Inside The Numbers Week 13: Attack and Defence
ByAs the Super 14 goes into its final week with seven teams still in the hunt for semi final spots, it’s interesting to take a look at what makes the difference between a good team and a poor team, besides the number of wins. So what’s more important, attack or defence?
Attack
| Team | Points For |
| Hurricanes | 343 |
| Chiefs | 328 |
| Blues | 327 |
| Bulls | 311 |
| Brumbies | 304 |
| Force | 295 |
| Lions | 261 |
| Sharks | 256 |
| Highlanders | 226 |
| Reds | 220 |
| Crusaders | 216 |
| Stormers | 207 |
| Waratahs | 203 |
| Cheetahs | 192 |
Well that almost looks like the points table, except what are the Blues doing in there? Even though they have no chance of making the semi finals, they have the third best attacking record in the tournament. Then there’s the Crusaders, who can secure a semi final spot with a bonus point win over the Blues, but sit eleventh in terms of attack. While it does help to have a good attcking team, it doesn’t guarantee success.
Defence
| Team | PA |
| Waratahs | 180 |
| Crusaders | 185 |
| Sharks | 212 |
| Stormers | 227 |
| Chiefs | 229 |
| Highlanders | 236 |
| Bulls | 245 |
| Force | 247 |
| Hurricanes | 251 |
| Brumbies | 296 |
| Cheetahs | 313 |
| Reds | 343 |
| Blues | 354 |
| Lions | 371 |
That’s a bit more like it.Those sitting in four of the top five spots are still in contention for the playoffs, although the Hurricanes sit nineth in this stat, which is something of a surprise.
Finally, what happens if we combine the two:
| Team | Difference |
| Chiefs | 99 |
| Hurricanes | 92 |
| Bulls | 66 |
| Force | 48 |
| Sharks | 44 |
| Crusaders | 31 |
| Waratahs | 23 |
| Brumbies | 8 |
| Highlanders | -10 |
| Stormers | -20 |
| Blues | -27 |
| Lions | -110 |
| Cheetahs | -121 |
| Reds | -123 |
It would appear that this is the one. The seven teams remaining in contention for the playoffs occupy the top eight places, with the Force, who fell out of contention last week, rounding out the top eight.
The Blues high position in attack but low position in defence, overall margin and the table shows that all out attack without a good defence is useless, while the high ranking of the Crusaders and Waratahs in the defensive stats shows that the old cliche: defence wins championships is still true today.
So perhaps this confirms what we’ve always known about rugby: a good attack is nice, but a good defence is better and if you can have both then your team could be a title contender.
Similar Posts:
- Inside The Numbers Week 12: Bonus Points
- Power Rankings: Who will make the top four?
- Power Ranking Super 14 Semi finals predictions
- Power Rankings: SAD v HoS The Final Showdown
- Hey! They stole my idea!
The Inside The Numbers Week 13: Attack and Defence by Hamish McBrearty, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
