RWC: A Tale Of Two Hemispheres

After a hugely disappointing weekend for the northern hemisphere nations we reflect on the data behind each of the Rugby World Cup 2015 quarter-finalists.

Before a ball was kicked in this year’s world cup campaign, there was a positive energy among the teams of the Six Nations. This year would be different.

Here we sit after the quarter final stages and not one Northern Hemisphere team remains.

The graphic above shows the combined attacking statistics for the eight quarter-final teams across the pool stages and the quarterfinals. It makes for stark reading.

The Northern sides carried about the same amount of ball, but with far lower reward. In a game measured in inches, the Southern Hemisphere teams made an extra metre on average from every carry in the game.

They are more likely to break clean of the opposition defence and most importantly of all they scored nearly twice the number of tries of the Northern Hemisphere teams during the tournament.

Source: Independent.ie