Round 3 of the Guinness Six Nations is upon us as the Championship passes the halfway point and we get ever closer to discovering who lift the famous trophy next month
The round opens with Scotland travelling to Rome to take on Italy with both sides looking for their first victory of the 2020 Guinness Six Nations, before France take their unbeaten record in this year’s Championship to Cardiff for a match against Wayne Pivac’s Wales.
Sunday then sees Ireland also trying to stay on course for a Grand Slam when they travel to south-west London for a contest against old enemies England
It promises to be a fascinating trio of clashes and the stats – powered by AWS – certainly suggest an intriguing set of encounters.
You can read a full rundown of all the AWS stats by clicking here to visit our match data downloads page for an even greater level of detail but here are some of the highlights
ITALY V SCOTLAND
- In the sides’ 20 meetings in the Guinness Six Nations, Italy have claimed victory seven times, while Scotland ran out victorious in the remaining 13 games.
- Italy and Scotland have won five games apiece in Rome during the Guinness Six Nations era; however, Scotland have won each of the last three meetings. That run immediately followed a string of three consecutive Italian home victories.
- Italy are scoring nearly three times as many points per opposition 22 entry than Scotland in this Guinness Six Nations campaign. Ranking third in terms of opposition 22 entries per match (7.5), Italy’s points return per entry is at 1.27, compared to just 0.46 points per Scottish breach thus far.
- Scotland have made metres on 58.3% of their carries in the Guinness Six Nations this season – which is 13.5% more success than the Azzurri have had at the gain line. This is despite the Italians carrying for almost 250 metres more per game in this season’s Championship.
- Italy hold a major advantage at the lineout, boasting a 91.7% win rate from the set-piece, while Scotland’s 67.9% win rate from the lineout is the worst in the Championship, albeit not helped by the incredibly difficult conditions in their last match against England at BT Murrayfield.
- Conversely, Scotland have won every scrum they’ve contested, while only Wales (73.3%) hold a worse success rate at scrum time than the Italians (84.6%).
- Italy have the quickest ruck speed in the entire Guinness Six Nations, as no team is quicker clearing their own rucks than the Azzurri, who do so at an average speed of 2.91 seconds.
- Matteo Minozzi has offloaded on eight separate occasions in the 2020 Guinness Six Nations – two more than any other player in the competition, with only France’s Antoine Dupont (6) making at least half as many offloads thus far.
- Stuart Hogg’s four tackle breaks is the highest tally in the Guinness Six Nations, while the only other man to break more than two is Italy’s Mattia Bellini (3).
- Scotland have completed 93.3% of their tackle attempts – the highest percentage in the 2020 Guinness Six Nations – while also boasting the highest dominant tackle share (13%) and allowing the fewest tackle breaks (4) in the competition thus far.
WALES V FRANCE
- Of the sides’ 20 meetings in the Guinness Six Nations, the results have been split evenly, with Wales and France boasting ten wins apiece and none of the last five fixtures have been decided by ten points or more
- Each side have won five times in Cardiff, while their last meeting there saw Wales run out single-point victors – the only time there’s been a single point between the sides in Guinness Six Nations history.
- Wales (9.5) and France (8.0) are the sides who lead the Championship in terms of opposition 22 entries per match. While Wales hold the slight advantage here, it’s France who produce a better points-per-entry ratio: 3.38 points compared to the Welsh average of 2.63 points.
- No side has scored more points in the final 20 minutes of this year’s Guinness Six Nations than Wales (23). The final 20 minutes is also the period in which France have conceded the majority of their points – 56.4% – the highest 20-minute points concession period of any team in the Championship.
- Wales’ last Guinness Six Nations home defeat to a side other than England or Ireland was almost exactly ten years ago – a 26-20 loss to France on February 26th, 2010.
- Wales have won 100% of their mauls in the 2020 Guinness Six Nations – the leading mark among nations. The Championship average is at just 83.3%.
- Wales are averaging two turnover tackles (5.5) more than the 2020 Guinness Six Nations average (3.5) per game this campaign.
- With a victory, France could record four straight Guinness Six Nations wins for the first time since a run of eight consecutive successes between March 2009 and February 2011.
- France have never won their opening three games of the Guinness Six Nations without going on to win the Championship (three Grand Slams).
- Bernard le Roux (44) has made more tackles than any other player in the 2020 Guinness Six Nations. The only other player to have reached the 40-tackle mark is Wales’ back-rower Justin Tipuric.
- France have amassed 54 dominant tackles in the 2020 Guinness Six Nations thus far – 17 more than any other nation.
ENGLAND V IRELAND
- England and Ireland have contested 20 Guinness Six Nations matches, with England claiming victory nine times compared to Ireland’s 11 wins.
- Ireland have won on four of their ten visits to London in the Six Nations era and landed their biggest margin of victory over England on English soil in the Guinness Six Nations in 2018 as they ran out 24-15 victors.
- Ireland are averaging five times as many line breaks (7.5) as their English counterparts (1.5) per match in the 2020 Guinness Six Nations, while out-carrying them 760 to 483 metres per game.
- The sides have had similar success in the tackle, as Ireland have seen 9.5% of their tackles as dominant, close to England’s 10.3% strike rate.
- England have dominated the opposition lineout in the 2020 Guinness Six Nations having stolen 12 lineouts, four times as many as the Ireland (3), accounting for 40% of all stolen lineouts in the Championship.
- England have scored 66.7% of their points in the final 20 minutes of Guinness Six Nations games this campaign – the highest percentage in the Championship.
- England gave up only six points to Scotland in their Round 2 meeting and haven’t conceded fewer points in the Guinness Six Nations since a 20-0 victory over the same opposition back in February 2014.
- England have only lost seven home games in the Six Nations era – with four of them coming against Ireland.
- England have conceded just 11 penalties through their opening two 2020 Guinness Six Nations games – four fewer than any other side.
- Maro Itoje has 72 attacking breakdown arrivals, ten more than any other player in the Championship this year
- Ireland have lost just five of their last 20 Guinness Six Nations clashes, with England being responsible for two of those losses.
- Ireland have a higher win percentage in Round 3 than they do in any other round of the Guinness Six Nations – winning 17 of their 20 Round 3 games to date
- Ireland’s Jordan Larmour leads all players in terms of running metres in this year’s Championship (257), 14m more than second-placed Matteo Minozzi.
- Ireland have won 98.2% of their own rucks – a higher percentage than any other team in the 2020 Guinness Six Nations.
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