South Africa retained their third place position on World Rugby’s rankings with their 2-1 series win against Ireland. They are almost 10 points behind the ever-dominant All Blacks, and 3 points behind England. Ireland are in 6th place. That’s one way of looking at who dominates whom in world rugby at the moment, and suggests that South Africa was streets ahead of Ireland. However, the match statistics as compiled by Vodacom Rugby show that the Springboks were fortunate to have won that series, in which Ireland dominated possession and territory handsomely. Had it not been for a dogged Springbok defense, Ireland would have made rugby history. – David O’Sullivan
From Sport24
Cape Town – The Springboks may have emerged as 19-13 winners against Ireland in Port Elizabeth on Saturday, but the statistics suggest that they had a tough day at the office.
The win ensured that South Africa won the series 2-1 as the Allister Coetzee era got off to a shaky start, but the Boks did not put in a single complete performance over the three matches.
The statistics – particularly possession and territory – from Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium are scary.
According to Vodacom Rugby, the Springboks had just 32% possession to Ireland’s 68%.
The Boks were also bossed in the territory stakes – Ireland winning that battle with 73% to South Africa’s 27%.
The possession stats reflected in the amount of tackles the Boks were forced to make.
In the end, it was the Springbok defence that ultimately won them the game.
The Boks made a mammoth 182 tackles in the match as Ireland made just 81. The Boks also missed 25 tackles as Ireland missed just 5.
England moved up to 2nd, behind New Zealand in the latest World Rugby rankings as the Springboks remain in 3rd place #SSRugby
— SuperSport Blitz (@SuperSportBlitz) June 20, 2016
The attacking stats also favour Ireland heavily.
The visitors carried the ball 160 times to South Africa’s 67 and made 452 metres to South Africa’s 154.
South Africa conceded 13 penalties to Ireland’s 11, and the home side were fortunate that Ireland’s ball handling let them down at some crucial times.
Ireland knocked-on 14 times while the Boks knocked-on just 6 times.
Fortunately for the Boks, there is only one statistic that matters.
But looking ahead to the Rugby Championship in August, there is a lot to work on for Coetzee and his men. – Sport24
