Key stats on Super rugby (team & individual level)

Fellow fanatics, here is a link to a site with an article containing key stats. Unfortunately I cannot just provide the link to the stats alone so you will have to scroll down to: "League Leaders".

League Leaders - s15

Some surprises, at least for me, e.g. 

1. Chiefs much maligned tight 5 did pretty well in terms of scums (91%). Did relatively poorly in line outs won (78.5%); did well in terms of ruck success 95%.

2. Chiefs tackle success was 88.1% second in s15.

3. Chiefs best in offload success, tries, clean breaks, second in meters gained, second in defenders beaten.

4. Brodie Retallick was 8th in line out takes (he had more than Etzebeth!)

5. Morne Steyn scored more points than anyone else.

So, what do you think of these stats?  If we use the same source for our stats we have a chance of a decent debate.

Just win

Some stats could be misleading - for instance Retallick played in all games - while Etzebeth was out for most of the season.   If he could not beat Etzebeth under those circumstances it would show how really poor he is in line outs.  

Morne Steyn had a return to more accurate goal kicking compared to 2012  - but otherwise was the standard poor flyhalf he really is.  

I have a very high opinion of the Chiefs loosies and backline - so I am not surprised by the good stats showed in tryscoring and ball recovery.

Scrums are difficult to judge ourely on the basis of stats.   There is a solid way of winning scrums and one not so solid - ie winning them on the back foot/going backwards.   It is the quality of scrum wins - rather than the number - that makes the difference.    Not sure whether the scrum penalties are dealt with in your stats.  Is that a scrum loss or what? 

Then there is the issue of mauls and the success rate in that - that I regard as a weak point in the Chiefs make-up.

A strong team - but not invincible - so lets wait and see what happens this year.