Proper Sports Analysis...

Because Kiwis never do it, let's have a look at this week's NZ - Aus (20-10) vs. last week's (49-2

On the face of it, one would be the more dour, defensive game, whereas the other would be more free-flowing, right?

Yep. One game had a total of 539 metres run with ball (both sides). The other had a total of 690, or 28% more, Oddly, however, the game with the higher yardage was the 20-10 game.

What's interesting is how impotent the teams were tonight. 30 points required 23 metres run per point, whereas in the previous game, it only needed 7 metres per point scored.

http://www.scrum.com/trinations2010/rugby/match/103850.html
http://www.scrum.com/trinations2010/rugby/match/103849.html

Those stats are only useful for showing how irrelevant rugby stats are.

your analysis is skewed

as the margins attest one game was more one-sided than the other and thus more time spent in the other side's half

thus less yardage to run for more points scored

the lower scoring game was the more equal thus more time was spent running back and forth and more effort was required to score the points, tries being obtained by errors of the opponents in their offensive play in home territory necessitating the longer yardage per point expenditure

what last night's game result demonstrates is the much better defensive game play of the Australians compared with last week

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Not at all. Basically, last time we had a "bend but don't break" defence from both sides, as well as poor offensive execution in the red zone.

People who don't look at the stats can never answer "why" something happened. Sure, the only stat that matters is the one on the scoreboard, but to win you have to understand the mechanisms that led you there.

The above is fucking idiocy. There is absolutely no link between "one sided" and "more time spent in the other side's half." I'm not saying it wasn't the case, but it's not an automatic relationship.

And the second point would be even if you ARE right, how do you get into the opposition half in the first place unless you're running it?

And the third point... if Australia were so pinned down, how did they score 180% more points while running less than they did in thesecond game?