Premiership Semi Final Wrap | Most effective ball in hand XV
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Premiership Semi Final Wrap | Most effective ball in hand XV
We have put together a matchday 15 from this weekend's Semi Final action of the most effective players with ball in hand between Bath, Bristol, Leicester and Sale this weekend. Diving through the stats we calculate the effectiveness based on the touches they had and what positive impact it had on the game on attack.
- Ellis Genge - Bristol
To say this was not a contest is an understatement with Genge touching the ball 15 times in the game, 10 more touches than any other loosehead. One bad pass and 4 of his 9 carries not making the gainline on the positive side he made four dominant carries, a line break assits, a try assist, scored a try and made three offloads. - Gabriel Oghre - Bristol
Oghre was up against Julian Montoya and the numbers show a very even battle. The Bear ultimately edged the Puma thanks to three defenders beaten to the one of Montoya and nine passes to two. - Thomas du Toit - Bath
Another big impact from the Springbok off the bench, he and George Kloska were in the running with it so tight that it was settled over the one bad pass from Kloska. Neither had an ineffective carry but du Toit made five carries over the gainline to the three from the Bear. - James Dun - Bristol
Dun was streets ahead of his competition with a try, clean break, seven dominant carries a line break assist and two offloads - Joe Batley - Bristol
It was hard to split between Batley and Jonny Hill from Sale but the Bear edged the Shark thanks to just one extra dominant carry and two gainline carries. Batley made six passes. Ollie Chessum from Leicester made more passes than any other 5 and was also in the running - Ted Hill - Bath
A four way shootout with Hill and Luatua the front runners over Hanro Liebenberg and Tom Curry. It was decided on fine margins with Hill and Luatua both making eight dominant carries but the two neutral carries from Luatua and try from Hill gave the Bath man the start. Hill also made two clean breaks and beat three defenders. - Fitz Harding - Bristol
Harding had a whopping 20 involvements with abll in hand and was up against Guy Pepper for this slot. Harding however made 11 passes, a line break assist, an offload and five dominant carries which gave him the edge - Jean Luc du Preez - Sale
du Preez beat five defendders on the day, more than any other 8. While he did produce one bad pass his line break assist, seven dominant carries, three offloads and six passes give him the number 8 jumper - Ben Youngs - Leicester
Challengeing Ben Spencer for the starting shirt according to the stats, Youngs edged the Bath 9 thanks to the one line break assist. While Youngs touched the ball well over half the times comparred to Spencer the retiring Tiger's legend was slightly worse off on kicks retained but both did not throw one bad pass. Youngs had 26 touches to the 70 of Spencer. Jack van Poortvliet had a mixed bag with 5 bad passes from his 79 touches plus 2 handling errors but had a try assist, line break assist and a higher percentage of retained kicks - Finn Russell - Bath
This was a straight shootout between Russell and Handre Pollard. Neither of the block buster 10's made any bad passes on the day with Pollard making two handling errors. Pollard however, had a 75% retention rate on his kicks in field, provided a line break assist and a try assist. Both had the same percentage of gainline carries but the Bath 10 edged his counterpart with three line break assists, two try assists and 14 points - Gabriel Ibitoye - Bristol
Seven defenders beaten, one line break assist, an offload and six dominant carries made this an easy call at 11 - James Williams - Bristol
While not producing a line break assist off his 20 passes he did make seven dominant carries. His clean break and lack of bad passes and handling errors means he edges Rekeiti Ma'asi-White and Cameron Redpath who were closest - Benhard Janse van Rensburg - Bristol
The Bear had only one challenger and it was another South African in Rob du Preez. The Bristol man edges the Shark thanks to seven dominant carries and less errors with ball in hand. Rob du Preez with three and Janse van Rensburg with two. Max Ojomoh made more dominant carries than either man and all three scored tries - Kalaveti Ravouvou - Bristol
While not scoring a try and up against Adam Radwan for this place, Ravouvou made 106 post contact meters, the most of any player this weekend, he alos provided a line break assist, made three clean breaks and beat 11 defenders. His day was not without mistakes making a bad pass and two handling errors - Tom de Glanville - Bath
Two try assists, a line break, two clean breaks and one retained kick were what edged this close battle. Both Heward and Carpenter made five dominant carries and Steward beat three defenders but ultimately it was the contribution from the man who made the least touches but the most impact out of the 15's
