“I use statistics like a drunk uses a lamp post, for support rather than illumination”. So chirped Scottish coach Scott Johnson in recent times. Whether for support or illumination, either way the statistics from Scotland’s loss to England will make fairly horrifying reading for the Scots.

To say that Scotland were lucky to get nil might sound trite, but barring a fluke interception they were never going to score in that game. As an illustration of Scotland’s lack of penetration into red zone territory, Scotland had zero scrums, zero lineouts, zero mauls and zero rucks won in the English 22. Read it again. That’s quite astonishing.

The lineout was another area of contrast. Scottish hooker Ross Ford had six throws and made just three; his opposite number Dylan Hartley nailed 20 from 20 (Lions hooker Tom Youngs was just two from four in his 11 minutes of play). With Ford’s continuing inability to raise his foot in the scrum, it must be asked how much longer he’ll retain his place in the side.

Scotland missed 27 tackles against England with four players missing four or more. That was despite Glasgow flanker Chris Fusaro, brought in to make his test debut in place of captain Kelly Brown, making 16 tackles from 16 attempts along with second rows Tim Swinson and Jim Hamilton making 27 with only a single miss between them. Hamilton rather blotted his copybook in conceding four penalties, with the Scots conceding 17 in total. 15 of these were conceded in defence, not surprising as Scotland had barely half as much time in active possession as England.

On the English side they’ll be annoyed that they couldn’t turn that dominance of possession into more points. In contrast to Scotland treating the English 22 as a quarantine zone, England spent plenty of time camped near the Scottish line but couldn’t turn 36 mauls in the Scottish 22 into points.

Apart from the tackling of debutant Fusaro, Dave Denton, the Scottish number eight, had seemed to be a bright spot in the Scottish darkness. Until he was taken off. In his 52 minutes on the field despite not much team possession Denton had managed to make 12 carries for a very respectable 4.8m a pop before being mysteriously substituted with almost half an hour to play.

Ireland’s kicking game controlled play at Lansdowne Road, making the Welsh turn back into their own territory at almost every opportunity. Eight kicks were from Ireland’s own 22 but when outside that zone Ireland kicked another 26 times, including a glorious little poke into touch by man of the match Peter O’Mahony.

The Welsh back row, while outplayed by the Irish in many aspects, were at least quietly good at getting their tackles in. As a whole, back rows wearing red jerseys made 34 tackles without a miss, led by captain Sam Warburton’s 14 and Dan Lydiate’s 13. Toby Faletau made just six but was backed up ably by scrum half and honourary member of the Welsh Back Row Union Mike Phillips who chipped in with eleven tackles. On the Irish side, men in the third row of the scrum made 30 tackles from 31 attempts. Excellent also. Jamie Heaslip did his usual thing with 11 tackles and 10 carries, hitting double figures in both for the second week in a row and in the backs the voluminously bearded Gordon D’Arcy had 11 tackles and 12 carries.

Ireland might have had 34 kicks in play in Dublin but at the Stade de France things were quite different with France and Italy together combining for just 33. Italy continued their commitment to a more expansive game under coach Jacques Brunel despite going down 30 points to 10 to the opportunistic French. In 80 minutes of rugby the Italians didn’t kick a single ball while in their own 22 – every other team kicked at least five. And in a continuation of the non-kicking theme of full back Luke McClean’s 15 carries just four were kick returns.

The Italian set piece was excellent. In the scrum they won 100% of their own ball along with a free kick and two penalties while at lineout time they won all eleven of their own throws and stole two from France. Italy’s next opponents are Scotland in Rome and, on the basis of the first two weeks of this Six Nations, the smart money will be on the Italians to keep the Scots winless.

The Curious Tale of Peter O’Mahony

Hearkening back to Jamie Heaslip’s once again hitting double figure tackles for Ireland, it’s worth noting the statistical oddity that is Munster captain Peter O’Mahony. The 24 year old has played 21 tests for Ireland, starting 17. And in those 17 starts as a test match back row he has yet to post a tackle count in double figures. If you count misses, and there is much value in doing so, then he’s reached double digits just twice, with ten against Scotland in the 2012 Six Nations and again against Argentina in the 2012 Autumn tests.

In those 21 Ireland games 13 other players made starts in Ireland’s second and back rows. The only two to never make it to double figures in tackle attempts? Donncha O’Callaghan (started 5 of the 21 games) and Iain Henderson, who started just one.

The full list…

• Steven Ferris: Looking at just O’Mahony’s 21 caps (we’ll call them POMgames), Ferris played just four of them. In those he put up 12, 13, 14 and 18 tackle attempts.
• Jamie Heaslip (18 POMgames): Heaslip has put in shifts of 22 tackle attempts, 21, 17 (twice), 15, 12 and 11.
• Sean O’Brien (13 POMgame starts): 13 (twice), 14, 16, 20 and 24 tackle attempts along with a 10 attempt outing from the bench.
• Mike McCarthy (8 POMgames): outings of 13 and 20 tackle attempts.
• Kevin McLaughlin (3 POMgames): one 13 tackle attempt outing in three POMgames; honourable mention for his 8 tackles in just 24 replacement minutes against New Zealand last Autumn.
• Donnacha Ryan (12 POMgame starts): two 10s, an 11, a 12, two 15s and a 17 tackle attempt outing, with one eight tackle outing in just 22 minutes after being sprung from a POMgame bench.
• Dan Tuohy (6 POMgames): one 12 tackle attempt outing and one with 11 (his six POMgames includes his unfortunate nine minute cameo vs Wales).
• Devin Toner (7 POMgames): two 14 tackle attempt games, one with 11 and one with 10.
• Tommy O’Donnell (1 POMgame start): 16 tackle attempts. The anti-POM. We’ll have to start calling him “Aussie”.
• Paul O’Connell (5 POMgames): two outing with 10 tackle attempts and two with 12.
• Chris Henry (6 POMgame starts): three 11 tackle attempt outings with another 11 attempt POMgame appearance (in just 29 minutes) from the bench.
• Donncha O’Callaghan (5 POMgames): none with double digit tackle attempts.
• Iain Henderson (1 POMgame start): didn’t get to double digit attempts (he had nine).
• Peter O’Mahony (17 starts in his 21 POMgames): two matches with 10 tackle attempts (and two with nine).

It’s worth noting that these are just back-five players; no front rows are included, nor Ireland’s combative midfield backs. And we’re only looking at games in which Peter O’Mahony played.

Gameplan

Is there a gameplan aspect here? Absolutely. O’Mahony’s job is generally to make every defensive breakdown as messy as possible, whether he makes the tackle himself or not. With his natural inclination toward being generally awkward at the breakdown he’s often better off leaving somebody else bring the man down and then assume the role of second (or third) man in. He’s a fantastic rugby player, making up for his lack of size at test level with intensity, natural leadership skills and no small amount of skill. And this is not to mention his acrobatic ability in the lineout. However, one would have thought that at some point in his Ireland career, under three head coaches (but the same defensive coach all the way through in Les Kiss), and with various combinations of other back five teammates in the mix he’d have had at least one game where he went about hurling himself at ballcarriers. Even by accident.

As a rugby curiosity, the wait for Peter O’Mahony’s ten tackle game continues.

Stats Credit: 2014 Six Nations stats courtesy of Opta

POMgame Stats Credit: POMgame stats sourced from ESPNscrum.com