Tries kick penalties into touch

PAUL REES LOOKS AT HOW THE PREMIERSHIP PRODUCT HAS CHANGED OVER THE LAST DECADE

When James Grayson kicked a late long-range penalty to take Northampton to victory against Harlequins in the last round, it was a throwback to a not-too-distant era when kickers were match-winners.

The Premiership -make that English rugby -used to be dismissed by its many detractors, not all of whom were to be found in the Southern Hemisphere, as a vehicle for the risk averse, driven by scrums and mauls. It was written off as kick and clap and there was merit to the argument.

At the end of the current league campaign, not one club will have kicked more penalties than it has scored tries. None will even come close and four, Exeter, Harlequins, London Irish and Worcester, are averaging less than one penalty a match while Bath, Newcastle and Sale are at, or fractionally above, one a game.

Compare that to the 2012-13 season when only one club, Northampton, who were beaten in the final by Leicester after Dylan Hartley was sent off, scored more tries than they kicked penalties, 61 to 49. The Tigers came close, 64-65, but no-one else did.

Saracens have kicked the most penalties in this season’s Premiership, 53, but they have scored 83 tries. Ten seasons ago, the difference was 50 in favour of penalties, 42-92, while for Gloucester it was 40-82 and for relegated London Welsh it was 30-73.

London Irish are the Premiership’s cavaliers. Eleven of their 23 league matches this season have generated 60 points or more with another four topping 50. They are the top try scorers with 89, virtually five times the number of penalties they have kicked, 18. In 2012-13, they scored 38 tries and landed 72 penalties.

A glance at their Premiership player records is telling. Barry Everett tops their all-time penalty table with 312 but he kicked only 94 conversions. In contrast, the current outside-half Paddy Jackson, who is in his third season with the club, heads the conversion list but is not among the top five most successful penalty kickers.

Attack minded: Lee Blackett

Irish are the glaring example of how the Premiership has changed in a decade. Last weekend’s round saw the highest draw in the competition, 42-42 between London Irish and Wasps at the Brentford Community Stadium, Gloucester enjoyed their highest victory in the tournament when they flayed Bath 64-0 at Kingsholm and the lowest number of points in a match on the weekend was the 54 at Sixways heavily weighted in Saracens’ favour.

A new record of 10 try bonus points was set and the 57 tries scored in the six matches was second behind the 68 harvested in round 30 in 1998-99, when there were seven games played and 40 of the tries came in three encounters, 16 of them run in by Richmond at Bedford.

“I think a difference now is that there is a lot more unstructured play which is producing tries,” said Lee Blackett, the Wasps head coach.

“The ball is in play for longer and you generally find that means more opportunities are created because players get more tired.

“The 42-42 draw was frustrating and ultimately disappointing for us because we led by 25 points with 13 minutes to play, but everyone afterwards said what a great game it was. The Premiership is delivering on entertainment: it has been there in the last few seasons and it is getting better and better.

What we are seeing is great young English talent coming through the system and being given a chance. The potential is massive.”

There have been scorelines more associated with Super Rugby than the Premiership this season.

London Irish have been involved in more than their share, 45-33, 47-28, 32-30, 43-21, 38-30, 49-32, 42-22 and five draws, with the lowest scoring one 25-25. With one match left, Irish cannot finish higher than sixth and they are relying on others to secure a place in next season’s European Champions Cup.

The closeness of the Premiership is demonstrated by Wasps occupying ninth place despite winning more matches than they have lost.

Last season, only the top four boasted such a record. Wasps were eighth then, in a league of 12 rather than the 13 this campaign, after winning nine games and losing 13.

With the table so tight, have Irish, who have accumulated more try bonus points this season than any other club, paid for being too bold?

“We have to be true to what we do well,” said Irish’s head coach, Les Kiss, inset above. “There are ebbs and flows in a game where we can appreciate other parts of the rugby challenge, but we want the players to chase the way they do rather than go back in their shells and try to apply pressure through territory.

“There are areas we can improve on. It means building another layer and being smarter, but not going too hard and taking away from your strength. We have to become better at managing games. The Premiership challenges you consistently and we have met 90-95 per cent of the challenges: it is in the other 5-10 per cent that you grow. We have to keep moving forward, understanding our imperfections and not papering over the cracks.”

Entertainer: Henry Arundell, right, breaks clear to score for London Irish against Wasps

James Grayson kicks the late penalty to snatch victory over Harlequins

PICTURES: Getty Images

Progress: George Skivington

Gloucester are the lowest try scorers in the Premiership top five, although not by much. They have rolled back the years and have a pack older supporters at Kingsholm would identify with, mauling with relish and strong up front. Yet they also have arguably the most threatening back three in the league when all their players are fit and an inside centre in Mark Atkinson capable of finding cracks in the tightest defences.

“We have relied on our maul a lot this season and as you build a team, the tricky thing is finding balance,” said their head coach, George Skivington, who joined from London Irish in June 2020. “Saracens’ attack is as threatening as I have ever seen it and I want to bring the most complete game that fans at Kingsholm have ever seen.

“We have delivered a bit more with ball in hand in recent weeks. We have brought back a bit of the set-piece dominance which will impress the older generation but we have also been showing some flair lately. Going forward, a bit more balance would be at the top of my list of objectives.”

With two rounds of the regular season to go before the play-offs, most clubs have played the same number of matches as they did in 2012-13, 22, although there is one more of them in the league. The number of tries scored this season is 943, not far short of being double the figure of 10 seasons ago, 508. The average per club has risen from 42 to 72.

There have been 355 penalties which have been successfully kicked, less than half the 768 landed in 2012-13, 27 per club compared to 62. It is a figure that highlights the evolution of the Premiership from a tournament in which little was given to chance to one in which players have to do more than obey orders.

Exeter set the trend of kicking to touch rather than for the posts, recognising that two penalties were worth less than a converted try. Most have followed and if the penalty has not gone the way of the drop-goal, its exchange rate has depreciated significantly.

“Defence coaches must be scratching their heads,” said Joe Launchbury, the 31-year-old Wasps and England second row. “We have seen in the last couple of seasons that teams are more attack minded and are looking to score tries. It is great for rugby.”