Article summarises statistics provided by Opta and some from Warren Gatland; with headline stats:

  1. This RWC saw fewer offloads per game than any other.
  2. The average number of phases per possession dropped to 1.8, compared to 3 in 2019.
  3. Ball in play time dropped marginally to 34.18 minutes / game - but excluding halftime breaks some games took over 100 minutes total to play out.
  4. Tackles per game have grown to 169, up from 129 in 2019 & 119 in 2015.
  5. Kicks per game (might) have grown, Gatland suggesting 57 per game, the highest since 1995.
  6. 25% of all kicks are box kicks.
  • @Rokk
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    37 months ago

    It’s interesting that phases per possion and number of kicks both suggest teams are kicking for territory more and not keeping the ball for as long - yet there are still more tackles than before.

    Even the fact there’s more tackles during less ball in play time is surprising.

    • @TagMeInSkipIGotThis@lemmy.nzOP
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      17 months ago

      Yeah its weird huh; probably need to see turnover stats (and what sort of turnover it is) to see for sure what it is. Also the more kicks was a Warren Gatland stat from the first few rounds of the World Cup, whereas most of the others were from Opta and cover the whole tournament.