Some interesting statistical trends from the last four years of Tier 1 test rugby which were affirmed by #RWC2019, and some others which ran contrary to what we had seen earlier in the cycle: Making ground by carrying the ball continued to become more difficult, with the average carry in the World Cup making 3.2m - compared to 3.7m in tests in 2016.

Offloading also trended down over the cycle: 6.1% of carries in Japan resulted in an offload, vs. 8.0% in 2016.