England's 9 most indisciplined players under Eddie Jones - a statistical look
England equalled New Zealand’s 18 match winning streak, secured their first grand slam during the 2016 6 Nations Championship since 2003, and won the 2017 6 Nations Championship.
Whilst they are currently on a low ebb, their demise has been over exaggerated.
Congratulations to @EnglandRugby. 2017 Six Nations champions #6nations2017 pic.twitter.com/iYVlIGtS45
— World Rugby (@WorldRugby) March 18, 2017
Much has been made of England’s allegedly horrific discipline in the heat of battle, but what do the numbers say and how does their discipline rank among other nations?
The table below shows a comparison of penalties conceded by England under Eddie Jones’ reign of 32 games as head coach, and the rest of the top 8 currently ranked teams in rugby. It seems that the fairest comparison would be to look at penalties conceded over the last 32 games by each team.
If we take a look at the big picture, England have conceded a total of 325 penalties over the 32 games that Eddie Jones has overseen as head coach. Those 32 games are composed of every game they played in 2016, 2017 and 2018 so far, culminating in breaking their 6 match losing streak with a 10-25 win against South Africa.
That averages out to be about 10 penalties a game which is usually seen above the required or at least desired standard to give away during a test match. Six penalties conceded in a game is generally deemed acceptable and is typically considered a well-disciplined performance.
Ireland have conceded the least amount of penalties and have the best average of about 8 penalties conceded per game over the same 32 game period. Roughly speaking England, New Zealand, Scotland and France have conceded 10 penalties a game.
Australia find themselves limping in there just barely outside 11 penalties a game.
If we break England’s 325 penalties down further, it compromises 141, 83 and 101 penalties over 2016, 2017 and so far in 2018 in that order. England played 13, 10 and so far 9 matches in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
That gives us averages of about 10 penalties a game in 2016, about 8 penalties a game in 2017 and so far 11 penalties a game in 2018. This is where it must be noted that England won the 2016 and 2017 6 Nations even with those numbers.
If anything they just made it harder for themselves to win those championships with such poor discipline. In the image below, you can even see a trend of increasing indiscipline from the 2017 6 Nations to the 2018 summer tests.
Discipline isn’t just about penalties. It also covers yellow and red cards. The next most obvious thing to do is to compare England’s yellow and red cards under Jones’ tenure as head coach with the other nations. The table below compares the top 8 currently ranked teams in terms of yellow and red cards.
The number of red cards given out to the top 8 teams over the last 32 games are remarkably similar, with only Scotland not receiving one red card.
As for the number of yellow cards, England find themselves tied with France for the 4th most yellow cards given out to the top 8 teams. There seems to be nothing unusual about England’s discipline in terms of yellow or red cards when compared with the other 7 nations.
There are a few usual suspects when it comes to giving up penalties. Under Jones, 46 players have conceded at least 1 penalty to date. Since that is far too many to list out, our attention will focus on the most disciplined, undisciplined and currently relevant players.
This next image flips that narrative around showing us the most disciplined players.
Minutes played was added for each player to add some context as some players have fell out of favour under Jones in recent years. The perceived most relevant players at the moment have been included in these tables.
It is actually incredibly impressive how disciplined England’s top two scrum halves have been over the years. It makes sense that 11 of the 14 in the table are backs. Forwards are typically closest to and more frequently involved in the breakdown so they are more likely to concede a penalty.
Praise has to be given to Jamie George, Tom Curry and Billy Vunipola for being the most disciplined English forwards. All three go on average at least two full matches without giving away a penalty.
The table below shows the total amount of minutes played per person under Jones who has conceded at least 1 penalty in that time. Included is the average amount of minutes played per person before that person conceded a penalty.
These are England’s most indisciplined players.
We can see that Maro Itoje has played a massive 1690 minutes under Jones conceding a total of 34 penalties in that time. That is 1 penalty just about every 50 minutes played.
More recently in England’s series loss to South Africa, Eddie Jones’ side were still conceding at least 10 penalties a game. Maro Itoje, Mako Vunipola and Kyle Sinckler could all fairly be described as ‘penalty machines’; conceding 7, 6 and 4 penalties respectively over the series.
That accounts for over half of England’s total penalty count of 31 over the series just from those 3 players.
In defence of Itoje, the Saracens lock played every minute of the series whilst Sinckler and Vunipola only played 64 per cent and 51 per cent of the total minutes of the series.
It might be a bit harsh to focus on those 3 players more intently than others but let’s have a look at their average minutes played each before giving away 1 penalty while Eddie Jones has been the head coach.
Mako Vunipola – 1 penalty every 71 minutes on average
Maro Itoje – 1 penalty every 50 minutes on average
Kyle Sinckler – 1 penalty every 43 minutes on average
Tom Wood has largely become a paripheral player but he managed a penalty every 49 minutes, while the currently injured Dan Cole managed even worse, conceding a penalty every 45 minutes.
The amount of penalties England have conceded has been on average in the double digits under Jones. 10 penalties is a lot to give away in a test match but as we have seen, it’s not the worst either in comparison to other nations. It is actually quite typical.
Nor is there anything unusual about the number of cards given out to England either.
The main worry has to be the increased indiscipline from the 2017 6 nations onward to today. The reasons for this could be a combination of different factors including a failure to understand and adapt to the interpretation of specific referees or simply a rush of blood to the head.
With the 2019 world cup fast approaching, England couldn’t do much worse than look to address this area, even only to make life easier for themselves.
Comments on RugbyPass
An on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to comments