Loving the stats, moar analysis! Have to say Ulster's tackle stats are pretty amazing that's close to international level stuff. I wonder how often one player is tackled, but a secondary tackler/choke tackle results in multiple tackles being counted?

Yeah, one thing I couldn't get hold of was territory stats. For the Ulster game it felt like we played the entire second 40 minutes in our own half.

Would love to find them, but to be honest I wouldn't trust ESPN for that kind of info anyway. For two of the games they had a 100%/0% possession result. I'm guessing that's not entirely accurate!

Stats are great in lots of ways, but they can definitely be misleading too. One thing that I don't think the stats really show, is where on the pitch all the action is taking place. I feel we have spent way too much time playing rugby in our own half of the pitch. So while it's great that our stats show we're doing well on metres run or whatever, it's no use if we're running up and down in our own 22!

really interesting figures ummm, good job. Would be interesting to do a cross between these stats and territory.

Here's some more nonsense

In attack:

Connacht	Clean Breaks	Defenders Beaten	Offloads	Opposition	Clean Breaks	Defenders Beaten	Offloads
	9	18	10	Zebre	5	11	8
	2	8	5	Blues	4	18	14
	3	23	13	Ulster	3	16	7
	13	23	18	Ospreys	15	17	11
	4	22	10	Treviso	7	10	6

Our offload-crazy attack seems to be doing its primary job, beating defenders, but it just makes you wonder why we're not notching up more scores.

In defence:

Connacht	Tackles Made	Missed	Penalties Conceded	Opposition	Tackles Made	Missed	Penalties Conceded
	88	11	10	Zebre	89	16	9
	137	18	18	Blues	105	8	4
	123	16	11	Ulster	170	23	7
	79	17	3	Ospreys	148	23	12
	94	10	14	Treviso	131	22	13

So even in defence we've missed fewer tackles that the opposition in all but one game. And the Blues game aside we're not doing too badly in terms of parity in the penalty count, and in fact reversed the trend entirely against the Ospreys.

Speaking of penalties Parks is coming in for a lot of criticism because of his missed kicks. So far our kickers have missed three in the opening game against Zebre, two against Blues in awful conditions and one each each of the other games. That's not great, but what's telling is that they are not making many attempts either. As a team we are not putting the opposition under enough pressure that they're giving away kickable penalties. And it's probably for that reason that the out halves are taking pot-shots when territory might be the better choice, they don't know when they'll get another shot.

Last year in the first 5 games we had scored 11 tries and allowed 11. This year we have allowed 11 but only scored 7. That stat is skewed slightly after our 5 try win against Leinster (huzzah!) So even though we might be down and annoyed with the way things are going we're actually more or less on a par with the previous season.

In the end I think Lam's assertion is correct, we are up in a number of areas and we're heading in the right direction, but it's stupid mistakes that are letting us down. And it's these mistakes that are trying the patience of the fans. Cut those out and we could do some damage this year.

connachtexile wrote: Very impressive Ummmm I'd like to know how long Carty and Ronaldson were on the field to give a more accurate breakdown of their performances.

Ronaldson got 4 minutes against Zebre, Blues 12, Ulster 19 and 40 against Ospreys.

JC got 26 minutes against Treviso.

Great stuff, Ummmmmm, thanks a lot for that. As you say, it's a lack of tactical flexibility that is killing us. Mind you, thinking back a season ago and a hell of a lot of Munster fans were getting increasingly irate at Rob Penney's tactics and the perceived lack of skills from the player in adapting to the tactics. A year on, Penney has bedded in and it looks like they have the ability to mix their tactics and still have a skills-based framework to go from. I'm hoping that Connacht will be able to adapt and adopt something similar.

Very impressive Ummmm I'd like to know how long Carty and Ronaldson were on the field to give a more accurate breakdown of their performances.

Pat Lam has been quoted in the paper as saying our stats are up in a number of areas. So a break in the Pro12 gives us a chance to analyse stats from the first 5 rounds, and gives me the opportunity to dust off my clipboard in my ongoing quest to make Connacht fans the most informed when it comes to justifiable moaning

Remember, if it's not backed up with stats, your moan ain't worth nuffin'.

Out half:
A more run-based game has meant less kicking from hand, both Parks and Ronaldson are trying to get the ball into their outside backs' hands, and it's showing.

Opposition	Player	Kick	Pass	Run
Zebre	Parks	17	20	8
	Ronaldson	0	2	0
Blues	Parks	15	17	2
	Ronaldson	1	1	2
Ulster	Parks	7	21	6
	Ronaldson	0	5	3
Ospreys	Parks	4	18	2
	Ronaldson	4	12	7
Treviso	Parks	3	17	2
	Carty	0	12	6

But you have to ask if this is a good plan, or aimless. If the defence knows what to expect you're in trouble. Wings and Full backs can push up in defence rather than cover the kicks, attackers run out of room quicker. The chances for intercept tries like Biggars increase. Our best performances in the first two weeks had a more balanced kick/pass ratio, but right now we're really trying to force the issue. I can't say it's working and if I was doing video analysis of Connacht right now I'd have a very easy job.

As far as the team is concerned, and it's been well noted on the Clan forum, running and offloading is the path to Rugby Nirvana.

Home	Metres run	Possession	Away	Metres run	Possession
Connacht	535	75%	Zebre	297	25%
Blues	394	N/A	Connacht	384	N/A
Connacht	357	33%	Ulster	346	67%
Connacht	614	25%	Ospreys	479	75%
Treviso	356	N/A	Connacht	435	N/A

That's a lot of running. The Ulster game is interesting, we ran more than Ulster with half the possession. Not that it did us much good. Ditto in the loss to Ospreys with only a third of the possession.

In the pack our lineout is working well, and it's a source of some grumble that we're not using this as a tool. The arrival of Craig Clarke has lifted the standard in the lineout, we stole almost half of the Ospreys' lineouts.

Fans must be asking why we don't kick to the corners a bit more and put pressure on the opposition. Having said that, we are increasing our own losses, which needs to be worked on before the lineout becomes a real weapon.

Home	Won/Lost	Away	Won/Lost
Connacht	9/1	Zebre	13/2
Blues	16/2	Connacht	5/0
Connacht	7/2	Ulster	12/4
Connacht	14/3	Ospreys	5/4
Treviso	10/3	Connacht	9/3

Scrums have been reasonable for the team

Home	Won/Lost	Away	Won/Lost
Connacht	7/1	Zebre	5/2
Blues	4/3	Connacht	7/2
Connacht	8/2	Ulster	7/1
Connacht	4/3	Ospreys	3/2
Treviso	7/2	Connacht	7/2

But turnovers are a problem. Whether this is down to mistakes, or isolation, or poor hands is up for others to decide.

The opposition is more or less returning the favour so far, but against the play-off spot hopefuls like Ospreys it's obvious the stronger teams won't be so accommodating. Leinster are averaging 12 turnovers a game compared to our 20.

Home	Turnovers	Away	Turnovers
Connacht	18	Zebre	17
Blues	23	Connacht	22
Connacht	22	Ulster	19
Connacht	22	Ospreys	14
Treviso	15	Connacht	15

In the end, though, what's killing us is our lack of plan B and a telegraphed game plan. We're up in so many areas we really should be troubling teams, but so far this season we haven't even registered a single LBP in our losses. And this is despite the fact that we're beating or at least being the equals of our opposition in a number of areas.



(stats by espn)