Welcome to this week’s stat bunker as we take a look back at last week’s fixture against Ampthill and dive into the stats to see what they tell us about the game and where it was won and lost, brought to you by Carinhill Structures. If you haven’t already check out the match highlights here.
Top Line Stats
As the score line suggests the top line stats tell a very even picture of the game. Only 2% separated the sides in terms of possession, London Scottish just edged the territory battle and spent slightly longer in attack.
London Scottish also appear to have the upper hand when it came to the attacking stats. More metres carried, more clean breaks, better gainline success percentage and more offloads.
It was also a very free flowing and open game, only 23 turnovers between the two sides and only 11 penalties conceded across the entire 80 minutes. These sit way below league averages for the season which are around 27 and 20 respectively.
Set Piece Numbers
It’s hard to separate the teams at the set piece as well demonstrating what a tight fought tussle this game was. Both sides struggled slightly at the line out with neither side able to hit and 80% success rate but only 4% separated the two sides with Ampthill slightly edging it.
Both sides were perfect on their own ball at the scrum, London Scottish the only side to win a free kick and no penalties conceded at scrum time.
Scottish edged the battle at the maul with both sides attempting to maul 5 times and Scottish doing so for 30 metres whilst Ampthill only for 19. However, Ampthill were the only side able to win a penalty in this area.
Individual Stars
Matt Wilkinson and Ludo Kolade were the individual stars for the Exiles notching up impact scores of 8.7 and 8.9 respectively. Wilkinson put in 10 carries, 8 tackles, 71 metres made and 19 rucks in his faultless display whilst Kolade would set up and score a try himself, alongside 12 carries, 57 metres mate and 5 defenders beaten.
Hayden Hyde also stood out for the Exiles with his try, 134m carried, 14 carries, and 10 defenders beaten. Elsewhere Tom Marshall topped the tackling stats with 14.
Where the Game was Won and Lost
Scottish controlled the first half and lead going into the break. This was built on the back of a strong attacking display. 5 clean breaks to 3 which got them on the front foot. This combined with strong ruck success and carrying numbers allowed them to get into the game fast.
The second half carried on in much the same vein as Scottish continued to makes breaks and beat defenders. However, they were not able to come away with the points they needed. In the final quarter of the match Ampthill gave away four penalties and Scottish made 4 breaks and beat 11 defenders but were unable to come up with more than one crucial score.
