Player Influence in the Falcon's Game

[Vespula Vulgaris]

In the absence of a replay or highlights to watch this morning I have taken the stats form the Premiership website and plugged them into a spreadsheet to see what came out the other end.

Obviously as an approach this is seriously flawed as it takes not account of set pieces, and the values I have allocated the different actions are arbitrary at best.

I have given the following values.

Every metre made scores 1pt
A try scores 20pts
A turnover 10pt
A carry over the gainline 5pts
A tackle 3pts
A Pass 2pts

Using these numbers it shows that the most influential player on the pitch was Christian Wade with 198 points, followed closely by Jimmy Gopperth with 193.  The least influential was Kiernan Myall with 9pts.  Probably not a surprise after his injury, but Kyle Eastmond and Gaby Lovabalovu both scored more then 100 despite having been off injured, and effectively only playing half a game each.

I'm very happy to adjust the numbers if anyone is interested, and also to share more players ratings.

[Rossm]

VV: Please note this is not a criticism but an observation only:) 40 of Wadey's points came from his 2 tries, yet Gopps, who did not score a try was only 5 points behind him. He must have been a very, very busy boy! Like you, I have yet to see any of the game. I've been checking Premiership TV regularly in hope.

[Vespula Vulgaris]

I noticed that self same thing. If we devalue tries then Wade drops much lower.

[Vespula Vulgaris]

I've had a play with the table now and after sorting the players in order of how influential they were in the game (by these arbitrary figures I admit) it gives some interesting results.

The top ten are:

Christian Wade - 198 pts
Jimmy Gopperth - 193 pts
Josh Bassett - 166 pts
Dan Robson - 162 pts
Willie le Roux - 129 pts
James Gaskell - 110 pts
Gabi Lovabalavu - 108 pts
Juan de Jong - 107 pts
Kyle Eastmond - 104 pts
Guy Thompson - 104 pts

Interesting to see only two forwards in the mix, though that could be simply because this doesn't take into consideration set pieces.  But Gaskell still ranks as the top forward without adding anything for his ability to steal the lineouts again and again. Considering he didn't score any tries that would suggest his workrate was immense!

[Raggs]

I would think it would be better to use the rugby magazines form of scoring players.  Seems to work fairly well for the most part, and has better balancing etc.

Definitely feel that points are required for an Assist.  And less points for meters run, depending on position, for a lock to cover 100m carrying the ball is a lot harder than for someone like Wadey.

[coddy]

Out of interest what is the Rugby magazines player scoring formula?

[Raggs]

https://therugbymagazine.com/fantasy/help

Requires login, I tried copy pasting, but all the lines got squashed and it would be less effort for you to sign up, than for me to go through fixing it .

[mike909]

Having watched the extended highlights, it did seem (no data to back it up!)

a) Wadey was looking for work, tackled well and got involved in a turnover. I don't know if someone at the club has suggested he works on those things to make his non selection even more silly, but if he carries on like this??
b) Kyle looked so sharp and a real bonus
c) De Jongh just looks class
d) Bassett's try was a fantastic run with a classic "pace swerve" to get past the cover.
e) Simpson looked fast and fit

Sooner or later, we'll be able to start: Robson, Cips, Bassett, Eastmond, Daly, Wade, WLR with de Jong and Gabi and Marcus in the mix (Bench?) now with a little ball, that could be fun (apols to Jimmy, not sure if he'd make my number one quick team!)

[Raggs]

Wade is often looking for work, it's just very often as he attracts two defenders, and tightens the defence, he's rarely the best choice, since his presence has created a lot of room further out.  Both his tries came on the opposite wing to where he was supposed to be.

[mike909]

Wade is often looking for work, it's just very often as he attracts two defenders, and tightens the defence, he's rarely the best choice, since his presence has created a lot of room further out.  Both his tries came on the opposite wing to where he was supposed to be.

Indeed - it shows his confidence is returning, he appeared isolated in some of the earlier games - shame EJ doesn't think he is worth  punt.

[Raggs]

A lot of our players got isolated in the falcons game, thankfully Falcons weren't fast enough and the ref was lax enough around turnovers that it didn't cost us.