World Cup Player Stats To Date

For all you 'fact' people out there, these are from the OptaPro Top-25 leaderboards and are correct at the date of posting:

1. Most Carries:
Schalk Burger (South Africa) 47
Mike Brown (England) 43
Michael Leitch (Fiji) 41

NZ Benchmark: Ben Smith, Julian Savea (NZ) 34, Sonny Bill Williams (NZ) 32.

2. Most Tackles Made:
Mamuka Gorgodze (Georgia) 40
Michael Leitch (Japan) 37
Richie Gray (Scotland) 37

3. Most Defenders Beaten:
Brown 16
Telusa Veainu (Tonga) 14
Santiago Cordero (Argentina) 13

NZ Benchmark: Nehe Milner-Skudder (NZ) 12

4. Most Metres Gained:
Veainu 338
DTH van der Merwe (Canada) 328
Brown 323

NZ Benchmark: Smith 239, Julian Savea 225.

5. Most Offloads:
Leone Nakarawa (Fiji) 22
Williams 20
Gorgodze 14
van der Merwe 14

6. Most Line Breaks:
Brown 8
Anthony Watson (England) 7
Veainu 6
Milner-Skudder 6

NZ Benchmark: Smith, Savea 5, Aaron Smith (NZ) 3.

7. Most Turnovers Won:
David Pocock (Australia) 8
Gorgodze 7
Nakarawa 7

NZ Benchmark: Kieran Read (NZ) 5, Jerome Kaino, Dane Coles (NZ) 3.

Shows that for all England may have failed to progress, Mike Brown is expressly not to blame.

At this rate we wont make it past pool play.

Rugby is a team game, and in tournament play the only statistics that counts is Win / Loss.

that's nice

aucklandlaurie wrote:
At this rate we wont make it past pool play.

Rugby is a team game, and in tournament play the only statistics that counts is Win / Loss.

Indeed and those stats just really hightlight the teams that didnt have the luxury to rotate their squad so far.

You're all right. What was I thinking?

Shows that for all England may have failed to progress, Mike Brown is expressly not to blame

And why so many England fans wish we had more players like him with guts, heart, aggression and skill....

Imagine him in a decent side....wow.

Geordiefalcon he has all that but Brown IMO does lack a bit of game management and vision.

Don't get me wrong I think Brown's a good player but he's not perfect.

What a player Gordgoze is. Awesome.

Schalk Burger and Pocock are having a big influence on this competition too.

Milner-Skudder has been one of my favourites to watch. If he'd been playing agaisnt Georgia you'd have to think he'd be higher up #3.

beshocked wrote:Geordiefalcon he has all that but Brown IMO does lack a bit of game management and vision.

Don't get me wrong I think Brown's a good player but he's not perfect.

No hes not perfect...but hes an example to the rest of the team what passion and will to win is. They could all learn a lot from him.

You can't win a turnover if someone else on your team has already won one. You can't break the line if someone else already has, etc. These sort of stats tend to show up the guys who are turned to time and time again because the rest of the team can't/doesn't do it. And also guys given very very specific roles. That'll be why the All Blacks don't feature too highly. I bet if you took an average per player or total they would feature highly.

HammerofThunor wrote:You can't win a turnover if someone else on your team has already won one. You can't break the line if someone else already has, etc.  These sort of stats tend to show up the guys who are turned to time and time again because the rest of the team can't/doesn't do it.  And also guys given very very specific roles.  That'll be why the All Blacks don't feature too highly. I bet if you took an average per player or total they would feature highly.

It shows that some sides over-rely on single 'special' players. Those kind of stats should be spread around through a team. Now we'd all love a special player or two, no doubt - but it can create a 'give the ball to him' mentality.

GeordieFalcon wrote:

Shows that for all England may have failed to progress, Mike Brown is expressly not to blame

And why so many England fans wish we had more players like him with guts, heart, aggression and skill....

Imagine him in a decent side....wow.

Many of England's stats were very good against Australia. Stats alone can't tell the whole story though.

Brown was good, so was Watson and Launchbury...!

Gorgodze and Leitch have looked impressive and the stats back that up.

The meters gained and defenders beaten stats usually look good for Mike Brown, given that he tends to run back any long kicks.

Leitch is also so good he gets to play for both Japan and Fiji.

And Greig Laidlaw has apparently kicked the most conversions and penalties to date.

Helped no end by his side getting two consecutive 5 try victories in the first 2 games.

It stands to reason Schalk Burger has the most carries for SA, by the style of play he is their first receiver most often, he is also the link man in the team, so surprise

Biltong wrote:It stands to reason Schalk Burger has the most carries for SA, by the style of play he is their first receiver most often, he is also the link man in the team, so surprise

How does his contract work, Bilt? He gets to play in Japan whilst also being free to play for the Stormers and South Africa if necessary? Sounds like a cracking deal.

Yeah George, the Japanese season only overlaps the Super rugby season be a few weeks, JP Pietersen has the same deal going with the Sharks

beshocked wrote:Geordiefalcon he has all that but Brown IMO does lack a bit of game management and vision.

Don't get me wrong I think Brown's a good player but he's not perfect.

Agreed. But he has shown in the past a great will to learn and become a better player (pace training, decision making training with Catt).

He's not helped by the fact that we generally seem to be Poopie at decision making at Quins, except Nick Easter!