Darwin
AKA Dingo_Darwin
- Joined
- May 30, 2007
- Messages
- 6,154
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- Club or Nation
http://www.haka.co.nz/haka-column.php?story_id=793&locations=ab_general
i generally use these starts if they have them, pretty reliable
I think they prove my point, Messams stats kinda showed he had a quiet but accurate game by his standards.
This list shows Thomson missed 2 tackles and Messam missed 0
Thomson carried more meters and was important in the lineout and made a LOT of tackles like he always does. BUT GAVE AWAY 4 penalties and won 0 turnovers to show for it. And what the stats don't show is that three of the penalties he gave away were kicked for points and the 4th penalty he gave away was a needless attacking penalty in perfect attacking position mid field inside the springbok 22. They were very silly penalties
That game from an all black perspective the main reasons it was lost were from Thomson's penalties and the inability of the team to capitalize on the blistering line breaks Dagg Made. He made some amazing runs but instead of securing possession of making sure he linked he over committed went to ground and turned the ball over basically every time.
As I stated, the stats do vary among sites. I would suggest the Verusco stats are far more accurate than the haka.co.nz ones though. Verusco are a professional company who collect their stats using detailed video analysis, and provide sports stats to a number of club and international teams. The haka stats are from a single person sitting and watching the game - I know which stats I would trust! (both rugbystats.com.au and the foxsports.com.au stats paint the same picture as the Verusco stats with regard to tackles made/metres gained).
Anyways, onto the Aussie team named:
A largely predictable side - they only slight surprise in the starting lineup for me is Timani over Simmons. Australia have stuck with a 5/2 split on the bench again, meaning there is no place for Quade Cooper. Slightly surprised to see Slipper ahead of Alexander on the bench, and am somewhat confused as to what Samo has done to deserve being on the bench, given he was on occasions left out of the Reds 22 this season!