating stuff. Just glad the sharks won. After a shocking game like that, being on the losing side has no silver lining.
Frans Steyn with most metres gained of 40…That’s scary…Marcel almost made as many tackles. If you start to count the metres gained by the tackler he could get very close to being the guys with most metres gained 😉
Impressed at Paul Jordaan’s stats, given the perception that defence is the Bushmaster’s Achilles heel
@Culling Song (Comment 3) : yes… turns out a lot of players did more in this game than I realised.
Funniest thing ever, though, is the guys including Duane “SeaBiscuit” Vermeulen in their teams of the week based on the supposedly great things he did on defence. Funny then to see that he recorded way fewer tackles than Kanko in the match 🙂
@robdylan (Comment 4) : Yes, but Seabiscuit has better hair than Hoff. Or at least his hair had been pimped.
@Culling Song (Comment 5) : sorry to say it, but I reckon Vermeuelen has to be the most overrated played in world rugby – bar none.
@robdylan (Comment 6) : I agree, he should rather become a prop for province.
@robdylan (Comment 6) :
Your official Big Fish badge is in the mail. 😎
@Big Fish (Comment 8) : Woot!! 🙂
@robdylan (Comment 6) : That may be, but he’s the poster boy for Vrystaat metrosexuals everywhere. Let’s see Ryan top that!