Stat Breakdown - Ireland vs England

We had an extremely close game today and both the scoreline and statistics reflect that. It was an epic encounter between two abrasive sides and neither wanted to give an inch to their opponents. The standalone stat today was tries scored. Ireland got one and England got none and that was the difference between the sides. Nonetheless we will examine the statistics in closer detail to see just how Ireland managed to nullify the threat of the English.

A big factor in how Ireland prevented England from scoring tries was the amount of possession they granted them. Ireland had a massive 61% possession today, to England’s 39%. A large amount of that was in the first period, when they held the ball for 74% of the 40 minutes. They backed up the old saying that you can’t score when you don’t have the ball.

Both defences were fantastic, which is reflected by the small amount of linebreaks in the game. Ireland made 2 to England’s 1. This shows just how hard both sides worked as there were tackles missed in the game but there was usually a teammate there to make the covering tackle. Ireland made 319m in total beating 15 defenders and England, deprived of ball, only managed 214m and 9 beaten defenders. Ireland managed to get over the gainline far more than their opponents (53-28).

When we look at defence we see that tackle success was similar for both teams. Ireland made 92% of theirs (99/108) and England made 90% (138/153). There was also very little between the sides in turnovers won. England made more in 5, but of course they had less ball which probably contributed to this. Ireland managed one less in 4 which shows just how well the new look back-row played.

The only other stat that is worth looking at is lineout success. Ireland were more effective, winning 93% on their own throw, England only managed to secure 82%. Both sides won all of their own scrums and 97%+ of their own rucks so they were even in that aspect of the game.

In conclusion, Ireland won this game due to their ability to hold onto the ball and not make many errors. England were lacking someone to create a break from nothing, but deprived of ball and up against a superb defence, they really couldn’t do much.