Here's the Ruck engagement data for the All Blacks against Argentina last week.
I'm struggling to get enough motivation to gather the same for the Pumas.
Remember:
- Early means 1st or 2nd of player’s team AFTER the ball carrier has been tackled and brought to ground.
- Impact means active engagement: strong physical contact, changed shape of ruck, clean-out, protecting ball etc. (more than hand on someone’s bum or arriving after the hard work has been done). Yes it’s subjective - but as I collect all data at least it’s consistent.
- Impact DOES NOT equate to Effectiveness. I’ve concluded that coming up with an effectiveness measure is just too hard in the time that I have available – but open to suggestions.
I was surprised by a number of aspects:
- How little ruck work was done by Read.
- Hard rucking front row.
- Impressed by the work rate in the 10-20 min period.
- Impressive work rates of McCaw and Mealamu.
- How little was offered by the replacements.
Read did have the equal 2nd highest Tackle count at 10 (nil missed), 2LOW and 12 carries for 68m (2 Def Beaten, 3 Clean Breaks, 17 passes and 3 Off Loads).
He's good!!
I intend to gather data for both teams for the Boks v ABs Test