Do ABs get away with murder?
OPINION: IF the Irish media are to be believed, the All Blacks are right up there as some of the dirtiest people alive.
This isn’t new. When Richie McCaw was flying into rucks, rather than choppers, the All Blacks were the target of Australian whinge campaigns every second week.
Of course, to them New Zealand got away with murder.
That theory was revisited this week when a tweet claiming the All Blacks were penalised 43 times before they got a yellow card was widely shared. It’s a nice angle, but it’s complete nonsense.
In fact England and Ireland commit far more penalties before losing a man to the bin.
England also commit more penalties per game than New Zealand.
I looked through each game New Zealand, Australia, England and Ireland had played in 2016, as of November 20.
What it showed was that Australia and New Zealand gave away the exact same number of breakdown (85) and foul play (27) penalties through 13 games.
To break that down, both sides give away an average of 6.53 penalties at the breakdown, and 2.08 penalties through foul play per game.
England were penalised 7.64 times per game at the breakdown, and 1.73 times per game for foul play, while Ireland had much better discipline, at 5.64 and 1.18 pen- alties per game respectively.
As far as those numbers are concerned, you can’t argue: New Zealand play on the edge.
Here’s where it gets interesting, however.
New Zealand were given five yellow cards from the 27 foul play penalties they conceded. That was an 18.52 per cent chance of being carded, or almost one in five.
Australia were given seven yellow cards, meaning they were carded 25.93 per cent of the time, or one in every four foul play penalties conceded.
By comparison, England were carded on only 5.26 per cent of the foul play penalties they conceded, or about one in 19, while Ireland were carded 7.69 per cent of the time, or one in 13.
In short, New Zealand and Australia are much less likely to get away with an act of foul play than their northern counterparts.
That could be down to the aggressiveness of their play, as you can imagine the north will suggest, or blind luck. It’s probably somewhere down the middle.
New Zealand are also the most likely side to be carded at the breakdown, with three cards from those situations.
Australia were not carded for any breakdown penalties, while England and Ireland were both carded twice.
Australia were the only team to be carded for a set piece offence, and give away by far the most set piece penalties at 3.31 per game. New Zealand give away 2.31 per match, compared to 2.18 for Ireland and 2.09 for England. GETTY IMAGES
The conclusion: New Zealand’s discipline needs to improve.
But the idea that referees are turning a blind eye to it belongs in the conspiracy theory file.
‘ Ireland commit far more penalties before losing a man to the bin’