Statistic of the Day

[rowan]

Difficult to say what happened to South Africa in the 1960s after that magnificent tour of Europe at the start of the decade and series win over NZ at home. They had been unbeaten in a series (home or away) throughout the entire first half of the 20th century, in fact, had a whitewash and away series win over the All Blacks to their credit, and had put together that remarkable grandslam of grandslam tours (4 tours, 16 tests). & they were back with a vengeance in the 70s and early 80s as arguably the dominant team in world rugby during most of that period as well. They had some truly great players in the 60s, such as Jan Ellis, Frik du Preez and John Gainsford, to name just a few. But this was also the first decade in which they had faced real anti-Apartheid hostility on tour, no doubt due to the Sharpesville Massacre of 1960, an inexcusable atrocity which made headlines all around the world. Interestingly, given today's mess, this was also a decade of unwelcome government interference in the game in South Africa, together with infighting among the rugby officials themselves, with Dr Danie Craven in the thick of it. Boks' selection began to resemble a turnstile, while a number of top players came to be regarded as 'prima donnas' - Gainsford among them, though he was widely regarded as the best South African center ever (before Danie Gerber came along). Chris Greyvenstein refers to the period 1961 to 1969 as the 'turbulent years' in his book (Springbok Saga). They did, nonetheless, win two series against the Lions, and also ended the decade with a 4-0 whitewash of the Wallabies (following which the ARU broke off ties with them until the post-Apartheid era).

Meanwhile, precisely half a century ago the All Blacks were in the midst of one of their finest tours ever, going unbeaten in 17 games and winning all four of the test matches, but being denied a probable grandslam when the match with Ireland was canceled due to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. The tour lasted just over two months, kicking off with two fixtures in Canada in October, and ending with an 11-6 win over the Baabaas at Twickers on Dec 16 (replacing the Irish test). Captain Brian Lochore led a truly legendary forward pack, which included such immortals as the Meads brothers, Kel Tremain, Waka Nathan, Ian Kirkpatrick & Ken Gray - most of whom would have walked into an all-time All Blacks XV of the pre-World Cup era, while only the 1924/25 'Invincibles' rivalled them as the greatest team to leave New Zealand's shores in that era. There was rarely any such thing as an 'easy' test in those days either, as incoming tours were the major focus for France & the Home Unions outside of the 5 Nations championship. 50 years ago this Saturday the All Blacks took on France in the third of their tests and prevailed 21-15.

[Lizard]

For the first time Sam Whitelock will play in a test with one of his brothers this weekend. Luke will start at 8, making them the 4th pair of brothers to play together in a test at lock/loose forward:

Zinzan & Robin Brooke: 39 tests together
Gary & Alan Whetton: 34
Stan & Colin Meads: 3*
Sam & Luke Whitelock: 0

Honourable mention:**
Maurice & Cyril Brownlie: 3
Charles & Edward Purdue: 1

*Both usually locks, Stan played 1 test each at 6 & 8 while Colin locked. Colin had 2 tests at 8 in one of which Stan locked.
**Played in the days of non-specialised forwards when NZ used a 2-3-2 scrum formation. You could argue they were locks/loosies at the same time.

[rowan]

Difficult to say what happened to South Africa in the 1960s after that magnificent tour of Europe at the start of the decade and series win over NZ at home. They had been unbeaten in a series (home or away) throughout the entire first half of the 20th century, in fact, had a whitewash and away series win over the All Blacks to their credit, and had put together that remarkable grandslam of grandslam tours (4 tours, 16 tests). & they were back with a vengeance in the 70s and early 80s as arguably the dominant team in world rugby during most of that period as well. They had some truly great players in the 60s, such as Jan Ellis, Frik du Preez and John Gainsford, to name just a few. But this was also the first decade in which they had faced real anti-Apartheid hostility on tour, no doubt due to the Sharpesville Massacre of 1960, an inexcusable atrocity which made headlines all around the world. Interestingly, given today's mess, this was also a decade of unwelcome government interference in the game in South Africa, together with infighting among the rugby officials themselves, with Dr Danie Craven in the thick of it. Boks' selection began to resemble a turnstile, while a number of top players came to be regarded as 'prima donnas' - Gainsford among them, though he was widely regarded as the best South African center ever (before Danie Gerber came along). Chris Greyvenstein refers to the period 1961 to 1969 as the 'turbulent years' in his book (Springbok Saga). They did, nonetheless, win two series against the Lions, and also ended the decade with a 4-0 whitewash of the Wallabies (following which the ARU broke off ties with them until the post-Apartheid era).

Meanwhile, precisely half a century ago the All Blacks were in the midst of one of their finest tours ever, going unbeaten in 17 games and winning all four of the test matches, but being denied a probable grandslam when the match with Ireland was canceled due to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. The tour lasted just over two months, kicking off with two fixtures in Canada in October, and ending with an 11-6 win over the Baabaas at Twickers on Dec 16 (replacing the Irish test). Captain Brian Lochore led a truly legendary forward pack, which included such immortals as the Meads brothers, Kel Tremain, Waka Nathan, Ian Kirkpatrick & Ken Gray - most of whom would have walked into an all-time All Blacks XV of the pre-World Cup era, while only the 1924/25 'Invincibles' rivalled them as the greatest team to leave New Zealand's shores in that era. There was rarely any such thing as an 'easy' test in those days either, as incoming tours were the major focus for France & the Home Unions outside of the 5 Nations championship. 50 years ago this Saturday the All Blacks took on France in the third of their tests and prevailed 21-15.

There was, however, nothing particularly outstanding about Northern Hemisphere rugby in that decade to suggest the Boks should have performed so poorly in Europe. Both SA & NZ were untroubled in dispatching the Lions during this decade (the former in 2 series, as mentioned earlier), while the two teams which dominated the 5 Nations, Wales & France, suffered a similar fate on tours to the Southern Hemisphere, notwithstading a narrow one-off win for the latter at Springs in 64, which South Africa duly avenged with series victories at home in 67 and away in 68. The Boks also thumped the Welsh in a one-off test at Durban in 64. The All Blacks, meanwhile, whitewashed the French in two home series and comfortably beat the Welsh 2-0 at the end of the decade. So there was definitely something amiss on those South African tours to Europe in the 60s.

[scuzzaman]

Ian Kirkpatrick was one of the most imposing physical specimens I've personally met. He was hellaciously strong. I met him as a youngster because my father sold farm equipment and I traveled a lot with him during school holidays. So we built a couple of fences on his farm. I could wish to be that strong, even on a pound for pound basis.

[rowan]

My brother was a good friend of Simon Tremain, who was a promising youngster with the Wellington provincial team in the early 90s until his dad (All Blacks legend Kel Tremain) died suddenly at the age of 54. Simon just gave up rugby after that. He was still in his early 20s, as I recall, but said he just couldn't play without his dad there. Hard to believe that's already quarter of a century ago!

[rowan]

Ken Gray also died at 54. In fact, he and Kel Tremain were both born in 1938 and both died in 1992. He was a real hard man in the Kiwis front row back in the 60s and rated by many as the finest in his position in the pre-World Cup era. But he was also amazingly tall for a prop of that age, standing around 6'3, and had actually started out as a lock. Later in life he became mayor of Porirua (Wellington's state housing ghetto) and began to pop up on TV rugby shows with a dazzling new hairstyle and giant-sized ego - much to everyone's surprise.

[Lizard]

I believe I am related to Ken Gray somehow. The Braid family are also definitely distant cousins (Gary, father of Daniel & Luke, and I share a great great grandfather).

[rowan]

Congratulations! My most famous rugby relative was William Hardham, who won the VC in the Boer War, and who wasn't an All Black but probably only because they weren't a regular fixture back then. He was a prominent player for the Wellington province, and the city's second division club competition is named after him. I believe 2 of my nieces may also be distantly related to the Bachop & Mauger brothers too, albeit distantly. That's a big whanau!

[rowan]

New Zealand recorded their 31st victories over both Wales & Scotland in the AIs, thus extending their unbeaten streaks against them to 30 & 31 respectively, and their all-time records to 31-3 & 31-0 (2 draws). They also got their 45th win over France, extending their unbeaten run against them to a record 11 games, and their all-time record to 45-12 (1 draw).

[rowan]

Japan have played 15 tier 1 teams in the past 4 years, having only played 15 in the 13 years before that.

2013 - 2017
France: D 23-23
Australia: L 63-30
Ireland: L 35-13
Ireland: L 50-22
Wales: L 33-30
Argentina: L 54-20
Scotland: L 21-18
Scotland: L 26-13
South Africa: W 34-32
Scotland: L 45-10
Italy: W 26-23
Scotland: L 42-17
New Zealand: L 54-6
Wales: W 23-8
Wales: L 22-18

1999 - 2012
New Zealand: L 83-7
France: L 47-21
Italy: L 36-12
Australia: L 91-3
Wales: L 72-18
Italy: L 52-6
Ireland: L 47-18
Ireland: L 44-12
Wales: L 98-0
Scotland: L 100-8
France: L 51-29
Scotland: L 32-12
Wales: L 64-10
Wales: L 53-30
Argentina: L 33-12

[rowan]

So at a quick count, there appears to have been 288 official tests played this year, with just three to come now in the Maghreb Tri Nations kicking off this weekend.

138 were played in Europe, resulting in 90 wins for home teams and 45 wins for away teams. There were also two draws and one match played by neutral teams.

46 were played in Africa, resulting in 29 wins for home teams and 14 wins for away teams. There were also three draws.

33 were played in SAmerica, resulting in 22 wins for home teams and 10 wins for away teams. There was one draw.

31 were played in Asia, resulting in 15 wins for home teams and 11 wins for visiting teams, two draws and three matches played by neutral teams.

20 were played in Oceania, resulting in 15 wins for home teams and 4 wins for visiting teams. There was one draw.

20 were played in NAmerica, resulting in 10 wins for home teams and 10 wins for away teams.

Totals: 181 wins for home teams, 94 wins for away teams, nine draws, four games played on neutral grounds.

Fiji recorded the only wins by a tier 2 team against a tier 1 team, defeating both Scotland & Italy at home.

Brazil & Uruguay both had home wins over Canada, while Germany stunned Romania, also at home, to record wins for tier 3 teams over a tier 2 opponent.

[cashead]

The following All Blacks were awarded their first test caps in 2012, in the listed order:

Brodie Retallick
Julian Savea
Aaron Smith
Sam Cane
Luke Romano
Beauden Barrett
Charlie Faumuina
Dane Coles
Tawera Kerr-Barlow

All 9 players went on to feature at the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

2013, on the other hand was not a good year for New All Blacks. The following players earned their first test caps:

Ben Afeaki
Jeremy Thrush
Steven Luatua
Charles Piutau
Matt Todd
Ryan Crotty
Tom Taylor
Francis Saili
Dominic Bird
Frank Halai
Luke Whitelock
Jeffery Toomaga-Allen

Of the 12 players, only Ryan Crotty has gone on to secure himself a spot as a regular, although Matt Todd has earned the bulk of his 13 (as of current date) caps has come post-2015, and the trio of Bird, Luke Whitelock and Toomaga-Allen were all recently included in the extended All Blacks squad at the end of 2017. Ben Afeaki was unfortunately forced to retire early due to long-term concussion issues. The remaining 7 players are all currently plying their trade overseas. What they all have in common though, is that not a single one of them were involved in the 2015 RWC campaign, although some would have been closer than others - namely Todd, Crotty and probably Luatua.


2 players that have escaped the curse of 2013 are TJ Perenara and Joe Moody. Perenara toured with the All Blacks in 2013, and was expected to come off the bench against Ireland, only for the Irish to turn up in a big way, resulting in Aaron Smith playing the full 80. Perenara would not leave the tour without earning a jersey though, starting for a Steve Hansen-coached Barbarians side that registered a fairly comfortable win against Fiji to end the season. Perenara would go on to earn his first test cap in 2014, and has since secured himself a spot as the no.2 halfback behind Aaron Smith.

Joe Moody was also selected for the 2013 EOYT, only to suffer a season-ending injury in the ITM Cup final playing for Canterbury, which would delay his elevation to test rugby until the first Bledisloe test of 2014, when he was called into the All Blacks squad as an injury replacement. Moody had also initially missed out on selection for the 2015 RWC squad, until he was called up as an injury replacement to Tony Woodcock, and hasn't looked back since, securing his spot as the preferred starting loosehead prop for the All Blacks. Not bad for an injury replacement.

[rowan]

Kind of suggests the serious re-building work occurs in the year directly after the World Cup, and a fair degree of experimentation occurs the following season. Obviously it would require a much broader analysis to back that up, but that's the impression I gain from those particular stats. Seems logical, while in the year dirctly before a World Cup you'd be looking for consistency and consolidation with probably few debutantes.

[Lizard]

I'm sure you have all been wondering, which team that has never played in a RWC has beaten the most teams that have played for the Webb Ellis Trophy?

The answer may surprise.

It's Morocco, with 29 victories over 9 different RWC nations.

Morocco has had the advantage of playing in European competitions initially (beating Spain, Portugal 5 times each, Romania and Russia once, and even Italy twice in the '70s) and then moving to the African structure (giving it 11 wins over the hapless Cote d'Ivoire,* 2 over Namibia and one over Zimbabwe. It has also beaten Uruguay once.

Second place is arguably the Soviet Union (27 wins) although its offspring Russia and Georgia have both qualified to the Big Dance.

Next on the list is Germany with 17 wins.


*who miraculously qualified in 1995, got smashed, had a bloke paralyzed, and have never been heard of since. Cote d'Ivoire has only 3 wins itself over fellow RWC nations (Namibia & Zim in 1994, and Zim again in 2005)

[rowan]

Nice one. I knew about Morocco's history but have never thought of it in that context. I've also been telling people to watch out for them now they've returned to division 1. They were banned some years ago (unclear why) and had to work their way back up from the bottom. So they're back in the top division just in time for a crack at World Cup qualifying. They have actually reached the repechage before, dipping out to Uruguay on aggregate. I don't think they'll make it this time either, though they could be an outside chance of playing in the repechage tournament. Incidentally, Ivory Coast are the team they beat to get back up, and it was a very tight game. I think the Ivory Coast team at the World Cup was mostly drawn from France beause the domestic scene is very small - and amateur. Nonetheless, there does appear to have been some improvement in recent years.

[rowan]

Tunisia must be 4th, I guess. By my count they are only 1 behind Germany with 16 wins over teams who have been to the World Cup; 6 over Portugal, 4 over the Ivory Coast (though Wiki only lists 2, so maybe that's wrong), 3 over Namibia, and one apiece over Zimbabwe, Romania and Spain. Like Morocco, they switched from European competition to Africa at the turn of the century. & also like Morocco, they have reached the World Cup qualifying repechages - in 2011 - only to get smashed by Romania.

[rowan]

Continuing along that theme Zambia (77) must be the lowest ranked team to have defeated a former World Cup competitor, downing Zimbabwe twice during the previous decade. Unranked Algeria did beat Ivory Coast in 2014, but I guess that won't go down as an official test in the World Rugby records. Probably the next lowest ranked team to beat a World Cup opponent would be the Cook Islands (55), who stunned Italy in 1980.

[rowan]

I suppose the 41 ranking places Italy has on the Cooks would also be the biggest advantage any side has over a team which has beaten it, unless we count Zimbabwe's win over the All Blacks in 1949 (as Rhodesia), with a 44 ranking place advantage to the latter.

[Lizard]

Have you been reading the Zimbabwe Rugby FB page?

[rowan]

Not till you mentioned it Debate continues over the status of the All Blacks' defeat to Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) in 49. There's a fellow named Grunter with the Zimbo star next to his name who says it was never considered a test and never will be. I took a look at his page to see if he was an official or something, but just found a bunch of redneck post about the heroics of the Confederates and the government forces in Rhodesia's Bush wars. I should've invited him to join the political forum here.

[Lizard]

Yes, I wouldn’t uncritically accept Grunter as the authority on the matter. But so far there is simply no evidence that the ZRU has ever awarded test caps for those matches.

[Lizard]

Anyway, today's stat: Most caps without a win.

This is a tie. Both Youn Kwon Woo of Korea and Guillaume Brebant of Belgium have 13 caps with no wins, although Brebant has played in 1 draw. Brebant was last capped in 2017 and Woo in 2016, so they may still extend the record. There are 4 players tied for 3rd on 12 but none seem likely to be capped again.

Most fruitless caps for each major nation:
France: 12, E. Lesieur (1906-12)
Ireland: 10 JRW Morrow (1882-88); WR Hunter* (1962-66)
Scotland: 9 JH Henderson (1953-54)
Australia: 9 JV Brown (1956-58)
Italy: 8 M Trevisiol (1988-1994)
South Africa: 7 OA Roux** (1969-1974)
Argentina: 7 HM Garcia Simon (1990-92)
England: 6 EW Roberts (1901-1907); EL Rudd*** (1965-66)
Wales: 6 BR Turnbull (1925-30)
New Zealand: 3 shared by 8 players, most recently JE Black (1977-1980)

Remarkably, a number of players have been capped by their national side and the Lions without a win. The most capped are Lions team mates J Wallace (Ire, 1903-04) & T Gibson (Eng, 1903-05) who were both uncapped before the 1903 Lions tour (2 draws, 1 loss) and then earned two caps in losses for their countries.

*played in 3 draws
**played in 3 draws. The most SA caps without a win or a draw is 3, shared by 14 players some who had 1 or 2 draws. 2 Springboks have 4 caps for 2 wins & 2 draws.
***2 draws

[rowan]

Looking at longest losing streaks per nation, New Zealand had 6 in a row in 1949. In fact, there were beaten twice in the same day, by Australia in Wellington & South Africa in Durban on September 3. Of course, they were entirely different teams, but both official All Blacks sides, and both were official tests. & that does not include the loss to Rhodesia either, which was another XV again! It very nearly became 7 losses in a row, in fact, as NZ were held to a draw in the opening test of the Lions series the following year.

SA & England are 2nd equal in this department with 7-match losing streaks. The latter's occurred between 1904-06, & SA's between 64-67. Incidentally, Boks' lost their first 6 tests ever, all at home to the British Isles at the end of the 19th century. Apparently they just trotted out the local provincial team in those times and called them the Boks! Amazing to think they then went unbeaten in a series throughout the entire first half of the 20th century...

Argentina lost their first 8 internationals ever, between 1910-32, and although these included fixtures against the Junior Boks and British XVs, they have since repeated the feat on 2 occasions, 2013 & 2014 - all against tier 1 opposition.

Each of the remaining tier 1 teams have longest losing streaks in the double figures, with Australia managing 10-in-a-row between 56-58, Wales & Ireland 11 between 2003-03 and 71-73 respectively, Italy 13 in 2008-09, Scotland 17 in 51-53 and France 18 from 1911-20.

[Lizard]

There is currently a club of 12 nations which have played at every RWC from 1987 onwards. There is a good chance that for RWC2019 this number will be trimmed for the first time since the tournament expanded to 20 teams, as there is a fair chance that either Romania or Canada will fail to qualify. In Canada’s case, because they now suck. In Romania’s case, because of the increasing range of strong tier 2 teams in Europe.

This Club obviously numbered 16 after RWC1987 and has dwindled as follows:

1991: Tonga
The short end of the stick given to Pacific Island rugby rears its head. Samoa was not invited in 1987 but qualified for 1991. With only two places allocated for 3 worthy teams, Tonga missed out.

1995: Fiji, Zimbabwe, USA
The PI theme continues with Fiji missing out this time. It is notable that within the first 3 RWCs, each of the 3 Pacific powers had been excluded once. Tonga became the first team to re-qualify after missing a RWC.
The return of South Africa to the international fold inevitably saw the demise of Zimbabwe. Zim has never again qualified and holds the record for a RWC-playing nation of 6 consecutive tournaments missed (and is not considered a favourite for 2019).
USA was effectively a victim of the decision to allow Africa a fairly undeserved qualifying spot (taken by Ivory Coast) in addition to South Africa’s host place.* The Americas were reduced to one qualifying place (which the Pumas secured) and Canada qualified as a 1991 QF team. This is the only time USA has missed out

1999-2011:
No further Original Club members drop out (being every 6 Nations team, NZ, Australia, Argentina, Canada, Japan & Romania). The “task” of missing out has been made difficult by the expansion to 20 teams. In 1999:
Namibia took its mortgage out on the Africa spot and shows no sign of letting it go, or doing anything more than this bare minimum to justify its inclusion.
Uruguay made a bit of a false start, playing in 2003 but then not returning until 2015, but has directly qualified ahead of Canada for 2019.
Spain became the first in a series of new European qualifiers, in the only genuinely competitive qualifier region.** Spain’s participation was short-lived but having missed the 4 subsequent tournaments is currently looking likely to make a return in 2019.

2003:
Georgia displaced Spain as the next European Next Big Thing, and was much more convincing in the role having not dropped out since and qualifying automatically for RWC2019.

2007:
Portugal continued the European merry-go-round, displacing Uruguay.

2011:
Russia’s turn to dip a toe in as Portugal exits.

2015:
Uruguay returns.

2019:
At least one Original Club member is likely to miss out, either Canada or Romania. Canada already finds itself in the Repechage tournament. In Tier 2 Europe, Georgia has automatically qualified. Romania, Russia and Spain are fighting it out for 1 direct place and 1 likely repechage place***. Spain is ahead at the moment. If Russia (currently 3rd place) beats Romania (2nd place) next week, that is sadly probably the end of Romania’s RWC run. If Romania remains second, then either it or Canada will fail to qualify. The only way for both to qualify is for Romania to secure the direct European spot. Technically, they could both fail but that would require the likes of Hong Kong or Kenya to do something utterly unbelievable in the repechage tournament.


*It would have been interesting if SA had not hosted and its lily-white early 1990s Springboks had been forced to play qualifiers against black African teams.
**There has never been even the remotest suggestion of any new qualifier from Asia or the Pacific. There are faint prospects in the Americas and Africa.
***The second-placed team will play-off v Portugal and, if they win, v Samoa where the winner (i.e. Samoa) qualifies and loser goes into repechage.

[rowan]

Yes, the failure of America to qualify for 95 is credited with precipitating expansion to 20 - prematurely, in my view. Hopefully the absence of either Canada or Romania will have the same effect, because 24 just works a whole lot better than 20 and the tournament is starting to look mind-numbingly repetitive with much the same teams showing up again and again with just a few variations in the usual results. It's no foregone conclusion, but I seriously doubt Russia can win at Cluj. They're not in great form and the Oaks will be one very fired up unit, of course.