The sight of man with ball rampaging into people or, preferably, dancing around them into space is one of the more enjoyable things about rugby football. So who did the ball carrying in the 2014 Six Nations? And would Warren Gatland like the IRB to change the rules to allow NFL-style field goal kickers in the game?

The Top Five

Using a minimum of 160 minutes played the top carries/80 are, as might be expected, number eights to a man. Billy Vunipola, Louis Picamoles (no, Monsieur Saint-Andre, put down your hand, Louis is indeed an 8), Dave Denton, Sergio Parisse and Jamie Heaslip. Taulupe Faletau finished a notch or two below, but with Warren Gatland loving to use his giant backs Jamie Roberts and George North it’s perhaps not surprising that Faletau should lose a couple per game.

(Note: Opta’s positional data lists Vunipola, Picamoles and Denton as “back row”)

The gap between Billy Vunipola and the field is large indeed. With ball in hand he can be a scary sight and, as was witnessed against France in Paris, at times he can be nigh-on unplayable.

Proving once again his other-worldly durability, of the five carrying leaders Heaslip was the only one to start all five games let alone play every minute of the tournament.

• Vunipola: knocked out of the Six Nations with injury in just the third match
• Parisse: reportly nursing a knock so omitted from Italy’s match in Dublin
• Picamoles: acted the clown in Cardiff so was omitted from France’s Edinburgh trip
• Denton: dropped

Denton doesn’t get to as many rucks as some might like but in a side screaming out for what is so often termed “go-forward”, it was odd to see him left out of the side for Scotland’s match in Italy (win notwithstanding). Scott Johnson owes Duncan Weir big for that marvellous, marvellous match-winning drop goal.

The Full Back Brigade

After the top five, the 6-10 list is dominated by full backs with Vunipola’s replacement in the England side, Ben Morgan, the non-15 representative. Mike Brown had a wonderful tournament, recognised in his winning the player of the championship award, making ten line breaks and scored four tries through determined running from full back. Rob Kearney too got his hands on the ball a fair bit, along with Luke McLean and Brice Dulin.

Stuart Hogg just missed the top ten cut-off in 12th (Gordon D’Arcy in 11th finished atop the “Non Full Back or Number 8” category) but the true outlier is Wales’ Leigh Halfpenny.

The helmeted one is some way adrift compared to his 15-shirted brethern above. Remember that this is a rate stat, so the fact that Halfpenny played a game fewer than the others has already been accounted for. However, the raw carry rate itself isn’t the real story.

Kick Returns (or not)

Part of a full back’s job description is to field balls kicked by opponents. Apart from their defensive positioning there’s not much they can do about it. If somebody kicks the ball towards you, it would be unseemly to refuse to catch it. When one removes carries from kick returns entirely from the equation the difference between Halfpenny and the other Six Nations full backs becomes very apparent indeed.

In four games Halfpenny made just six carries that were not made after catching a ball first kicked by an opponent.

Yes. Six. In total.

Those six carries translate to 1.6 per 80 minutes played by Halfpenny, barely a third of Brice Dulin and less than a fifth of Mike Brown who remains top of the charts with 8.2. Brown, Kearney and McLean each made more non kick return carries per game than Halfpenny made in four.

And it’s not a fluke.

On the 2013 Lions tour to Australia Halfpenny made just 2.3 non kick return carries per 80, and during Wales’ victorious 2013 Six Nations campaign he made just 2.6 per 80.

Should We Care? 

As mentioned earlier Wales have plenty of big strong ball carriers – North, Faletau, Roberts to name but a few. Better for Halfpenny to catch the ball and give it to one of these large and destructive humans than for the smaller-framed Halfpenny to run it back himself eh? There is logic in that. A good big ‘un will always beat a good little ‘un, as the old saw goes.

But Halfpenny is built, and he’s no slouch. For a player with ample power and pace it still might seem strange that he doesn’t carry the ball more.

NFL Field Goal Kicker?

Why is this happening? Well, Halfpenny is a key physical asset to Wales and running into large and angry sportsmen can be bad for one’s health. Is Halfpenny’s boot too valuable to risk? It would be unfair to refer to him as rugby’s version of an NFL field goal kicker, kept out of the action until called upon to strike the ball between the uprights; he still has to tackle, for one thing. And although his tackling numbers aren’t stratospheric they are in line with other full backs in the tournament not named Kearney or Brown. Tackling numbers for a full back are also typically quite low anyway. There’s no doubting the man’s bravery, witnessed by the try-saving tackle on England’s Luther Burrell that cost the Welsh kicking maestro the rest of his 2013/14 season.

Risk vs Reward

Halfpenny is a place-kicking marksman of the very top drawer, topping the accuracy stats in the Six Nations following a superb Lions tour in 2013 where that laser-guided boot was a key contributor to Warren Gatland’s legacy as a Lions tour-winning coach.

It’s quite apparent that Gatland likes players to fit very specific roles, e.g. Dan Lydiate. In the uber-professional rugby world of 2014 it’s possible that the Gatland coaching trust reckons the possible reward of Halfpenny making a line break or scoring a try, let alone simply making an extra few yards, is not worth the strife of losing one of the best kickers on the planet to injury. So perhaps he simply doesn’t want Halfpenny carrying the ball where he can possibly avoid it.

Whatever about the 2014 Six Nations where Wales misfired, Warren Gatland has coached teams to Six Nations wins, Grand Slams and a successful Lions tour. The man has a serious coaching CV.

Who are we to argue.

Credit: raw playing stats courtesy of Opta