Rugby World Cup leading performers

Most penalty goals – player

1 Yu Tamura (Japan) – 10

2 Felipe Berchesi (Uruguay) – 6

3 Romain Ntamack (France) – 5

4 Henry Taefu (Samoa) – 4

5 Owen Farrell (England) – 4

............

Most conversions – player

1 Elton Jantjies (South Africa) – 14

2 Richie Mo’unga (New Zealand) – 10

3 Yu Tamura (Japan) – 9

4 Adam Hastings (Scotland) –  8

5 Johnny Sexton (Ireland) – 8

.........

Tries scored – player

1 Josh Adams (Wales) – 5

2 Kotaro Matsushima (Japan) – 5

3 Julian Montoya (Argentina) – 4

4 Kenki Fukuoka (Japan) – 4

5 Andrew Conway (Ireland) – 3

....  

Metres made – player

1 Semi Radradra (Fiji) – 400

2 Kotaro Matsushima (Japan) – 350

3 Marika Koroibete (Australia) – 314

4 Alapati Leiua (Samoa) – 266

5 Gareth Davies (Wales) –  263

.......

Carries over the gainline – player

1 Semi Radradra (Fiji) – 25

2 CJ Stander (Ireland) – 25

3 Kazuki Himeno (Japan) – 23

4 Kotaro Matsushima (Japan) – 21

5 Maama Vaipulu (Samoa) – 21

.......

Lineout steals – player

1 Guido Pagadizabal (Argentina) – 5

2 Izack Rodda (Australia) – 5  

3 Shannon Frizell (New Zealand) – 4

4 Franco Mostert (South Africa) – 3

5 James Ryan (Ireland) – 3

..........

Clean breaks – player

1 Josh Adams (Wales) – 13

2 Kotaro Matsushima (Japan) – 11

3 Warrick Gelant (South Africa) – 11

4 Jordie Barrett (New Zealand) – 10

5 Marika Koroibete (Australia) – 9

......

Tackles made – player

1 TJ Ioane (Samoa) – 67

2 Pieter Labuschagne (Japan) – 56

3 Jonny Gray (Scotland) – 55

4 Chris Vui (Samoa) – 54

5 Shota Horie – 54

....

Offloads made – player

1 Leone Nakarawa (Fiji) – 12

2 Max Medard (France) – 7

3 AJ MacGinty (USA) – 6

4 Jake Polledri (Italy) – 6

5 Keith Earls (Ireland) – 6

6 Gela Aprasidze (Georgia) – 6

7 Elliot Daly (England) – 6

8 Finn Russell (Scotland) – 6

9 Siale Piutau (Tonga) – 6

10 Virimi Vakatawa (France) – 5

........

Turnovers won – player

1 Maro Itoje (England) – 7

2 Santiago Arata (Uruguay) – 6

3 Vladimir Ostroushko (Russia) – 5

4 Jamie Ritchie (Scotland) – 5

5 Kazuki Himeno (Japan) – 5

So the only Boks to rate are Jantjies...conversions, Gelant...clean breaks against minnows, and the incredible Mostert who off the bench made the top 5 in line out steals.

Unfotunately there aren’t stats for turnovers per minute played, which surely would have been won by Louw...or scrum penalties forced which would have been taken by the Beast.

So many aspects of play aren’t covered by these numbers....but many key things are and one would have thought the Player of the Year would feature, along with his equivalents like Mostert and Itoje.

But where are the great contributions by the Duds.....if it looks like an illusion it probably is a delusion.

Stats alone provide about 20% of the true picture 

Yep you sure can't rely on these limited stats with no context etc. 

Du Toit was simply outstanding in 2019 and his work rate around the park outstanding.

Stats are abused again by Mozart.   Mapimpi scored 6 tries  - 2 against Namibia, 1 against Italy, 2 against Japan and 1 against England.  So how reliable are the rest of the stats?  

The fact is why is line=outs lost not listed.   Mostert was relegated to the bench because of poor line-outs and poor defense, so where did Mostert make all the line-out steals?

Opta’s world rugby cup team based purely on verifiable stats, adjusted for time on the park. Probably the most rigorous quantitative effort to choose a WC Team of the Tournament:

Opta's Rugby World Cup XV

15. Beauden Barrett (New Zealand)
14. Kotaro Matsushima (Japan)
13. Manu Tuilagi (England)
12. Anton Lienert-Brown (New Zealand)
11. Semi Radradra (Fiji)
10. Richie Mo'unga (New Zealand)
9. Gareth Davies (Wales)
8. Kazuki Himeno (Japan)
7. Pieter Labuschagne (Japan)
6. Chris Vui (Samoa)
5. Kane Le'aupepe (Samoa)
4. Maro Itoje (England)
3. Kyle Sinckler (England)
2. Shota Horie (Japan)
1. Joe Moody (New Zealand)

....nope, no Duds.

There's no Saffas in that team...I'm sure we'll give Bill back to NZ...or England...the stats say we don't deserve it.

Did SA won the WC?   Nutcase Mozart says otherwise?  

Did SA won the WC?   Nutcase Mozart says otherwise?  

The Wanker arrives with a stale whiff of ignorance. Just quoting OPTA....real analysis. The backs looked pretty good...it’s harder to measure tight forwards quantitatively.

Mozart the crook

The first thing wrong is the try scoring,   The second thing is who produced the total results  listed - was it you or ESPN?   I cannot believe it was ESPN and you are totally unreliable and dishonest when it comes to stats usage .       

"We won as a team at the WC"

The crux, but we had a few exceptional players too.