Breaking the lines in Super Rugby Aotearoa!

What is a Line Break in rugby union?

Rugby union is a very demanding sport which involves many contacts experienced by players both on defense and offense. These contacts are happening with the attacking player with the ball in hand, as well as the defensive player who is attempting the tackle. Certain measurable key performance indicators are used when analysing rugby union matches to help the team in technical and tactical decisions. An example of a key performance indicator is a line break. Line breaks are when players break through the opponents’ defensive line without being tackled while in possession of the ball.

Line breaks are indicators of match success in Super Rugby.

Line breaks have been found to be an indicator of match success in Super Rugby, proving that if a team is achieving more line breaks in a match, they have a better chance of success in the match. The increase in line breaks give teams a better opportunity to score tries and therefore win the match. However, line breaks can also be the result of poor defense and the large amount of missed tackles experienced.

Hurricanes have broken the line more than any other team in the Super Rugby Aotearoa competition.

When Super Rugby Aotearoa was initially announced, it was always anticipated to be an exciting, expansive, running competition. When we consider the line breaks in a match, we find that Hurricanes have broken the line more than any other team with the Crusaders behind with the 2^nd most. Interestingly, the Blues have made the least line breaks while also scoring the 2^nd most tries in the competition thus far. However, only 6 out of the 10 games has shown the winning team to have a higher number of line breaks in the match.

The Crusaders have scored the most amount of tries in the competition.

The tournament has shown an average of 5 tries per match as it reaches its halfway point. The table topping Crusaders have scored the most amount of tries in their first 4 matches. When analysing these numbers further, we see that the number of tries scored correlates directly with the Super Rugby Aotearoa standings at the halfway point of the tournament.

VS. will be sure to deliver stats for the second half of Aotearoa!

Super Rugby Aotearoa has been very exciting so far and all teams are going to be ready to push for their second matches with their rivals from all around New Zealand. Don’t forget to always keep an eye out on the stats!

About the Author

Gregory Gordon.

Gregory Gordon is currently a Senior Video Analyst at VS Sports, who is highly involved in the analytics process by performing the analysis as well as managing the video analysts in the company. Gregory is in charge of training the video analysts in all the sports which are offered at VS Sports as well as ensuring that the quality of the analysis is being maintained consistently. He is passionate about sport conditioning and assisting athletes in optimising their sporting abilities. Gregory has obtained his Master’s degree in Sports Science (MPhil) through the University of Johannesburg as well as acquiring a Higher Certificate in Exercise Science through the HFPA. He previously has worked at Orlando Pirates FC for an internship where many different skills were learned and developed through the process.