Statistic of the Day

[Lizard]

New Zealand XV, uncapped v capped test sides

Jun 1968: 1 “test” v Fiji (possibly a Presidents XV but recorded as being capped) in Suva, 3 days after the last match of an 11-game, 2 test tour of Australia.

Jun 1974: 1 “test” v Fiji in Suva, 3 days after the last match of a 12-game, 2 test tour of Australia.

Oct – Nov 1976: 3 “test” tour of v Argentina (2) and Uruguay (1). No-one from the 1st XV tour of SA (Jun – Sept 1976) was taken. (Although the Jaffray brothers, Lyn and Merv played for the 1sts and 2nds respectively)

Sept 1979: 2 "tests" v touring Argentina. Sandwiched between the French Tour (2 tests) and Bledisloe (1-off) in July, and a tour to England/Scotland on Oct/Nov, 2 current test players were taken, and 6 more were capped on the subsequent tour.

Nov 1979: 1 “test” v Italy to close the abovementioned tour to Eng/Sco.

Jul 1980: 1 “test” v Fiji in Suva, the last match of a 16-game, 3 test tour of Australia and Fiji.

Sept 1980: 1 “test” v Fiji at Auckland, featuring 8 players who toured North America/Wales a month later.

Oct 1980: “Tests” v USA and Canada en route to Wales (1 test played).

Oct 1984: 1 “test” as part of a weird 4-match tour of Fiji, several weeks after the 1st XV got back from a tour of Australia. There was no November tour to the NH that year.

Nov 1987: This was weird. A few months after storming the inaugural World Cup, and then smashing the Wallabies in a one-off Bledisloe test, a full-strength All Blacks side* played 5 matches over 15 days in Japan including 2 “tests”, Japan B, Asian Barbarians and a JRFU Presidents XV. The aggregate score was 408 – 16. I assume money changed hands somewhere along the line.

Jun 1991: “tests” v Romania and the USSR. Although NZRU-sanctioned (and used to identify fringe talent for RWC1991) the matches do not appear in the official list of All Blacks non-test matches.

This excludes the ex post facto capped NSW teams that played NZ XVs in the 1920s.

*Minus Joe Stanley, Warwick Taylor, John Drake (resting) and Michael Jones (Sunday matches ruled him out). Plus some guy called Paul Simonsson who is mostly famous for getting injured after switching to league, making way for his former Waikato team mate Darryl Halligan to get very famous in the criminal code.

[Lizard]

In two Bledisloe tests this year, the All Blacks have scored 38 and 40 points. If they maintain that average of 39 points per match they will reach an aggregate 117 points, a record for the All Blacks against Australia in a calendar year.The current record is 116, set in 2010 over 4 tests.

However, the All Blacks would need to run in a mammoth 65 points to equal the all-time record of 143 set by England over 4 tests v Australia in 2016.

NZ's lowest annual totals against Australia are:
1 test: 6 points (1979)
2 tests: 14 (1934)
3 tests: 24 (1991)
4 tests: 105 (2008)
5 tests: 62 (1962) - also the highest as this is the only year NZ played AU 5 times.

[Lizard]

Most points scored in a calendar year: 658, South Africa 2007 (17 tests - 2x England tour, Samoa, 4x3N, Namibia, 7xRWC, Wales)

Most points conceded in a calendar year: 728, Chinese Taipei, 2002 (13 tests including conceding 394 in 3 consecutive games v Korea & Japan x2). This is the only ever instance of a team conceding 3 centuries in one calendar year.

Second place is Italy, 1999 with 627 in 12 tests.

[Lizard]

The record for most matches against a single opposing team without a win is 14, shared by 6 players:

Mario Lame, Uruguay v Arg (4 uncapped by Arg), 1987-2001
Stephen Jones, Wales (11)/Lions (3) v NZ, 2002-2010
BOD, Ireland (13)/Lions (1) v NZ, 2002-2013
Gethin Jenkins, Wales (11)/Lions (3) v NZ, 2002-2016
Sergio Parisse, Italy v England, 2004-2018 (likely to take the record to 15 in 6N 2019)
Agustin Creevy, Arg v NZ, 2011-2018 (likely to equal the record at 15 during TRC2019, assuming it will be a single round due to RWC)

[Lizard]

Beauden Barrett had this weekend overtaken Dan Carter as the player with the most test tries (26) when starting at or replacing 10. He’s taken 54 tests (including 16 off the bench) to get there.

Carter took 100 (only 6 off the bench) to set the previous mark of 25.

Larkham is 3rd with 20 tries in 86 tests (only 2 as sub). No-one else has more than 15.

No 10 with >5 tries from a top tier nation beats Barrett’s strike rate of 0.48 tries per test.

Johnny Wilkinson scored 7 tries in his 87 tests at 10.

[Lizard]

This is the Wallabies squad from Saturday with their success rates v NZ. Draws count as half a win.

1 Scott Sio 2 wins/ from 11 tests, 15.4%
2 Folau Fainga'a 0/2, 0.0%
3 Allan Alaalatoa 1/8, 11.1%
4 Izack Rodda 0/4, 0.0%
5 Rob Simmons 3/21*, 11.9%
6 Ned Hanigan 1/4, 25.0%
7 Michael Hooper 3/20*, 15.0%
8 David Pocock 3/22, 13.6%
9 Will Genia 3/25, 12.0%
10 Bernard Foley 2.5/15, 16.7%
11 Marika Koroibete 1/4, 25.0%
12 Kurtley Beale 5/20*, 25.0%
13 Israel Folau 2.5/17, 14.7%
14 Sefanaia Naivalu 0/2, 0.0%
15 Dane Haylett-Petty 0/7, 0.0%
Substitutes
16 Silatolu Latu 0/2, 0.0%
17 Sekope Kepu 4/23*, 17.4%
18 Taniela Tupou 0/1, 0.0%
19 Rory Arnold 0/4, 0.0%
20 Jack Dempsey 1/2, 50.0%
21 Nick Phipps 3/14*, 21.4%
22 Samu Kerevi 1/5. 20.0%
23 Thomas Banks 0/2, 0.0%

10 of the 23 had played NZ 5 or fewer times.
8 had never beaten New Zealand.
5 have had a single win.
6 had 2 wins, of whom 2 have also drawn once and 3 drawn twice.
3 have had 3 wins, one of whom has also drawn twice.
Beale stands alone with 4 wins, plus 2 draws.

4 wins puts Beale 39th= for most wins v NZ by an Australian, alongside 29 other Wallabies, none of whom matched Beale's 20 caps v NZ.


*Including 2 draws

[cashead]

4 wins puts Beale 39th= for most wins v NZ by an Australian, alongside 29 other Wallabies, none of whom matched Beale's 20 caps v NZ.

I'm going to go ahead and assume that a big chunk of the ones ranked above Beale played from the mid-to-late 90's and early-2000's?

[cashead]

As an addendum to Liz's stats about the Wallabies and winning percentages in Bledisloe tests, there are 5 Wallabies since full professionalism in 1996 to have a 100% winning record against the All Blacks in Bledisloe tests (I've intentionally ignored World Cup fixtures here). They all only played in the Bledisloe series in one year, and never appeared against the All Blacks again.

They are (in order of year in which they were capped):
1. Tom Bowman - Started in all three Bledisloe tests in 1998, scoring a try in the second test in Christchurch, where the Wallabies won the big-ass trophy, partnering the great John Eales at lock.
2. Rod Moore - Started both tests at tighthead prop in the 2001 Tri Nations where the Bledisloe Cup was on the line.
3. Nick Stiles - Also started both tests in 2001 on the other end of the scrum from Moore.
4. Julian Huxley - Started at fullback at the MCG in the first Bledisloe test of 2007.
5. Timana Tahu - Came off the bench in 2008 in Sydney, replacing Matt Giteau late in the first half, presumably shuffling onto the wing.

[cashead]

Further stattage - there are 171 players to have appeared in 10+ test matches against the All Blacks, and out of them, only 8 have a 50% record, while only 10 have a 51+% record. In other words, only 5.85% of all test players have appeared in 10 or more test matches against the All Blacks, and can boast a winning record against them.

Only 3 players out of those 171 can boast a 60+% record, putting them in a bracket of just 1.75%, while a 70+% record in 10+ appearances against the All Blacks is an exclusive club of 1.



The Parity Lads (right smack on 50)
Tony Daly (Wallabies, 1989~1995) - 6 wins, 6 losses (Last Bledisloe test appearance was in 1994, featuring that tackle)
Syd Malcolm (Wallabies, 1927~1934) - 5 wins, 5 losses, 1 draw (First two games he was involved in aren't considered test matches by the NZRU)
Cyril Towers (Wallabies, 1926~1934) - 5 wins, 5 losses, 1 draw (First six games he was involved in aren't considered test matches by the NZRU)
Bill Cerutti (Wallabies, 1928~1937) - 5 wins, 5 losses (First three games he was involved in aren't considered test matches by the NZRU)
Rod McCall (Wallabies, 1989~1995) - 5 wins, 5 losses
Brendan Moon (Wallabies, 1978~1986) - 5 wins, 5 losses
Jon-Paul "JP" Pietersen (Springboks, 2006~2016) - 5 wins, 5 losses (His last appearance against the All Blacks was at the 2015 RWC semifinals)
Pierre Spies (Springboks, 2006~2013) - 5 wins, 5 losses (His last appearance against the All Blacks was in Port Elizabeth in 2011)

Officially >ABs (51% or higher)
John Eales (Wallabies, 1991~2001) - 11 wins, 9 losses - 55% (out of the 50% or higher club, he has the most test caps against the All Blacks)
Phil Kearns (Wallabies, 1989~1999) - 10 wins, 8 losses - 55%
Jason Little (Wallabies, 1991~2000) - 9 wins, 8 losses - 52.94%
John "Bakkies" Botha (Springboks, 2003~2014) - 8 wins, 7 losses - 53.33% (His last win was also his only appearance off the bench against the All Blacks)
Fourie du Preez (Springboks, 2004~2015) - 7 wins, 6 losses - 53.84% (His last appearance against the All Blacks was at the 2015 RWC semifinals)
Toutai Kefu (Wallabies, 1997~2003) - 8 wins, 5 losses - 61.53%
Viliame "Willie" Ofahengaue (Wallabies, 1990~1998) - 7 wins, 5 losses (Last appearances were off the bench in the 1998 Bledisloe series)
Matt Cockbain (Wallabies, 1997~2003) - 72.72% - 8 wins, 3 losses (Last appearance was off the bench in the 2003 RWC semifinal)
Owen Finegan (Wallabies, 1996~2003) - 6 wins, 5 losses - 54.54%
Dan Herbert (Wallabies, 1994~2002) - 7 wins, 4 losses - 63.63%


Anyone with their name in bold won their last test against the All Blacks
Bold and italic means they won their last test against the All Blacks in New Zealand

[Lizard]

Nice stattage.

[cashead]

Nice stattage.

What really struck me about them is a lot of their numbers are boosted by a 3-0 series wins (the Springboks players in 2009 and the Wallabies in 1998, although going 2-0 in 2001 helps too), and how that's enough to often push them into having parity or higher. The vast majority of them are Wallabies from the late 90's and early 2000s, which highlights

1. The dominance of Australia in the 90s - apart from that blip in the mid-90s, that really was their decade
2. The short peak of the Springboks in 2009, where they were top of the world until the end of the Tri Nations that year*.
3. The complete absence of NH teams, like Clive Woodward's England players. Martin Johnson actually ended his test career with a 50% record against the All Blacks, but he didn't qualify for this due to a lack of test matches played. In fact, only a handful of NH players have appeared against the All Blacks 10+ times. It certainly reinforces just how much more often the All Blacks play the Wallabies and Springboks than anyone else.

Also, I'd be lying if I said Matt Cockbain's numbers didn't genuinely surprise me.

Other observations include
1. The sheer number of 5 wins/5 losses in the 50/50 club, with all but Tony Daly gaining parity in their v. NZ record with those numbers.
2. The fact that only 10 players have records higher than 51%, which, IMO, highlights just how much the All Blacks have been able to maintain a historic dominance well into professionalism, and the sheer difficulty of maintaining such a record as the number of test matches stack up. That, bar a few exceptions, the majority of these records are off of only 1 or 2 wins more than losses speaks for itself.
3. All 10 of those players are World Cup winners, and started in at least 1 final.
4. The majority of the peers of those Wallabies who have a winning record against the ABs ended their careers in, or around the 40s, like Gregan and Larkham, including Tim Horan, whom I expected to actually be right amongst, considering both of his midfield partners are right there.


*This was something I'd been thinking about recently, and in hindsight, I'd honestly say that the 2009 Boks started their decline around their win in Perth, with their Hamilton win being their last gasp. In both away wins, when you look at the second half, they were comfortably outscored by their opponents, and that's not to mention the manner in which they were banjaxed in Brisbane by the Wallabies.
The decline was well and truly set in when they headed to Europe, and got bullied all over the continent by France and Ireland, as well as club sides like Leicester and the Sarries, and could only register a win against noted rugby powerhouses Italy.

[Lizard]

Here's one that could use some crowd-sourcing. The NZ Herald is suggesting that Luke Whitelock will be named captain of the Deputy All Blacks v Japan, making hims and Sam the first brothers to captain the All Blacks in tests. (As far as I know, the only closely related All Black captains have been Frank Oliver and his son, Anton.)

There have been two other sets of New Zealand-born brother captains:
Gavin and Paul Williams both captained Samoa.
Bob and Darby Loudon both captained NSW in the 1920s in one match each that was later recognised as a test for Australia by the ARU. Bob's was against an uncapped All Blacks side, and Darby's was against an NZ Maori XV.

Alesana and Anitelea Tuilagi have both skippered Samoa.

England has had Charles and Edward Gurdon, and Frederic and Lennard Stokes.

Any others?

[Lizard]

Assuming the whole All Blacks bench will be used this weekend, there will be 8 new caps awarded. This is the most All Blacks debuts in a single match since the 1986 Baby Blacks, 11 of whom made their debut in an unexpected win in the first test against France.

It's hard to get across how exceptional the circumstances were that led to 11 new caps in one match. For those too young to remember, the Baby Blacks was the All Black team sent to France while the NZ Cavaliers served a 2 match ban for their rebel tour of apartheid South Africa. The Cavaliers was basically the entire All Blacks squad originally selected for the cancelled official tour to SA planned for 1985.* Not only that, but in 1986 substitutions were only allowed for injures and were rare. Coming off hurt was considered cowardly unless you had a visibly broken arm or something. You picked your 1st XV and that was it - no rotation, no building depth. For example, in the 10 tests immediately prior to the Baby Blacks (i.e. every test match in 1984 and 1985) the All Blacks used only 32 players and 6 of them only played in the slightly weakened squad sent to Argentina. By comparison, in 10 tests in less than the last 5 months the modern All Blacks have used 39 players.

Since 1986, 5 or more new All Blacks have been capped in these matches:
18 June 1999 v Samoa: 5 new caps (win)
9 November 2002 v England: 7 (loss - as Clive W gave the lunatic John Mitchell a coaching lesson)
23 November 2002 v Wales: 6 (win - the lunatic again, who oddly put out no debutantes in the draw v France played between this match and the one above. Weirdo)
27 June 2009 v Italy: 5 (win)
12 June 2010 v Ireland: 6 (win)

Before 1986, multiple debuts were much more common because tests were fewer and further apart. You still need to go back to the 1972 Bledisloe series to find the next instance of 8 debutantes in one match.

The next most recent instance of 8 was in the same series in 1955.

On 3 September 1949, 15 new All Blacks were created, although 2 were playing South Africa and 13 were playing Australia.

In the All Blacks first post-WWII match, v Aussie on 14 September 1946, unsurprisingly the entire starting XV plus the 1 sub used was on debut.** This is the record number of debut All Blacks in a single day.

Honourable mention should go to the 1913 Bledisloe series. 13 All Blacks debuted in the first test in Wellington. 13 more debuted a week later in Dunedin. A final 3 took their bow in the 3rd test in Christchurch. Despite trying out 29 new players and 35 in total in this series, the selectors still managed to pick 2 uncapped players in a test v USA only 2 months later out of a touring squad of only 23.

The only other time 15 uncapped All Blacks took the field was in their very first test ever, v Australia, 15 August 1903.


*Only RWC1987 heroes David Kirk and John Kirwan chose not to go.
**The first test after WW1, v SA in 1921, featured only 14 new caps plus the 40-year old legend Ned Hughes - still easily the oldest ever All Black.

[Lizard]

Teams that have scored 5+ tries in a test v NZ:

South Africa: 5 times, 4 wins and a loss
Australia: 3 times, 1 win, 2 losses. Plus once by a retrospectively capped 1920s NSW team that won.
Ireland: in its only win v NZ
Japan: in tonight’s loss
Romania: in a loss v a non-All Blacks NZ XV in 1991

England, Scotland, Wales, France, Argentina, Italy: never

[Lizard]

Highest scores conceded by Tier 1 Test sides* v Japan

Argentina: 44** (1998)
South Africa: 34** (2015)
Italy: 34** (2018)
NZ: 31 (2018)
Wales: 30 (2001)
Australia: 30 (2017)
France: 29 RWC2003)
Ireland: 28 (RWC1995)
Scotland: 17 (2013)
England: 7 (RWC1987)

England's match in a couple of week will only be their second capped fixture against Japan following their pool match at RWC1987. Japan have awarded test caps in 21 other fixtures against English teams including Oxford and Cambridge Universities (separately and combined), uncapped England XV's, England U23, England Students and England A.


*This excludes uncapped national selections against whom Japan awarded test caps
**Japanese victory

[Lizard]

Current England squad members experience v NZ:

played v NZ for England & Lions: Farrell, Kruis, Lawes
For Lions only: Daly, George, Itoje, Nowell, Sinckler, Te'o,
For England only: Ashton, Care, Ford, Hartley, May, Tuilagi, Youngs
Never played v NZ: Ewels, Hepburn, Mercer, Moon, Shields, Slade, Underhill, Williams, Wilson

Players in italics have never had a win or draw v NZ.

[Puja]

Current England squad members experience v NZ:

played v NZ for England & Lions: Farrell, Kruis, Lawes
For Lions only: Daly, George, Itoje, Nowell, Sinckler, Te'o,
For England only: Ashton, Care, Ford, Hartley, May, Tuilagi, Youngs
Never played v NZ: Ewels, Hepburn, Mercer, Moon, Shields, Slade, Underhill, Williams, Wilson

Players in italics have never had a win or draw v NZ.

Would you be willig to do the reverse? While England don't exactly have the same intimidation factor that NZ do, I'd be curious to know how much of your likely XXIII have ever played us.

Puja

[Digby]

Some of those names would also be valid entries in a never played for NZ list

[Lizard]

I’ll do NZ when the XXIII is named.

[Lizard]

In the meantime:

Both NZ and Namibia are on equal world record streaks of 12 tests scoring 4+ tries.

Namibia is playing Russia this weekend, who was the last team they played (scoring 2 tries) before beginning their streak, which has included 10 tests v other African nations and 2 v Uruguay.

NZ is playing England a few hours later. They only scored 3 tries v Scotland before beginning their streak which has included Wales, France, all TRC opposition, & Japan.

[Lizard]

Current England squad members experience v NZ:

played v NZ for England & Lions: Farrell, Kruis, Lawes
For Lions only: Daly, George, Itoje, Nowell, Sinckler, Te'o,
For England only: Ashton, Care, Ford, Hartley, May, Tuilagi, Youngs
Never played v NZ: Ewels, Hepburn, Mercer, Moon, Shields, Slade, Underhill, Williams, Wilson

Players in italics have never had a win or draw v NZ.

Would you be willig to do the reverse? While England don't exactly have the same intimidation factor that NZ do, I'd be curious to know how much of your likely XXIII have ever played us.

Puja

Here you go.

Of the 23, four will see the game as a foregone conclusion, 7 will have to overcome their psychological scars, and 12 are innocents to the slaughter.

Played England, 100% win rate: B. Barrett, Crotty, Perenara, Williams

Played England, lost once: Coles, Franks, Read, Retallick, A. Smith, B. Smith, Whitelock

Never played England: S. Barrett, Goodhue, Ioane, Laulala, McKenzie, Mo'unga, A Savea, Squire, Taylor, Todd, Tu'inukuafe, Tuungafasi

Of the survivors from the 2012 loss, they all have from 5 to 7 wins v England. All but Read played in all 4 wins v England in 2014 (Read only played in 2).

[Lizard]

All Blacks most points conceded per test in a calendar year

So far in 2018, the All Blacks have given up 20.09 points per test. This is historically bad. Worst 10 years so far:

2000: 23.80 points conceded per game
1998: 19.86 (lost 5 from 7 this year)
1992: 19.78
1996: 19.00
2017: 17.79
1994: 17.67
1982: 17.67
2010: 17.57
1995: 17.08
2013: 17.07 (despite a 100% win rate!)

[zer0]

Gotta say, for all the fanfare that accompanied him, Scott McLeod really hasn't lived up to expectations so far as defence coach. Particularly when Plumtree was probably a better qualified alternative.

Come to think of it, isn't McLeod more renowned as an attack coach as opposed to a defence one?

[Lizard]

Reiko Ioane's failure to score against England has set him back a mere 1 try per test average (22 from 22). It made me wonder how often he doesn't dot down despite his 100% strike rate.

I was a bit surprised to see that in fact he has gone scoreless 8 times (36% of his test matches). He has never scored in more than 4 consecutive matches (a run that England just ended).

Obviously, this means that Ioane often scores multiple times in one test. He has 1 hat trick, 6 doubles and only 7 single-try performances.

The record for most consecutive matches scoring a try is 8 shared by John Kirwan (NZ), Christian Cullen (NZ), Daisuke Ohata (Japan and all-time scoring record holder) and Nemani Nadolo (Fiji).

[cashead]

Crossposting from the NZ vs England thread round here, re: Goodhue's defence.

So speaking of stats, I just crunched some numbers, and in the 6 tests Goodhue has played this year, the average (mean) points conceded when he's on has been 13.

Test 1 (France): 14 - full 80
Test 2 (Australia): 13 - full 80
Test 3 (Australia): 12 - subbed off on the 60th minute
Test 4 (Argentina): 24 - full 80
Test 5 (South Africa): 0 - subbed on for the final quarter, where, despite the win, the Springboks failed to score any points
Test 6 (England): 15 - full 80

So yeah, the Argentina score ends up being a bit of a statistical outlier, but on the same token, I think it's balanced out by the 0 as well. So while correlation may not necessarily imply causation, the All Blacks are conceding, on average, 7 points fewer than the average score conceded across the board - a converted try is the difference, but as we saw from the Springboks series and this morning's result, that could make all the difference in the world.

Crotty was present for 3 of those tests: Test 2, Test 5 and Test 6. Test 2 arguably doesn't count, as Crotty had to leave the field injured after 3 minutes. When Crotty and Goodhue are paired up though, the average score conceded with both playing in the midfield has been 0.