Tigers v Exeter (A) - Premiership - Saturday 23rd December 2023 - KO 3-00pm

[anz3001]

Only stat that counts 8th place Played 9 Won 4 Lost 5 BP 4 20 pts

That's more than one stat...

Anyway, sometimes (for some people) it's interesting to look at other stats to try to work out why the big stat is "8th".

Interesting yes,but there’s only one that counts at the end of the day

Interesting indeed, particularly as many members, yourself included, slate performances even when we win. Are you comfortable with me reminding you after every win that that’s the only stat that counts?

[Scott1]

That's more than one stat...

Anyway, sometimes (for some people) it's interesting to look at other stats to try to work out why the big stat is "8th".

Interesting yes,but there’s only one that counts at the end of the day

Interesting indeed, particularly as many members, yourself included, slate performances even when we win. Are you comfortable with me reminding you after every win that that’s the only stat that counts?

Very comfortable! Hope you had a good Christmas

[LE18]

I'm another who doesn't like stats, very boring you can make them say what ever you want and I dont believe the kicking stats quoted every where. I only believe my own eyes and they tell me we kick loads too often and give ball away too often. Even Warren Gatland writing in todays DT says his 2024 wish is "give kicking obsession the boot"
I dont usually agree with WG but in this wish I do.
Happy new year to everyone, see you at the Bath game.

[mol2]

Firstly we should ignore the first few games as we were bedding in a new coach without our internationals.

The Exeter game was a howler. Sloppy in defence and one or two howlers Such as the Pollard pass to gift Slade a try when we seemed to be exercising control.

That aside we looked like the better side, which is what was the real frustration.

Move on and hope the injuries don't hurt us.

[Tiglon]

You definitely can't make stats say whatever you want, they are what they are. You can however choose to interpret them in different ways, and they don't always mean what they first seem to mean.

The stats from the Premiership website may not be accurate, but they're the best we have, and I would be happier to put faith in them than the human memory (mine or anyone elses) of events from months ago. Unless anyone can disprove them, I'd say on the balance of probability they are more likely to be correct than not.

The kicking stat alone possibly doesn't tell you much, ideally you'd want something that gives kicking as a % of overall actions with the ball. Even better would be to analyse the circumstances of kicks - field position, momentum, ruck speed etc. With the available stats, something combining kicking, carrying and passing might be more useful.

The clubs all employ analysts with access to way more info than us, and they all come up with the current game that involves a lot of kicking. It's hard to be convinced that they are all completely wrong, and some fans on social media who think stats are boring all know better, but that's just my opinion.

[LE18]

You definitely can't make stats say whatever you want, they are what they are. You can however choose to interpret them in different ways, and they don't always mean what they first seem to mean.

The stats from the Premiership website may not be accurate, but they're the best we have, and I would be happier to put faith in them than the human memory (mine or anyone elses) of events from months ago. Unless anyone can disprove them, I'd say on the balance of probability they are more likely to be correct than not.

The kicking stat alone possibly doesn't tell you much, ideally you'd want something that gives kicking as a % of overall actions with the ball. Even better would be to analyse the circumstances of kicks - field position, momentum, ruck speed etc. With the available stats, something combining kicking, carrying and passing might be more useful.

The clubs all employ analysts with access to way more info than us, and they all come up with the current game that involves a lot of kicking. It's hard to be convinced that they are all completely wrong, and some fans on social media who think stats are boring all know better, but that's just my opinion.

[AViewFromLe2]

I like stats, they can either give you facts to help you compare, or allow you to spot trends which allows you to modify strategies or behaviour moving forward. Worth remembering that we only get access to a small percentage of stats that the players and coaches have access to. They have a huge amount of data, statistics and numbers to work with, so what we see only tells a small picture.

Couple of interesting stats - with the WC players away we have a win % of 25% with one win from 4 league games, making us one of the poorest teams in the league. With the whole squad back together, we have 5 wins from 7 games across all competitions, giving a win % of 71%, which would be up there with the win percentages of Sarries and Sale last season, who finished top 2.

Now 7 games is too small a dataset to say that we are definitely the best two teams in the league, but it does suggest a trend that we are a decent team and with the whole squad together we win more often than not; with a win % that puts us up there with the better quality teams in the league.

If you were to apply that 71% win percentage against the 14 league games that the whole squad is available for, you get just short of 10 wins (9.94), which combined with the Bath victory would put us on 10-11 wins in total, which is in line for top 4 or certainly gets us very close. Last Saturday was a bad blip, but the current trend is fairly positive. Just need to beat Bath and Sarries to get ourselves back on course.

[mol2]

We didn’t play well against Exeter, but a trip to Sandy park is a big ask for most sides with a full squad available.

The World Cup has certainly turned the league into a handicap tournament for sides like us & Sarries who provided a chunk of the England squad.