Rugby / Statbunker News

London Wasps 

 

·         Terrible season for London Wasps as they drop down to seventh in the league table, their lowest finish since 2001/02 when they were also seventh

·         They did though pick up seven losing bonus points which was the third highest, after London Irish’s nine, in their 11 defeats and Saracens with eight  

·         They did though only manage two try bonus points only the bottom two picked up fewer   

·         Out of favour England International Danny Cipriani led the scoring charts for the second successive season with 146 points down on his 188 the previous season

·         Leading try scorer was centre Riki Flutey with just four which is the lowest total to top the Wasps try scoring list in over a decade, he finished one clear of scrum half Joe Simpson who ended the season playing for the England Saxons in the Churchill Cup    

·         Simpson aged 20 years and 134 days was the youngest player to appear for the club during the Premiership season

·         Second row Simon Shaw aged 36 years 236 days was the oldest player to appear for the club in the Premiership just under two years older than French hooker Raphael Ibanez

·         Wasps managed just 33 tries which was the joint second lowest number in the Premiership and were dreadful starters with just five tries in the opening quarter 

·         Only five of their tries were scored by their back row which was the joint lowest number in the Premiership but they did concede 10 tries to opposition back rows which was the third highest total in the division 

·         Winger Tom Voyce started the most matches, 21 out of 22, one more than utility back Josh Lewsey in his final season of professional rugby 

·         Lewsey only managed two tries and fell two short of Kenny Logan’s club record of 48 leagues tries, Lewsey finished with 46 in his 11 year career at the club, and in total scored 53 league tries with seven for Bristol in two seasons 

·         In the forwards it was prop Tim Payne who started the most 16, one more than Simon Shaw 

·         In matches against the top four sides in the Premiership they did well with four wins and four defeats including doing the double over Champions Leicester Tigers whilst Bath did the double over them 

·         Only used players from six countries, England led the way with 30 and next was Ireland with five    

·         They fielded nine players 21 or under which was the second most in the division after Worcester Warriors   

 

Northampton Saints

 

·         On their return to the Premiership the Saints were eighth in the league table which is the best since they were sixth in 2005/06 

·         Having picked up 23 try bonus points in National One last season they were to manage just two on their return to the Premiership

·         Fly half Stephen Myler finished the season as top scorer with 158 points in his first season of top flight rugby 

·         In the try scoring stakes winger Paul Diggin led the way with nine, one behind leaders Joe Maddock and Ugo Monye, it was the best by a Saints player in the Premiership since Bruce Reihana managed 13 in 2003/04, eight of his tries came in the first half, against the trend, and eight at home, with the trend      

·         Ex Scottish International Prop Tom Smith was at 37 years and 176 days the second oldest player to play in this season competition, 46 days younger than Mike Catt 

·         At the other end of the scale second row Courtney Lawes was their youngest player at 19 years 343 days, 125 days older than hooker Joe Gray

·         Irish centre James Downey started the most matches, 20 but prop Soane Tonga’uiha took part in all 22 matches starting 16 and coming on as a replacement in the other six and his one try coming against Bath 

·         In their eight matches against the top four sides they managed three wins and a draw and they were all at home       

·         They had seven different Nationalities play for them during the season, 20 were English and the next biggest representation was form Ireland and Scotland with five each

·         Only five of their tries came from their back row which was the joint lowest total in the Premiership

·         Had the fifth best defensive record in terms of tries conceded 40, the same as Champions Leicester Tigers 

·         They had just 31 starters which was the joint lowest number in the Premiership and had just five other players who played as replacements only, 20 of them were English

·         Had the joint third best home record in the division after Leicester Tigers and Harlequins with nine wins and a draw to go with just one defeat and surprisingly that was at the hands of the Falcons      

 

Saracens

 

·         Saracens finished a disappointing ninth a drop of a place on the previous season

·         They did though pick up eight losing bonus points in their 13 defeats and it could have been so different 

·         Fly half Glen Jackson was the leading scorer in the division with 239 points, 27 more than Bath’s Butch James 

·         It was a fifth successive season Jackson has finished leading scorer for the club and the third time he has passed 200 points with his second best ever points tally

·         His total included a club record 62 penalty goals which beat the old record of 58 which was shared by Michael Lynagh and Gavin Johnson

·         Jackson took his Sarries all time career total to 1005 which included extending his records for conversions and penalty goals to 123 and 223 respectively and he passed 00 points in just 93 matches including 87 starts 

·         In all competitions during the season Jackson scored 359 points including 105 in the European Challenge Cup   

·         In the try scoring two players led the way with a disappointing total of just four tries, wing Noah Cato and wing/centre Rod Penney with three of Cato’s four coming on the road 

·         Jackson started most matches, 21 missing just the one, five more than any other player  

·         In matches against the top four they managed just two wins to go with six defeats with both Leicester Tigers and Quins doing the double over them

·         Had players from 11 different nationalities play during the season, England led the way with 26 and next on the list was South Africa with five

·         They had 38 different players start matches during the season which was the joint second most and in total had 44 players with six more playing as replacements only, Worcester were the only side to use more, 46 

·         Had the most players 30 or over 18, three more than Bristol

·         Only managed 15 first half tries, only Worcester and London Wasps scored fewer with 13 

·         They did have the fourth best defensive record in terms of tries conceded just 38  

·         15 of Sarries tries were scored by their wingers, the second highest in the Premiership after Northampton Saints 

·         Only conceded two tries to the opposition back row which is the lowest in the Premiership, three fewer than anyone else 

·         Former New Zealand international scrum half Justin Marshall was the oldest player to play for the club during the season aged 35 years 263 days  

 

 

Newcastle Falcons

 

·         The Falcons finished 10^th a one place improvement on the previous season with 10 points more and you have to go back to 2001/02 for their last top half of the table finish

·         Centre/fly half Tom May ended as leading scorer for the first time ever with 112 points which is the most by a Falcons players since Matt Burke scored 147 in 2005/06

·         May also scored five tries which was good enough for second place in the try scoring list behind wing Danny Williams and four of the six came in the first half of matches     

·         In matches against the top four sides they managed two wins, against the top two at home Leicester Tigers and Harlequins; in only one of the six defeats did they manage a losing bonus point

·         No 8 Phil Dowson was the only man to start all 22 matches for the Falcons and was only replaced twice all season 

·         May was just behind him with 21 starts four more than anyone else 

·         Adam Balding was subbed in all 17 of his starts during the season which must be some sort of record for a non front row player 

·         They only had four different Nationalities play during the season 31 Englishmen, the most by any Premiership side, whilst next on the list with five was New Zealand, followed by two Scotsman and a South African 

·         The Falcons had just 35 different starters which was the fifth lowest in the Premiership       

·         They only had seven players over 30 play which was the lowest total in the Premiership

·         Prop Joe McDonnell was the oldest Falcon during the season at 35 years and 213 days 

·         The Falcons were the only side to score more tries on the road than at home, 23 to 15, the 15 was the lowest total for any side at home whilst the 23 was the third highest of any side on the road 

·         They are also the third highest scorers in the opening quarter of matches with 11 tries but in the second quarter they had the worst record in the Premiership with just five tries 

·         They only conceded 12 tries at home in 11 matches only Sale Sharks with 11 conceded fewer 

  

 

Worcester Warriors 

 

·         Worcester Warriors dropped a place in the table to 11^th this season but were some 17 points ahead of bottom of the table Bristol to equal their worst finish in the Premiership in five seasons 

·         They were the only side not to pick up a try bonus point and only managed two losing bonus points in 13 defeats 

·         It was the first time in five seasons in the Premiership they have conceded over 500 points 

·         Willie Walker who joined on loan from Gloucester during the season top scored with 74 points 27 more than Matt Jones managed 

·         In the try scoring stakes it was former Australian International Chris Latham who led the way with just four tries 

·         Last season’s leading try scorer Miles Benjamin only managed one try this season from 13 starts compared to nine tries last season

·         New Zealander Greg Rawlinson played the most matches 20, 19 starts and one match as a replacement, one more than centre Dale Rasmussen

·         Two other players played 20 matches hooker Aleki Lutui and back row man Netani Telei both with 15 starts and five matches as a replacement 

·         In matches against the top four they lost all eight and only in the two home defeats against the top two did they take a losing bonus point, their only two in their 13 defeats bizarrely        

·         They used 39 different starters which was the most in the division and had seven more as replacements only

·         Had eight different Nationalities turn out during the season, England led the way with 29 players followed by Wales with six

·         Did the double over both Gloucester and London Wasps during the season 

·         They were the lowest try scorers in the division with 30and only managed seven in the last 20 minutes of matches which was three fewer than anyone else    

·         Worcester with 14 conceded more tries to opposition back rowers than any other side

 

 

Bristol

 

·         After a four season stay in the Premiership Bristol are relegated back into the second tier of English rugby under its new guise of the ‘Championship’ slipping three places on last season 

·         They managed just two wins and finished 17 points adrift of second bottom Worcester Warriors, all this after finishing third three seasons ago and qualifying for the Heineken Cup

·         They only managed 299 points all season and shipped 637 defensively 

·         They managed just the one try bonus point but did pick up six losing bonus points 

·         Fly half Ed Barnes led the way with 81 points which was 14 fewer than Jason Strange managed last season

·         In the try scoring stakes Samoan International David Lemi was the top scorer with nine tries for the third time in four seasons with his second best ever total, this was two more than his opposite wing Lee Robinson

·         Lemi was third highest scorer in the Premiership and in four seasons at the club has an impressive 33 tries in 67 matches including 64 starts and is one of the Bristol all time record of 34 held by Sean Marsden

·         They used 36 different starters and had six other players play as replacements only

·         25 of their players were English and in total they had players from 10 different countries play during the season   

·         No 8 Dan Ward Smith started 20 of the 22 matches and came on as a replacement in the other two

·         David Lemi was next with 19 starts and one match as a replacement whilst Barnes started 18 and came on three times to play in all but one of their 22 league matches 

·         They lost all eight matches against the top four and managed three losing bonus points along the way 

·         Conceded 77 tries 13 more than anyone else including 50 on the road

·         Only eight of their tries were scored by forwards which was the lowest total in the Premiership

·         They conceded 11 tries to opposition full backs which was the highest in the division