Fiji / Samoa Statistics Question?

[Dai Perk]

Good morning, friends,

Just listened to a Will Greenwood podcast (some days that's hard to do), and he laid out an incredible stat, if true. But, it ended up confusing me...

The stat was, "In the first 23 minutes of the first half, Fiji only had possession in Samoa's side for 24 seconds - but the score was 12-12."

I do understand how a team (particularly Fiji) could score 2 tries with only 24 seconds of possession inside the opposition's half, BUT, they had to kick a conversion after that first try. Those kicks take anywhere up to 3 minutes - is that not time in the opposition's half? If not, the combined time of possession of the two teams will never equal 80 minutes, because every kick is just sort of lost time. Am I imagining this? Or did Will Greenwood tell a very misleading stat?

Thanks y'all - love this stuff!

 

[Brigantine]

I doubt they would include the 3 minutes lining up a conversion in the possession or territory stats at all. I'm guessing they stop the timer when the try is awarded. They track the stats because they want an indication of how the teams are playing, not technicalities like how long they take to kick a conversion. (not 100% sure though)

If it was a NH game, I would say easy - they scored 4 penalties from 50-60 meters out, for a total of 12 points. That's very not Fiji's style though so I don't think that's the answer

What game was this? 2017?

 

[Scotty]

Fiji are the team to do this, think it was vs SA they were well down and got 3 tries in 3 minutes.



Your going off a podcast. The clock is running for the kicks and definatly more than 24s for 2 tries and 2 attempts at conversions. While time in opposition harf does inc kicks it might have been more he was saying time in opposition half in open play. As fiji could easily do that.

 

[Dai Perk]

It was the game from this past Saturday... so Greenwood was making it up? Maybe somebody parsed out the time without the kick(s)...

 

[Brigantine]

It was the game from this past Saturday... so Greenwood was making it up? Maybe somebody parsed out the time without the kick(s)...

That makes more sense. It was Tonga not Samoa, but the 12-12 in the 24th minute checks out.

The clock is running for the kicks

The official match clock is. I'm not sure the guys keeping the possession and territory stats don't keep their own time. Or maybe just Greenwood made his own calculation.
I only ever see those stats in percentages. I don't know if they add up to 80 mins or if it's less, but that would be a way to check.

 

[Scotty]

It was the game from this past Saturday... so Greenwood was making it up? Maybe somebody parsed out the time without the kick(s)...

No thw link i posted was a different old game but just showing fiji are the team to do that quick fire tries.

 

[Dai Perk]

I think I figured it out - things like conversion kicks are counted as part of a team's overall time of possession, but isn't counted as "time in opposition territory." I see how the two totals could be wildly different. In any event, definitely a stat that shows how fast those Fijians fly!

 

[MarkyH]

I'm not sure either, but it's a good discussion.

I just presumed when the ball is 'in-play' then that counts as possession or territory. When there is a Conversion or a Penalty kick to goal for 3 points then this time is just dismissed and not counted in regards to those stats.

I might be wrong tho Email World Rugby and let us know