Ireland offloaded 21 times in their five World Cup matches. Sonny Bill Williams has made 10 offloads in six matches (two starts) so far.
A look at the official Rugby World Cup statistics will tell you why the Southern Hemisphere heavyweights made the last four.
New Zealand, Argentina, Australia and South Africa top most of the statistical charts and did so even before the weekend’s semi finals.
Offloads
All Blacks powerhouse Williams has been mainly used as an impact sub, to devastating effect.
SBWÂ loves a good offload and manages to get one away, in the tackle, every 24 and a half minutes he is on the pitch.
Ireland’s players, combined, offloaded the ball 21 times – once every 285 minutes [4hrs 45mins].
Joint first with Williams is Fiji’s electric second row Leone Nakarawa [10]. Mamuka Gorgodze and Schalk Burger made 8 apiece. Ireland’s top offloaders were Jamie Heaslip, Robbie Henshaw and Jordi Murphy [3].
Carries over the gainline
Schalk Burger [37] leads the way here, one ahead of Japan’s excellent blindside Michael Leitch.
Next up is Kieran Read [31] of New Zealand and then Ireland’s Sean O’Brien [29]. Considering The Tullow Tank only started three games – he came off the bench against Romania – that is a commendable effort.
Just behind O’Brien is Williams again [28] while England’s top men for gains were Tom Wood [15] and Antjony Watson [14].
Clean breaks
Watson and Argentina’s Santiago Cordero top the charts with 11 breaks of the defensive line. The English winger was Stuart Lancaster’s best attacking weapon, whenever the ball managed to make its way to him.
Watson is the only Northern Hemisphere player in the Top 10. Juan Imhoff [Argentina] and the Kiwi pair of Nehe Milner Skudder and Ben Smith have all made 10 clean breaks so far.
The best of the Irish is Keith Earls, who made 5, while Luke Fitzgerald is on 4 [the final 2 coming in the quarter final loss to Argentina].
Metres made
Cordero in front but Smith and Milner Skudder not far behind. Mike Brown and Rob Kearney the best of England and Ireland respectively.
Tackles
Two South Africans atop the tackle mountain.
Lood de Jagr [74] and Burger [68] are only separated from Francois Louw [59] in the top four by Scottish tackling machine Johnny Gray.
Australia’s Kane Douglas, who endured a frustrating spell at Leinster last season, is fifth on 56 tackles. Dan Lydiate of Wales made 55 tackles in only three games.
Ireland’s top (successful) tacklers were Jamie Heaslip [48] and Iain Henderson [42]. Chris Robshaw [43] topped the English count.
Lineout steals
Between then, Kieran Read and Brodie Retallick have 11 lineout steals in #RWC2015
— Pat McCarry (@patmccarry) October 26, 2015
Read leads the way on 6 while 2014 Player of the Year Brodie Retallick has 5. In total, New Zealand have stolen 14 lineouts.
Ireland stole 10 lineouts in their five matches but spread the chaos around. Peter O’Mahony had 3 while Chris Henry had 2. The rest were single figure stealers.
Breakdown
Points
Nicolas Sanchez [89] kicked like a dream for Argentina while Greig Laidlaw [79] did likewise for Scotland.
At present, Ian Madigan [38] is our highest ranked player in 11th. Julian Savea is 10th with all of his 40 points coming from tries.
Keith Earls finished with 3 tries for Ireland. Australia’s Drew Mitchell and Adam Ashley Cooper have 4 apiece.
You can access the full RWC2015 stats here.
