AND HERE’S WHY.
The conservative tactics that now dominate rugby have been reflected in the statistics from the Rugby World Cup in France.
According to data from Opta, there are now fewer offloads per game than at any point in Rugby World Cup history, while the average number of phases per possession plummeted to 1.8 in 2023, compared to 3 in 2019.
Box kicking, meanwhile, has continued to rise, with 25% of all kicks now classified as box kicks, compared to just 5% in the first Rugby World Cup in 1987.
Ball-in-play time at the Rugby World Cup in France was 34.18 minutes per game, Opta said, a marginal decrease from the 34.21 recorded at the 2019 edition, the highest on record. That’s fantastic. Nearly 34 minutes of tremendous excitement. NOT.
While 34.18 per game is still historically high, the decrease will still be a concern to the game lawmakers as some games at the Rugby World Cup took more than 100 minutes to conclude, excluding the halftime breaks.
There were 30 offloads per game at the 1987 Rugby World Cup, Opta said, but that has now fallen to just 13.8 at the 2023 Rugby World Cup, down from 17 in 2011, 16 in 2015 and 15.1 in 2019.
Warren Gatland wrote recently that across the eight games of the opening round, there was an average of 56.9 kicks per game, the highest total since the 1995 World Cup in South Africa.
There were 39.3 kicks per game at the 2015 Rugby World Cup record, the lowest on record.
The risk-free approach adopted by teams in France was also reflected in another statistic – the tackle count.
Tackle numbers exploded in 2023, leaping to 169 per game, up from 129 in 2019 and 119 in 2015. Remarkably, there were only 48 tackles per game at the 1987 Rugby World Cup.
The statistics make worrying reading for the future of the game, with research showing the tackler is at greatest risk of head injury – and the volume and intensity of tackles is clearly rising.
The law makers should be very proud of the game they have killed.
Do not mention the TMO please. That is a disgrace.
But all is not lost. Rugby League starts soon and this is excitement.
This comes from a fellow who has been involved in union for 65 years. Not any more.
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