Top 14 Numbers Crunched

With the second week in the season of Top 14 action coming to an end, Ultimate Rugby takes a look at the numbers behind the results and who we the real winners and losers of the weekend.

'French teams don't travel' , or maybe they do...

The Top 14 often tends to have home side dominated results week in, week out. But this week we saw an even split with 3 home wins & 3 away with Bayonne & Castres drawing 12-12 at the Jean Dauger Stadium. We only saw 4 draws in the Top 14 last season so we can put this down as a rare result.

It's not quite Super Rugby on try scoring terms

22 tries were scored across the 7 fixtures in France's top flight this weekend. This averages just over 3 tries per game which may come as a surprise to many with several imports from the Southern Hemisphere bringing more flair to the Top 14. Clermont's narrow 26-22 win over Montpellier provided the most tries this weekend with 5 while Bayonne's draw with Castres provided no tries, not one for the highlight reels it would seem. 

The most tries were scored in the final quarter this weekend across the 7 games with 6 tries. This can clearly be linked to tiring defences and loss of concentration in the late stages of each game.

Where are they points being scored?

This weekend had an even points spread across the 7 games, 5 of 7 games totalled between 40-50 points close clashes. Narrow winning margins across the board indicates the small margin in talents at each side in the Top 14 which should keep the season interesting right through.

Discipline problems for Brive

It can be said french rugby can produce it's moments of madness and indiscipline quite often, this weekend 12 yellow cards were dished across the round but no red cards were given. Brive had a disappointing weekend in terms of discipline receiving 4 yellow cards in their 28-20 win over Stade Francais. An impressive result in consideration of losing 4 players at different points over the 80.