Barrett rated
All Blacks star Beauden Barrett has been rated the worst goalkicker in international rugby in the past five years.
While it’s no secret the talented playmaker has had his troubles off the tee, statistics now reveal just how bad he has been, with the two-time World Rugby Player of the Year (2016 and 2017) ranking dead last of the 52 kickers ranked.
There has traditionally been no easy way to compare goalkickers aside from pure shot-atgoal percentages, but thanks to the methods of South African website goalkickers.co.za, more factors can be considered.
Their devised algorithm takes into account the difficulty of a kicker’s attempt at goal and the difficulty of each kick is given a rating (10 being the highest).
Factors considered to establish the difficulty rating include: distance of the kick, angle of the kick, altitude, side of the field and foot used, score difference (to indicate pressure), home/away and first half/second half.
The difficulty rating then produces a ‘‘value added’’ statistic, which shows how many points a player scored more than he would be expected to – relative to other professional goalkickers.
The higher the kicker’s ‘‘value added’’, the better the performance. It also works in reverse, with a negative score meaning a player had missed kicks they should have slotted.
Statistics gathered by goalkickers.co.za include only competition test rugby since the start of 2015 – that’s two World Cups, five years of the Rugby Championship and six editions of the Six Nations.
And, with WalesOnline having collated the overall numbers, Barrett is bottom of the heap, when listed by the most crucial ‘‘value added’’ score. The 28-yearold has kicked 83 out of 118 in those competition matches in that time, for an average of 70 per cent, with his ‘‘value added’’ being -16 – essentially meaning his work off the tee has actually cost the All Blacks 16 points.
The 83-test first five-eighthcum-fullback has mostly relinquished the goalkicking duties to Richie Mo’unga in the last two years. The Crusaders