🧑‍💻 THE KEY STAT WHERE SOUTH AFRICA ARE IN A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN 🇿🇦

When reviewing the stats for men’s test rugby in 2025, I stumbled upon one metric that demonstrates just how far ahead the #Springboks are of the rest

Let me explain… 🧵 For a while now I’ve been searching for rugby’s equivalent of xG ⚽️

The stat that tells us how a team is performing against the quality of chances they’re creating

There have been attempts by companies like Opta 🧑‍🔬 but I think I’ve found something does the job the nicely…

BRISTOL BEARS DEEP DIVE: THE WORST GOOD TEAM IN RUGBY 🐻

Bristol’s stats for this season are crazy. The good ones are incredible, thrilling & record-breaking 🤩

The bad ones leave you with your head in your hands… Let’s use @OptaJonny to explain🧵 Bristol’s attacking statistics this season are nothing short of extraordinary 🤯

They set a new club record for a Premiership season with 95 scores, just one fewer than league leaders Bath 🥈

They scored on average 35 points/game & broke the record for try bonuses in a season!

SIX NATIONS SECRETS REVEALED! 📊

Carrying.

Specifically: carrying a rugby ball.

Some may have seen that I’ve been tracking the attacking stats for the home nations this #SixNations

Here is what I have learned… 🧵 Firstly, an apology to my French and Italian friends

This thread only looks at the ‘home’ nations (🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿☘️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿)

It’s not because I don’t love you, it’s just a decision i made early on due to

a) my followers being mostly from these countries
b) the amount of numbers I can crunch!

URC: 🇿🇦 FRANCHISES PROVE ITS NOT ALL ABOUT MONEY

This season, many 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 fans are blaming the new salary cap for the regions performing poorly

It is definitely a factor, but it mightn’t be a scapegoat for current performances

This might be the most controversial 🧵I ever do... Welsh fans are dismayed at the new funding model for the regions

What they may be surprised to learn, however, is that their South African rivals have been some of the most cash-strapped in the global game, yet All 4 franchises finished about all 4 regions last season

THE RISE OF DAN BIGGAR - WALES’ ULTIMATE COMPETITOR

Dan Biggar has played for Wales for the last time and my goodness do I miss him already.

He is one of the first players whose Wales careers I have watched from start to finish, and it was far from plain sailing…

A thread 🧵 Daniel Biggar arguably first came to people’s attention as part of the 2008 Wales U20s team

You may have heard of this team, it also included:

Rhys Webb
Leigh Halfpenny
Sam Warburton
Jon Fox
Justin Tipuric
Dan Evans
Scott Andrews
Josh Turnbull

Whatever happened to those guys?

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED WHILST ENGLAND WERE DOWN TO 12 MEN:

A huge talking point from #ENGvWAL was Wales failing to capitalise against 12 men

But what really happened during the time was had a 3 man advantage? Lets investigate 🪡

(Sorry for image quality, reasons…) Wales had a three man advantage for a total of 5 minutes and 25 seconds

During that time, only two plays occurred

Farrell was dismissed on 63:15 🕣

HOW ONE MAN RUINED WALES’ MIDFIELD 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

This is a story of destruction.

Of woe.

Of rage.

This is how Wales completely wasted a world cup cycle and totally screwed up the most important combination on the rugby pitch. This WILL make you angry… 🪡 First, a fact: research by @GLAnalytics shows that the level of cohesion required to make an effective centre partnership is higher than any other area of the team

These partnerships are built up over time and the longer they are together the better they usually get