Flank statement: How Curry and Underhill compare to Cane and Savea
Flankers Tom Curry and Sam Underhill have been marked out among England’s key players for Saturday’s World Cup semi-final against New Zealand.
The pair, both playing in their first World Cup, have been dubbed the “kamikaze kids” by England coach Eddie Jones with their hard-tackling style helping to set the tone in defence.
Here, the PA news agency takes a statistical look at their impact and the task awaiting them in Yokohama.
The kamikaze kids
Curry and Underhill have excelled for England at the World Cup so far, with the former named man of the match in Saturday’s quarter-final win over Australia.
He produced eye-catching plays both without the ball – a turnover followed moments later by a crunching tackle on wing Reece Hodge – and with it, entering the line to send Jonny May in for the opening try.
That is just a microcosm of the blindside flanker’s work, though, with 46 tackles in his four games, 27 carries for 68 metres, 15 passes and an offload with just two handling errors.
James Haskell has revealed an explosive exchange with Brodie Retallick, moments after New Zealand beat England in the first match of their 2014 test series ?https://t.co/hXPawXIZB6
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Underhill has been similarly tenacious, matching Curry’s tackle count of 46 despite playing one game fewer – the pair have combined for a 90 per cent tackle success rate. The openside has also gained over 50 metres despite carrying only 12 times.
Here comes the crunch
Impressive as the England pair have been, they – along with number eight Billy Vunipola – are now set to go up against arguably the best back row in the tournament, with Kiwi captain Kieran Read at number eight and Ardie Savea and Sam Cane either side of him.
The two All Blacks flankers have a combined tackle success rate of 95 per cent, with openside Cane making 31 in three games and Savea 24 in four.
Sam Underhill believes in order to reduce injury rates and ensure player safety the rules regarding the breakdown need to be cleaned up and inforced. #SamUnderhill #BathRugby #EnglandRugby pic.twitter.com/8Lk5bhvRGp
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) May 6, 2019
While those raw numbers are lower than for their England counterparts, that may be largely a product of New Zealand’s control of possession – also reflected in their combined 38 passes and 41 carries, with Savea racking up a hefty 151 metres and beating 11 defenders.
The good news is England have already faced a similar test in Australia’s David Pocock and Michael Hooper and come through with flying colours.
Having admittedly played a game more – Pocock five and Hooper four – the Wallaby pair have combined for 82 carries for 213 yards, 66 tackles at a 95 per cent success rate and 31 passes, but could not see their team past England.
At number eight, Read outshines Vunipola 36-26 in the tackle count and has a slightly higher success rate. Their carry numbers are similar, 38-36 in Vunipola’s favour, with their different styles reflected in Vunipola leading 94-59 in metres and Read by 27 passes to 14.
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!😭😭😭 !!!
25 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
25 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.
25 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.
25 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