Worcester ran rampant on Friday night as they put London Scottish to the sword on Friday night, but what do the stats tell us about the game and where Scottish need to step up and where they fell down. Find out today in this week’s Stat Bunker brought to you by Cairnhill Structures.
For what was a relatively one sided games, a glance at the main stats tells a much more even picture. Scottish edged possession whilst Worcester edged territory. Scottish actually had more possessions in the opposition half whilst Worcester visited the Scottish 22 more often.
Both sides carried just over 100 times with only two carries separating them. Defensively there were a similar number of tackles made by both sides, Scottish’s completion rate did drop to 81% whilst Worcester made over 90% of their tackles.
The penalty count slightly favoured Scottish, conceding nine to Worcester’s eleven. However, Scottish turned the ball over more often than Worcester, giving up possession 14 times to the visitors 12.
So the question, remains if the top line stats show a relatively even game, what made the difference.
One area was the set piece, Scottish one less and 70% of their line out ball whilst Worcester completed on 80% of their throws in. The scrum was a deadlock with both sides winning 100% of their ball but Worcester were able to milk on penalty from the scrum.
Noah Ferdinand and Theo Vukasinovic were London Scottish’s stand out players from Friday night both scoring over 7 points on the Oval Insight’s impact scale.
Noah came in with a lovely try in the dying minutes of the game as well as running for 25 metres with the ball in hand and winning a turnover for his side.
Theo Vukasinovic also won a turnover for his side, whilst hitting 13 rucks, making 11 tackles and carrying on 5 occasions showing the effort he put in across the eighty minutes.
As stated, the top line stats show a relatively even affair between the two sides with both teams enjoying even amounts of possession and enough territory for it not to be too one sided. However, the scoreboard told a different story.
Friday’s game was a case of making the most of possession and one side doing more with the ball and their field position than the other.
Although Scottish had almost 50% of territory they only got in the Worcester 22 on 6 occasions meaning they averaged just over 1 point per entry. Conversely, Worcester got into Scottish’s 22 on 14 occasions averaging over 4 points per entry showing how they made the most of possession more effectivley.
Scottish also went away from their DNA as a kick heavy side, only kicking for just over 600m compared to Worcester who kicked for nearly 900m. There were also four kick errors for Scottish which put them on the back foot in this crucial part of the game.
Further to this, Worcester were able to retain six of their 30 kicks whilst Scottish only got two of theirs back, giving the away side crucial unstructured ball to attack with. This translated into linebreaks with Worcester making five across the eighty minutes and beating 28 defenders compared to Scottish’s two breaks and 11 defenders beaten.
Overall for Scottish, looking into this week it will be about making the most of the ball they get and containing the opposition when they don’t have it. Being more clinical and making life harder for the opposition can make a massive difference in just a week’s time!
