It's interesting that Northampton are often referred to as a team that have a great attack, and that Tigers kick too much, yet Northampton have kicked more than Tigers so far this season (in the Premiership).sam16111986 wrote: ↑Tue Dec 26, 2023 3:11 pmThanks. It's frustrating that "we kicked to much" is the defacto response to any loss where we struggled in attack. The interplay close to the breakdown has never got going and we so often make errors under a small amount of pressure. It's the area of obvious weakness for us.Tiglon wrote: ↑Tue Dec 26, 2023 2:18 pm You'd need 50 people to count to 34? Exeter kicked 32 times.
We made more passes than Exeter, and made twice as many offloads.
Exeter were forced to make a lot more tackles than we did, because we ran the ball more than they did.
The difference wasn't that we kicked too much, it's that we kicked badly and dropped the ball too many times.
The difference between the team that kicks the most and the least is about 7 kicks per match. 28 per game is the lowest (Gloucester), 35 is the highest (Saints). The 3 teams in the bottom 4 of the league other than Tigers are also the 3 teams who have kicked the least. So, if anything, more kicks equals better results.
Bath, who are top of the league (and generally considered to be an attacking team), have carried the second least so far, just once more than Saracens. Tigers are average for number of carries, but have by far the fewest clean breaks - 28, compared to 37 for Newcastle and 53+ for everyone else.
So, it's not that we are kicking instead of trying to run it, we're just not running it very well.