Preview for final round of Pro12 2011-12

Rnd 22

sea_point wrote: What marks Carr and Visser out especially is the fact that are both noted for coming inside looking for the ball in attack...

Which is what I noticed about Vainikolo, even when he's not scoring he is at least looking to get involved. Can't have wings standing outside waiting for the ball to find them.

Simply put though Connacht do not score enough tries outside or inside. They're toward the bottom in that category and it is difficult to move up the table like that. Glasgow is a bit of an aberration with only 28 tries themselves, but they make up for it with the best defense in the league.

salmson wrote:

sea_point wrote: More worrying than that is our strike rate for tries, Both Tiernan & Gavin are handily enough placed in the total tries scored list, but when you look at their strike ratio (i.e. minutes played per try scored) they are right at the bottom of the table. This is not good enough, by any stretch.

I don't think that's a fair comparison. Leinster score a try every 36 minutes, Connacht one every 62 minutes. All of a sudden a comparison between Carr (one try every 250 minutes, 13% of Leinster tries) and O'Halloran (one try every 320 minutes, 19% of Connacht tries) doesn't seem so bad.

Visser's still a freak though.

I don't mean just for the player, it flags up a huge issue in terms of Connacht's inability to generate opportunities for our wide men, something that other teams seem to be able to do.

What marks Carr and Visser out especially is the fact that are both noted for coming inside looking for the ball in attack...

sea_point wrote: More worrying than that is our strike rate for tries, Both Tiernan & Gavin are handily enough placed in the total tries scored list, but when you look at their strike ratio (i.e. minutes played per try scored) they are right at the bottom of the table. This is not good enough, by any stretch.

I don't think that's a fair comparison. Leinster score a try every 36 minutes, Connacht one every 62 minutes. All of a sudden a comparison between Carr (one try every 250 minutes, 13% of Leinster tries) and O'Halloran (one try every 320 minutes, 19% of Connacht tries) doesn't seem so bad.

Visser's still a freak though.

salmson wrote: Worryingly, Dan Parks' success rate of the tee has dropped to 65%, behind both NOC (67%) and Miah (75%).

True, but I think it's a case of Miah's accuracy improving. When we were on our major losing streak we really needed a Parks. It's no coincidence that we're winning now and Miah has a better accuracy %.

More worrying than that is our strike rate for tries, Both Tiernan & Gavin are handily enough placed in the total tries scored list, but when you look at their strike ratio (i.e. minutes played per try scored) they are right at the bottom of the table. This is not good enough, by any stretch.

Compare Tim Visser/Fionn Carr/Simon Zebo with Tiernan for example.

• Visser (18 Starts) scores a try for every 120 Mins played
• Zebo (12+4) scores a try for every 140.6 Mins played
• Carr (14+3) scores a try for every 215.2 Mins played
• O'Halloran (20 Starts) scores a try for every 320 Mins played

Likewise think we'll all agree that after a sluggish start post RWC that Vainakolo is playing well and is earning his starting place. But he's scored only three tries, but actually look at his ratio and it's the best of any regularly starting Connacht player...

Vainikolo (11 Starts) scores a try for every 261.7 Mins played

Equally in terms of kickers Parks given he's starting the same amount of games as both Miah & Niallpoints ratio this season isn't much worse than them. Bear in mind that Cardiff also have three other competent kickers (Blair/Halfpenny & Sweeney)in their squad, and often there are (unusually for most teams) two other front-line kickers on the field at the same time, which puts additional pressure on the flyhalf.

Worryingly, Dan Parks' success rate of the tee has dropped to 65%, behind both NOC (67%) and Miah (75%).

Round 21 Pro12 Reviews including scoring/appearence Stats

Just came accross this rather excellent document on an Ulster Rugby Blog, the enclosed is the Pro12 Round Review for the round Just completed (Round 19).

www.intouchrugby.com/magazine/wp-content..._Review_Round_19.pdf

Not sure if it's available to media only, but I've been on to the Pro12 to hopefully get a copy by email and will post on here in future if successful...