Whilst the Super Rugby log might tell us quite a number of things of individual teams and how they performed, it is quite interesting to measure each country as a collective following the league rounds of the Super Rugby competition.
With the Super Rugby season quickly heading to a close, focus is quickly starting to shift to the Rugby World Cup to be hosted in New Zealand in September.
All three Southern Hemisphere sides are again tipped as favourites, more so because of the fact that the Rugby World Cup will be played in New Zealand, a Southern Hemisphere country.
As much as the Super Rugby log reflects the strength of individual teams, where the top 3 places are occupied by a franchise from each country from a total log points perspective (with less than 5 points between the top 3), the Rugby World Cup and each country’s national team will be a combination of all their franchises.
It is therefore quite interesting to note how each country, through all 5 franchises respectively, measured up.
Interestingly, the country that conceded the most tries in the competition is Australia, conceding 211 tries through 18 Rounds of competition. South Africa comes in second with 181 tries conceded and New Zealand takes the honours for the best defending nation only conceding 167 tries.
But it is the ‘tries for’ column which might surprise most with South Africa leading by scoring a total of 194 tries, against New Zealand’s 185 followed by Australia’s 180.
This statistic is also reflected in the total points scored and conceded by each country.
New Zealand only conceded 1697 points in 18 Rounds, while South Africa conceding almost 200 points more totalling 1880, but still less than Australia who conceded 1984 points.
South Africa leads the charge in points scored with 2009, followed by New Zealand on 1797 and coming in last again, although by a small margin, Australia only scoring 1755 points.
If you are interested, the average points difference for each country is lead by South Africa with 129, followed closely by New Zealand with a 100, with Australia falling out of the bus completely with a collective points difference of -229 (mainly thanks to the Rebels who has a negative 289 points difference).
The last interesting statistic I want to list is that of total log points achieved by each country as a whole.
It is quite interesting especially if you consider that it’s a total reversal from the team and which country they represent on the actual Super Rugby log! New Zealand has the highest total log points at 248, followed closely by South Africa on 239 with Australia coming in last on 217 log points.
So while New Zealand can possibly claim to be the top candidate for countries viewed as a collective on log points, South Africa may well lay claim to be the country playing the more enterprising rugby accumulating the most points and scoring the most tries with the best points differential.
Super Rugby Summary log per country
| PF | PA | PD | TF | TA | Pts | |
| New Zealand | 1797 | 1697 | 100 | 185 | 167 | 248 |
| South Africa | 2009 | 1880 | 129 | 194 | 181 | 239 |
| Australia | 1755 | 1984 | -229 | 180 | 211 | 217 |
What is also very interesting is that if we remove the bottom placed teams of each country, the log takes on a completely different look…
Log with bottom teams eliminated (Rebels (Aus), Chiefs (NZ) and Lions (SA))
| PF | PA | PD | TF | TA | Pts | |
| South Africa | 1658 | 1403 | 255 | 158 | 132 | 214 |
| New Zealand | 1465 | 1349 | 116 | 152 | 137 | 208 |
| Australia | 1474 | 1414 | 60 | 150 | 137 | 193 |
South Africa leads every stat apart from points conceded where New Zealand is just over 50 points better off.
** Bonus points were not considered due to the fact that some of these might have been scored in losses
Interesting perspective on things.
I recon that the Australian Conference, as a group, has been obviously worse than the other 2 tough Conferences, that said they still managed to get 2 sides into the play-off’s.
Difficult choice as to which country has been better overall, with New Zealand probably a whisper better than South Africa.
The question is how this transforrms to the International fold… and how the Countries harness that in their National sides.
Deans have these silky backline runners to pick and choose from… Beale, O’Connor, Cooper, Genia, Giteau, Ioane, Rod Davies, Lachie Turner… and so the list goes on… with possible thinner stock to choose from in the forwards.
The Bokke have absolute star quality players in every position, but the question mark hangs over coaching abilities (Tricky Dicky & Snorrie)… and picking the wrong players.
The All Blacks have strenght and dept all over… but will they again make the wrong choices rearding to too much rotation between Squad A and the fringe players?
Interesting times ahead!
I love stats and would have liked to play with numbers too. Just tell me how do you balance the sheet then with the one forfeited game of the Crusaders, it sort of disrupt any findings. In that match the score was made 0-0
from rugby365
permutations for this weekend’s games
..
1. If the Blues and Crusaders win, the Crusaders will play the Stormers and Blues will play the Reds.
2. BUT IF THE BLUES AND SHARKS WIN, THE BLUES WILL PLAY THE STORMERS AND THE SHARKS WILL PLAY THE REDS.
3. If the Crusaders and Waratahs win, the Crusaders will play the Stormers and the Waratahs will meet the Reds in what would be a dream scenario for Australian fans.
4. If the Sharks and Waratahs win, the Waratahs will play the Stormers and the Sharks will play the Reds.
…
sooooooooo
if scenario 2 does happen, we might (again in a wc year) have two sa teams in the final of the superrugby competition!!
#3
i think i’m about the only one who missed this permutations. now why was i under the impression that the reds would play either the tahs or blues and the stormers would face up against the sharks or crusaders?
..
anyway … just had a look at the superrugby schedule again and it says that the following will happen AFTER this wekend:
Semi 1 – Team 1 v Lowest ranked Qualifier winner
Semi 2 – Team 2 v Highest ranked Qualifier winner
..
sooooooooo if the sharks do win, they will definately face the reds
and the stormers will then, in the event of a sharks win, face either the blues or tahs at newlands!!
…
so
goooooooooooooooooooooooooo sharkies!!!
Here is a very interesting stat in regards to the competitiveness of the franchises.
If you look at the top three of each country the log point spread for:
Reds 66 – Force 37 = 29 point gap.
Crusaders 61 – Highlanders 45 = 16 point spread
Stormers 63 – Bulls 54 = 9 point spread.
Reds 13 wins – Force 5 wins = 8 match spread
Crusaders 11 wins – Highlanders 8 wins = 3 match spread
Stormers 12 wins – Bulls 10 wins = 2 match spread.
I know it is playing with stats, but it does tell me that of the three conferences, ours seems to be the toughest.
whaaap whaaap. Stats are very cool and all.
BUT, if you want to ask who is the best of from the SA conferences, you have to look at (IMVHO) the form of combinations and players in the last 18 weeks.
Lets take the backline for example. 9+10 for the Bulls have steered them to a 6 match winning streak since hitting their form. And then we have Pat Lambie in the wings. And if you really want to, you can fall back on James or even Grant. At Srumhalf we have almost too many second choice options.
In NZ, their KingPin Carter has been injured a lot, so its unsafe to say. Im also taking it that their two first choise scrummies will be Alby Matthewson and Weepu OR Captain “Asb oom Bakkies moet my nie seer maak nie, want ek sal dit fake.”
I suppose the country with the BEST bet going into the international season is Aus. Genia and Cooper, with Luke Burgess and James O’Conner as back ups are the best bets.
etc etc. Midfield I think SA knows exactly who we are going to take. In NZ they have no idea, with Smiuth being out most season, Nonu losing form most of the way and Freuan and Williams being young.
Aus, same situastion. No names REALLY jump to mind as a PAIR.
Sorry, that should read “best off from the SR conferences”
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