Super Rugby 2015, round 16: Brumbies v Bulls, Fox Sports Lab looks at lineout battle
THE lineout battle looms large in Friday night’s crunch Super Rugby clash between the Brumbies and the Bulls at Canberra’s GIO Stadium.
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THE lineout battle looms large in Friday night’s crunch Super Rugby clash between the Brumbies and the Bulls at Canberra’s GIO Stadium.
Both teams have recently given up the lead in their respective national conferences and now find their playoff chances hanging by a thread.
The Brumbies have surrendered the lead in the Australian conference to defending champions NSW Waratahs and have fallen back to sixth place in the overall standings, three points behind the Waratahs and only two points ahead of the seventh-placed Lions.
The Bulls have been displaced atop the South African conference by the Stormers, and also trail the conference leaders by three points but have also fallen to eighth, one place behind the Lions.
Fox Sports Lab statistics reveal both the Brumbies and the Bulls have been strong at lineout time in 2015.
The Brumbies enjoy the best win percentage (91%) and Bulls the fifth best (88%) on their own throw.
The Brumbies have made better use of their lineout possession, with 24 of their 34 tries this season (most in the competition) coming from possession that originates from a lineout win.
The Bulls have been employing the rolling maul the best this season, averaging the most mauls (seven) and maul metres (31) per game.
However, they have not been able to capitalise on this, scoring just two tries from a maul this season.
The Brumbies have, however, with the second most tries from mauls (five) in the competition.
The Bulls will also be without lineout ace Victor Matfield, who is being rested for this match.
The Bulls will still look to disrupt the Brumbies lineout, having made the second highest percentage of steals (16.4%) in the competition.
Brumbies lock Sam Carter has made the second most lineout wins (50) in the competition, while Matfield has made the seventh most (39).
With just three regular season rounds remaining, a Brumbies win would secure their place in the top six for another week while a loss would likely drop them out of the playoffs zone.
The Bulls can clamber back into the top six with their eighth win of the season, though that would also depend on the outcome of Saturday’s match between the Lions and Waratahs.
A Lions win would likely move them into the top six and would also open the possibility of the Brumbies regaining the lead in the Australian conference.
The Bulls’ challenge to the Stormers for supremacy in South Africa also depends on the outcome of Saturday’s match in Cape Town between the Stormers and Cheetahs.
“If we lose one, we drop one and I’d say finals is probably out of contention,” Brumbies halfback Nic White said.
“It’s huge for us. Every game is a grand final.”
The two-time champion Brumbies are in their current predicament because of narrow losses to the Chiefs, the Blues, the Waratahs, the Rebels and the Stormers.
Wins in any of those matches would have lessened pressure on the Brumbies as they face late matches against the Bulls, the Western Force and the Crusaders.
“We’ve lost a couple of tight ones but they’re the only ones we’ve lost, the tight ones,” White said.
“If you get too caught up thinking about what we’re going to do when it gets tight, we’re forgetting about what we need to do to put them away early on.”
Originally published as Super Rugby 2015, round 16: Brumbies v Bulls, Fox Sports Lab looks at lineout battle
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