FIVE incredible Springbok Rugby World Cup 2023 stats

Springbok supporters are still smarting from South Africa’s agonising 13-8 Rugby World Cup Pool B defeat to Ireland last Sunday, in what many pundits billed as ‘the final before the final.’

While bragging rights between the number one and number two rugby nations are in the hands of Ireland for now, South Africa are leading some of the important tournament stats.

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Bearing in mind, a lot of the match ups in the Pool stages are mismatches between Tier 1 and Tier 2 nations, it still makes for good reading as teams prepare for the knockout stages.

BEST DEFENSIVE TEAM IN THE WORLD?

At time of publishing, after three games South Africa have conceded a mere 16 points in this Rugby World Cup, less than any other team. Coming second in least points-against is England (22), followed by Pool A’s France and Italy (25 points each) – although Italy have only played two games.

New Zealand (also Pool A) have conceded 30 points after two games, rounding up the top five.

TACKLE STATS

Being the best defensive team isn’t necessarily proportional to the amount of tackles made, but naturally the Boks feature strongly in this metric.

1. Wales – 506 tackles
2. Japan – 506 tackles
3. Namibia – 408 tackles
4. South Africa – 352 tackles
5. France – 352 tackles

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POINTS FOR

Moving on to attack, the Springboks are in the top five teams for points scored, in fourth place on 102 points. Ireland, France, England, South Africa and Wales are the only teams to have scored over 100 points so far in the tournament.

1. Ireland – 154 points
2. France – 150 points
3. England – 132 points
4. South Africa – 102 points
5. Wales – 100 points

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TRIES SCORED

South Africa feature in the top five in this stat too, in third place with 15 tries (and could climb further after their fixture with Tonga on Sunday.)

1. Ireland – 21 tries
2. France – 19 tries
3. South Africa – 15 tries
4. England – 15 tries
5. New Zealand – 13 tries

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CLEAN BREAKS

And finally, when it comes to clean breaks on the field of play South Africa sneak into the top five in fifth position with 20 clean breaks. Once again Ireland lead this stat (with 32 clean breaks) with their breakaway centre Bundee Aki the top player in the tournament with 53 runs.

1. Ireland – 32 breaks
2. France – 31 breaks
3. New Zealand – 29 breaks
4. England – 24 breaks
5. South Africa – 20 breaks

The Springboks take on Tonga in their final Pool B clash on Sunday (kick-off 21h00) with a trajectory that should see South Africa take on hosts France in the quarter-finals.

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