YOUR THOUGHTS ON "GRIZZLY" LAVANINI

[Dangerous4]

What do you envisage this guy will add to our scrum?

I see him as the man to verbally beat the back five into giving 110% effort and driving them on. Also, he will take no prisoners. Just hope we don't see a few red cards against his name, but I'm pretty sure we'll see plenty of fire works.

[Scott1]

The guys a monster,he's in the mould of Lawes in that he defends one out from the ruck and targets the ball carrier like a missile,he's just got to remember to wrap his arms! Not sure on his scrummaging but the Jag/Arg scrum isn't a fearsome weapon anymore so hard to tell.

[Mark62]

His disciplinary issues seem to be a thing of the past.
The main thing he will bring is physicality and edge within the laws, along with heaps of power in everything he does.
Seems to be a man of few words, but if he is anywhere near as good as Mr. Ayerza we will have a real gem

[BFG]

The bear is Deano, grrr!
Lavanini looks very competitive.

[Ian Cant]

Here are his latest stats:
Games played. 12
Minutes played ( average per game). 49 minutes
Carries. 43 with 84 metres made
Penalties conceded. 10
Tackles made 70 out of 88 (80%)
Turnovers won was 1 BUT 17 times turned over.

Compared to Kitchen and Kalamafoni they are a lot worse.
Kalamafoni
Games played. 24. With 88% of the 80 minutes averaged per game
Carries. 112 with an average of 6.7 metres made
Penalties conceded. 15
Tackles made 361. 86% success rate
Turnovers made. 0 and 17 times turned over.

Kitchener
Games played. 21 with 77% of the 80 minutes averaged
Carries. 33 with an average of 5.1 metres made
234 tackles attempted 86% success rate
12 penalties conceded.

Turnovers won 1 with 12 times turned over.

Stats from rugbypass.com

Not sure whether there is really a lot to get excited about but I hope he continues to improve and be a very goodTiger but compared to Ayerza, not World Class!

[Mark62]

Game is not played on a stats chart, try watching him play before passing judgement, Ayerza was raw when he first arrived too.

[BG01]

I'd agree with that. The stats that make it to these sites are quite crude and comparisons (especially between tournaments, with different stats teams etc) should be taken with a grain of salt.

26 year olds don't have 50 caps for a tier 1 test team by accident. It's worth watching him play if you haven't already. He's not perfect but he brings a lot of what we've been missing - work rate, physicality, aggression, etc.

[sam16111986]

Here are his latest stats:
Games played. 12
Minutes played ( average per game). 49 minutes
Carries. 43 with 84 metres made
Penalties conceded. 10
Tackles made 70 out of 88 (80%)
Turnovers won was 1 BUT 17 times turned over.

Compared to Kitchen and Kalamafoni they are a lot worse.
Kalamafoni
Games played. 24. With 88% of the 80 minutes averaged per game
Carries. 112 with an average of 6.7 metres made
Penalties conceded. 15
Tackles made 361. 86% success rate
Turnovers made. 0 and 17 times turned over.

Kitchener
Games played. 21 with 77% of the 80 minutes averaged
Carries. 33 with an average of 5.1 metres made
234 tackles attempted 86% success rate
12 penalties conceded.

Turnovers won 1 with 12 times turned over.

Stats from rugbypass.com

Not sure whether there is really a lot to get excited about but I hope he continues to improve and be a very goodTiger but compared to Ayerza, not World Class!

Is there any stats for whether or not the tackle was dominant (made beyond or drove the player back across the gain line)? From what I've seen of him that's an area we'll benefit.

[RagingBull]

Also you're not factoring the different competition styles.
Super rugby is so much more open so he finds himself defending more in the wider channels against faster players.
For example he has a tackle completed % of 90% in International rugby at a higher level of rugby and a style that is less loose.

Also do you have stats on Ayerza tackle %, Carries etc Ian?

[SthrnTiger]

Here are his latest stats:
Games played. 12
Minutes played ( average per game). 49 minutes
Carries. 43 with 84 metres made
Penalties conceded. 10
Tackles made 70 out of 88 (80%)
Turnovers won was 1 BUT 17 times turned over.

Compared to Kitchen and Kalamafoni they are a lot worse.
Kalamafoni
Games played. 24. With 88% of the 80 minutes averaged per game
Carries. 112 with an average of 6.7 metres made
Penalties conceded. 15
Tackles made 361. 86% success rate
Turnovers made. 0 and 17 times turned over.

Kitchener
Games played. 21 with 77% of the 80 minutes averaged
Carries. 33 with an average of 5.1 metres made
234 tackles attempted 86% success rate
12 penalties conceded.

Turnovers won 1 with 12 times turned over.

Stats from rugbypass.com

Not sure whether there is really a lot to get excited about but I hope he continues to improve and be a very goodTiger but compared to Ayerza, not World Class!

I simply don’t believe those stats. Rugbypass looks a bit amateur to me. Premiership rugby have very different stats for Kalamafoni with around 600m made and 290 carries. Given he doesn’t always make positive metres an optimistic average is 2m per carry.

[Ian Cant]

I agree that stats aren’t everything and as I said, I hope he improves with us.
Argentina aren’t the side they were when Ayerza was at his peak and as we know, Premiership Rugby brings different pressures to any other league.
At the moment I’d try to sign Sarries’ second team!
What we need are fit players so at least Lavanini seems to get on the pitch as does Callum Green. To me, this pair may well be the first choice locks as Green wins and competes at lineouts whereas Lavanini seems to have a role as a lifter! Both will need to keep their discipline and they will need a very good forwards coach as I’m not sure Bakewell is a Premiership quality coach.
Hopefully some very good signings have yet to be announced!!

[mol2]

Tackle stats are often misleading.
Some players don’t get there to make (or miss) the tackle in the first place.