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The Breakdown: A statistical look at round two of the Six Nations
Wales stole the show on the opening weekend of the 2018 Six Nations with their shock demolition of Scotland, but they head to Twickenham needing to halt England’s fine home record.
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Warren Gatland’s men made light of a lengthy injury list to hammer their visitors 34-7 in Cardiff, while England were 46-15 victors over Italy in Rome.
Scotland will be hoping to bounce back from their disappointing showing when they take on France at home, although history suggests they may be waiting a while for their next Murrayfield win over Les Bleus.
In the weekend’s remaining Test, Ireland host Italy in a fixture for which all the statistics point to a comfortable home win.
With the help of Opta, we take a look at the best stats ahead of the second round of matches.
Predictions predictions!!
We’re only three days from Round Two of the #NatWest6Nations pic.twitter.com/OYj1ngydgK
— NatWest 6 Nations (@SixNationsRugby) February 7, 2018
Ireland v Italy
The omens are not good for Italy, who have won just two of their 45 away fixtures in Six Nations history and have never been victorious in the second round of matches.
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The Azzurri could equal their own record for the most consecutive defeats in the competition (13) and Ireland have won the last four fixtures between these sides by an average margin of 40 points.
Italy coach Conor O’Shea will be relieved to see CJ Stander drop to the bench – the Ireland number eight made the most carries of any player on the opening weekend (24). Sebastian Negri (18) was second.
Sergio Parisse is 94 metres away from becoming the first player to gain 3,000m in the Six Nations – he has made 94m and above at least once against each nation in the championship, except for Ireland.
Here's the Ireland team to play Italy in Round 2 of the #NatWest6Nations at @AVIVAStadium #TeamOfUs #ShoulderToShoulder #IREvITA pic.twitter.com/ndlNatXapM
— Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) February 8, 2018
England v Wales
England have won their last 14 home matches in the Six Nations – a run that started following a 19-12 defeat to Wales at Twickenham in 2012.
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Five of the last seven Six Nations matches between these sides have been decided by the margin of a converted try or less, with the last three being won by England by five or four points.
Danny Care will become England’s most capped scrum-half and has been involved in nine tries in his last nine appearances, despite starting only four of those matches.
Wales wing Steff Evans (103) was the only player to gain more than 100 metres on the opening weekend, while Josh Navidi managed to win a round-high three turnovers.
Train hard ?
Play hard ?
Putting the reps in ahead of Saturday's #ENGvWAL clash ? #WearTheRose ? pic.twitter.com/eVfzwzPVzk
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) February 8, 2018
Scotland v France
Despite their chastening defeat at the hands of Wales last weekend, Scotland come into this match in fine home form, having won seven of their last eight matches at Murrayfield. New Zealand are the only side to win in Edinburgh during that period.
That said, Scotland have generally had to wait 10 years between home wins over France in the Five/Six Nations – their last three have come in 1996, 2006 and 2016.
The fixture boasts an average aggregate score of only 37, making it the lowest-scoring in the competition’s history.
France were beaten 15-13 by Ireland on the opening weekend – making a record 253 tackles – and claimed the wooden spoon on the only other occasion they lost their first two matches of the Six Nations (2013).
Comments on RugbyPass
ABs captain for 23 seasons. Decent record. Surely nobody will surpass it. Legend. But alas a typo…
1 Go to commentsJust FYI Rugbypass, I for one am tired of your clickbait titles and thumbnails and will be clicking them no longer. Good day.
1 Go to commentsI think Farrell despite all of the stick he gets in the media is still one of if not the best fly half in the world. He is literally the full package. He can kick one of the best in the world, probably has the best defensive game of a fly half in the world and if he wants to he can run, take contact and find an offload to keep the pace of the attack. I dont know why he isnt spoken more about still being one of the best in the world with the likes of dupont. Farrell is the ultimate captain and team leader and is experienced- he has been in nearly any situation you can think of. I still believe due to these reasons that he is England’s best ever player and is still one of the best players in the world.
48 Go to commentsBlues are dominating up front and that’s been a long time coming. They have won the up front confrontation which is where canes, hilanders and act brumbies are also strong.
3 Go to commentsJust watched brumbies v safas game sadly not a show in he’ll thryr anywhere near quarters or semi contention. Admittedly some issues around new comers bot what stands out for me is coaching management, poor game planning and accuracy.
5 Go to commentsOne tough SOB!
16 Go to commentsI’ve put on 4/5 kilos since the beginning of the season too. Not good kilos. Bad kilos.
3 Go to commentsSurely there’s a ‘no knobheads’ policy ?
2 Go to commentsWallaroos have no chance of beating the Black Ferns unless Canada upsets them in Christchurch tomorrow but I doubt that as well!
1 Go to commentsWhat a joke. Could the victim do a course to reverse the long term CTE damage from the cheapshot?
2 Go to commentsTruely great player. In social media and opinion pieces he was held up and flogged for the results. People wanted someone to crucify, and he was the captain. He was still an immense presence respected by his peers. His battles with Siya Kolisi belong up with with Collins vs Burger in my opinion. Unlucky to be carded in the final, but I don’t agree that his red card was the defining moment. Not when you look at the dominant performances of the Springboks (PSDT in particular.) I think Cane should be remembered for the spirit and physicality that is special to test rugby.
16 Go to commentsSam was the man until he got injured .
16 Go to comments_Crusaders versus Leinster _at the moment might be a rout! But I would like to see the Blues play Toulouse, the Hurricanes front up against Stade Francais, and the Chiefs go against Toulon.
157 Go to commentsLove it when we overlap! Promise it was not forethought.
19 Go to commentsjfc can this guy plz stay out of the news for one week
2 Go to commentsIf stormers aren’t available. Based on form and likely availability at the time of the wales Test, you’d think Masuku would be a no-brainer to start. But starting Jordan also makes sense having Masuku come off the bench to close out the game.
2 Go to commentsGlad Tom Curry not playing needs time to recover such a great player also his brother Ben how well is he playing now .
1 Go to commentsLet’s examine what might be irking the brainless E: Up until 20 years before this coming Julys tests: 16 games: 14 wins for SA; 1 win for Ire; 1 draw From 20 years until July’ tests Ireland V SA: 13 matches Ireland won 8; SA won 4; 1 draw Points scored Ireland 261; SA 189 Ave Winning Margin: Ireland 11 points; SA 4 points (away 3, home 6) Away win record: Ireland 33.33%; SA 25% Neutral matches 1: Ireland win RWC France 2023. Last SA win June 2016 (8 years ago) They boast 3 World cups in that period (they do boast). The above record is not good, probably not much better than theirs against NZ for same period. That’s why the dopey E is starting fights in his head. He will probably ship a yellow when things don’t go their way in the first test.
127 Go to commentsGoode is like a wet fart on The Rugby Pod and should be shoved aside. Jim knows what he is on about and can get on better without Goode’s nasty little cheap shots.
127 Go to commentsBrumbies will win, crusaders are pretty awful this year
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