Boks edged out by France in Nations Championship 'power play' rankings

“That was madness, utter madness”, was England captain Jamie George’s reaction moments after the final whistle had sounded on England’s 31-24 bonkers win over Argentina a fortnight ago.

An incredible seven yellow cards were issued in the match, many of them overlapping in a particularly crazy and ill-disciplined second half, with the end result that for only half of the match, it was 15 v 15.

For 21 minutes, Argentina had more players on the pitch than England, and for 19 minutes, it was the other way around.

England were especially ruthless during the first of the sin-bin periods, Mateo Carreras’ yellow on 23 minutes costing Argentina 14 points after Ben Earl scored twice and Fin Smith converted on each occasion with Tomos Albornoz’s penalty the only response from the 14-man Pumas.

An additional 12 points were scored by England when the other Carreras brother, Santiago, and in-form No.8 Joaquin Oviedo, were given 10-minute breathers by referee Angus Gardner.

Marcus Smith’s try was converted by his namesake, while Immanuel Feyi-Waboso’s try seven minutes later remained a five-pointer.

Overall, England scored 26 points to Argentina’s three while they had more men on the field, rounding out at more than a point a minute (1.37 points), or an impressive 13.7 points if equated to a standard 10-minute sin-bin period.

While the narrative around England has all been about their inability to keep 15 players on the park, data from ITV Rugby statisticans, Hillsport Media Ltd, shows that it was far from unusual for the reverse situation to be true.

For 79 minutes of the first phase of the Nations Championship, it was a full-strength England versus 14 or even 13 men, and for a brief period in the Argentina game, 14 vs 13.

England scored 85 points and only conceded eight when that was the case, averaging out as a net gain of 9.75 points per 10 minutes.

No other team enjoyed a numerical advantage such as this for anywhere near as long as England, with France, ranked second, only being in ‘power play’ mode for half an hour.

Unsurprisingly, for a team so good in transition play and taking advantage of spaces on the field, Les Bleus were ruthless whenever the opposition were short-handed in defence, scoring 40 points in those 30 minutes combined across the three matches and conceding only five.

With a net gain of 11.66 points for every 10 minutes they had more men on the field, France are the current ‘power play’ champions, fractionally ahead of the Springboks, who scored 24 points and kept the opposition scoreless in 21 minutes (+11.43 average over 10 minutes).

Of the seven teams who were in power play mode for 20 minutes or more – the qualifying criteria for this article, Scotland had by far and away the worst record.

Instead of profiting from the periods when the opposition had players in the sin-bin when they didn’t, Scotland conceded 21 points without reply in 24 minutes, averaging out at minus 8.75 for every 10 minutes they were on top.

When Ben-Jason Dixon was yellow-carded at the start of the second half of the South Africa vs Scotland match, the scores were locked at 14-14. But the wounded Springboks responded magnificently to the setback to run in three tries, all of which were converted by Handre Pollard.

Nations Championship Power Play leaders

(Average points gained/lost over 10 minutes, when teams had more men on the field)

1. France +11.66
2. South Africa +11.43
3. England +9.75
4. Argentina +8.40
5. New Zealand +3.18
6. Ireland +2.50
7. Scotland -8.75

*Only teams with 20 mins+ considered