Thread: Yesterday I talked about how to watch a game with an analyst's eye. Today we'll look at using stats and what you can learn from them.

Specifically we will look at Glasgow Warriors ahead of their Scottish rematch.

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Picking a stat which provides some insight is hard to do. A good place to start is with the score, especially in back to back games like this. It sounds obvious, but we would approach a 50-0 loss differently to a 30-29 one. 50-0 was not decided by luck

2/

Glasgow lost 30-15 so it's not a blowout but also it wasn't a coin toss. So then I look at three key stats; possession, territory, carries. All are essentially telling you the same thing - how much ball somebody had. Last week the numbers weren't that different.

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So now we ask why couldn't Glasgow use the same possession, territory, and number of carries as Edinburgh and score 30 points like they did?

Metres gained isn't that helpful on a player by player bases but is given a similar number of carries.

4/

Glasgow had 403m off 105 carries
Edinburgh had 694m off 115 carries

Edinburgh were a much more potent attacking force, but we also want to see gain line success. Something I think is vital - usually the team who gets over the gain line wins.

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In this case that trend is bucked.

Glasgow made the gain line 73% of the time and Edinburgh made the gain line 69% of the time.

This tells us that the Edinburgh defence bent, gave up small yardage consistently, but didn't break and give up huge chunks.

6/

Why didn't Glasgow score more points despite all those carries and all that gain line success? You make a carry over the gain line, the defense are forced to move backwards. You have a great opportunity IF you get that ball back quickly.

Glasgow didn't.

7/

Glasgow had ruck speed of less than three seconds just 47% of the time compared to 72% for Edinburgh. 19% of Glasgow's ball took longer than six seconds to be played.

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So for Glasgow to stand more of a chance tonight it's not more dazzling footwork or sizzling sidesteps, it's boring grunt work at the breakdown to get that ball back and usable as quickly as possible.

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Hope you enjoyed that run through of what I look at in the stats.

Back to videos for next time, I promise.

10.