Opening weekend stats put spotlight on the try-less England attack

England have been cock-a-hoop since Saturday’s reputation-restoring Rugby World Cup win over Argentina – but some stats from that 14-man, 27-10 victory in Marseille still leave much to be desired about the calibre of their attack and their ruck speed.

George Ford scored all 27 points for Steve Borthwick’s side, who has lost Tom Curry to a third-minute red card, adding six penalty kicks to his 10-minute first-half drop goal hat-trick to settle the opening weekend fixture in England’s favour without them needing to score a single try.

England’s inability to get over the line was a hot topic during the Summer Nations Series build-up.

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Having finished the Guinness Six Nations series with just a single try in each of the games against France and Ireland, they scored just one try per game versus Wales (twice) and Ireland before scoring three tries against Fiji.

That left them with a total of eight tries in six matches, on average a try every 60 minutes. They did manage, though, to break their duck regarding a lack of tries scored by their backs.

Points Flow Chart

England win +17

Time in lead

55

Mins in lead

5

69%

% Of Game In Lead

6%

34%

Possession Last 10 min

66%

3

Points Last 10 min

7

Before Jonny May’s ninth-minute effort against the Fijians, England had to go back to their late February Six Nations win in Wales for a try scored by a back, Ollie Lawrence’s 75th-minute effort.

England’s issues with scoring tries persisted in Marseille, but that shortcoming was largely forgotten amid the hoopla of the manner of their heroic win – being a man down for 77 minutes of a fixture they came into as underdogs.

However, statistics provided on all 16 teams following the opening weekend fixtures have now laid bare how blunt the England attack continued to be. Here are some of the negative stats:

• Only Romania made fewer carries (73);
• Joint fewest metres made with Scotland (230);
• Fewest linebreaks with just one;
• Only Romania made fewer offloads (two – both from Alex Mitchell);
• Only Georgia had a lower collision dominance in their attacking carries (19 per cent), just 10 of their 52 carries in contact;
• England were 11th for gainline success (44 per cent);
• Third-slowest average ruck speed of any team (4.75 seconds) and the most rucks longer than five seconds (33 per cent);
• Had the fewest phases inside the opposition 22 (6).

It wasn’t all doom and gloom, though, as there were other round one statistics where England fared much better:

• Joint-highest positive outcomes from their possessions with Wales (83 per cent), second-fewest turnovers lost (7);
• Scored the joint-most points from outside the 22 (without entering it at all) with France (15);
• Fifth-best red-zone efficiency with 2.40 points per entry
• Won the second-most scrums overall (eight) but only Argentina and Scotland with a worse success (80 per cent).

Click here to see the opening weekend statistical review on all 16 teams who were in action