A question I often find myself asking is "Where are we compared to the other premiership teams?". It's all very well saying we're playing badly, but do we know where the problems are? Do we know what the winning teams do that we don't? Is our discipline the worst in the premiership?
Unfortunately, I can't find any records of what the premiership table looked like halfway through previous seasons. I could reconstruct them from scratch, but you lot aren't worth the effort! (only joking!). So I decided to look at the team stats to date. Yes, lies, damn lies and statistics, but it's all I have readily available. Thanks to RugbyPass.com for providing these stats, a website well worth checking out even if you're not going to stream games from there.
Anyway, here are the statistics for Harlequins and the ranking out of 12 where those statistics come compared to other teams. Of course you have to know that coming first in tackles missed is different to coming first in tackles made!
Note: there's a button top right on the spreadsheet page to download the spreadsheet if you want to do your own analysis!
A few points I take from these stats (feel free to shoot me down)
Attack - 2nd in carries but 9th in metres, suggests to me a blunt attack. Worth noting we have one of the lowest kicks from hand figures, presumably because we're trying (unsuccessfully) to run it.
Team Play - Top in offloads, magnificent! Ruck success of 97% (4th), that surprises me. Lineout success of 88% doesn't surprise me but the fact it's ranked 6 does. So we're only mediocre in lineouts! We have nearly the most scrums in the premiership, but the worst win %age. I know it's only 8 scrums, but these things cost points.
Defence - Least number of tackles, 2nd highest tackles missed, worst tackle success% in the premiership. I wonder if this could be our problem? Couple that with being generous on turnovers conceded and poor on turnovers won, I see areas for improvement.
Discipline - Pretty bad. 3rd top in penalties conceded. 3rd top (yes this is 3rd equal) in yellow cards. Need to sort this and quick!
Whilst there are certainly some positives (rucks and line outs as an example) the fact that we have such a poor defence and such a poor disciplinary record means we need to have the best attack in the division just to make up for that.
And a blunt attack means we aren’t getting that.
I hope someone at the club is looking at stats like this and trying to sort it out. But as these things have all been problems for a while I’m not sure they are.
talkshowhost86 Good analysis and an interesting read.
I hope someone at the club is looking at stats like this and trying to sort it out. But as these things have all been problems for a while I’m not sure they are.
Why would they do that? It’s not as if we’re talking about professional rugby coaches who spend all their working life looking to improve the performance of their team.
So, we carry and offload loads, but don't get anywhere with those carries and offloads, then lose any attacking lineouts, or give away soft penalties? When we are defending, we miss loads of tackles. Add in the points we concede and what those stats show is what is blatantly apparent to all but the most blindly optimistic fans.
Luckily our coaching is superb and the weak stats are purely due to overly pessimistic fans and injuries, so we're nailed on for top 4
talkshowhost86 Good analysis and an interesting read.
Whilst there are certainly some positives (rucks and line outs as an example) the fact that we have such a poor defence and such a poor disciplinary record means we need to have the best attack in the division just to make up for that.
And a blunt attack means we aren’t getting that.
I hope someone at the club is looking at stats like this and trying to sort it out. But as these things have all been problems for a while I’m not sure they are.
Lineout success % I'd all well and good, but this is one of those stats which doesn't tell the whole story. I'd love to see a stat for % lineout/mail success in opposition 22.
Worst tackles in the league, worst scrum in the league - but it doesn't matter as long as we finish 5th...
And the 9th in metres really believe the Nev attack genius thing too. Rowntree, Evans and Easter are all clearly struggling. And we know mapletoft is a spoofer. So that's good.
Bottom line is we have no killer instinct- we are going nowhere.
Our defence is breached too easily and our discipline is poor.
The league table doesn't lie.
RleQ
They can be interpreted in many different ways and I am sure that the coaches at Quins will have similar data. A case in point is the lineout stats. It would be interesting to know how many metres teams make from lineout drives.
A friend of mine from Newlyn goes to watch Exeter most home games and pointed out that the Chiefs make a hell of a lot of ground from lineout drives. They throw a lot of ball to the back and the forwards from the front and middle of the lineout peel round really quickly and hit the maul with real pace and ferocity before the opposition can set their defence.
1ndeed 1908, whereas our driving ability seemed to stop when John Kingston stopped being forwards coach.
Can't agree with RlQ regarding "the league table doesn't lie", but as I say I have no proof of that. Just a gut feel it's too variable to be an accurate predictor. As I say, 10 points more and we'd be third in the table!
And yes, I'd love to see the stat for how often we get a lineout in the oppo 22 and then screw it up! Ditto how often we get to the 5 metre line but no further.
I'd be interested to see the stat that shows the number of lineouts we lose in the 10m closest to the opposition tryline. We're surely No1 in that which would limit the effectiveness of our driving maul.
DOK 1ndeed 1908, whereas our driving ability seemed to stop when John Kingston stopped being forwards coach.
Can't agree with RlQ regarding "the league table doesn't lie", but as I say I have no proof of that. Just a gut feel it's too variable to be an accurate predictor. As I say, 10 points more and we'd be third in the table!
And yes, I'd love to see the stat for how often we get a lineout in the oppo 22 and then screw it up! Ditto how often we get to the 5 metre line but no further.
10 points more and we'd be third? But we don't have 10 points more. It's not like we've had an unfair 10 point deduction for a technical breach of kit regulations.
We don't have those ten extra points due largely to poor defence, dreadful ability to score from attacking line outs. If other teams around us had ten points more then where would we be?
Thanks for the stats though. Interesting, if depressing
Sorry T-Bone, I wasn't suggesting we deserved 10 points more. I was saying the table is too volatile to use 9th place as a measure that we're a 9th best team or will end up 9th.
We have the Lions forward coach 2 Lions props and 2 Ex intrernatuinal Captains in 2nd and back row.
Given these stats our quality of forward play is awful..Behnd only Care and Smith offer a threat.
Gross underperformance.There is a cultural and mental malaise that only a major change of top personnel can fix.We have no hope with the current lot
Good analysis.
Seems we can’t defend, give away cards like Christmas and scrums are a bit poor. Defence coach failings or a team not playing as a team?
When we are constantly playing a 2 4 2 system leaving the centre of the park to be defended by the backs it’s no wonder we are so woeful defensively, at what point has having front and back row on the wings been successful?
For me, games are primarily won and lost on attack, defence and turnovers. Our attack shows as being mid-table and these numbers show tbat, statistically, we have the worst defence. I must say, we knew it was bad, but those rankings are scary.
The one that worries me, though, is turnovers. We're in the bottom 4 for both turnovers won and lost. If you can't keep the ball, it doesn't matter how good your attack is. And if you keep giving the ball away and can't tackle, you'll concede 30+ points a game.
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