Champions Cup: Round 2 Top Defenders & Work Horses

While this weekend's results are heavily weighted on good try scoring ability there were some superb efforts on defence, let's take a look at who the stand out individuals were.

It is not unusual to see Jack Willis top the charts on tackles made. What is unusual is seeing an outside back with such high numbers as Paul Costes. Both players were over 90% success rate for the game against the Warriors with Costes adding two dominant tackles and Willis 1 to his stats.

Line Out Steals:

Four players managed two line out steals in Round 2 with one being Cobus Reinach, who had an excellent game in his first start for the Stormers, he was joined by Ben Bamber, Tadhg Beirne and Chandler Cunningham-South.

Turnover Wins:

Paul de Villiers has become one to watch in the URC and Champions Cup, while he mostly focussed on securing attacking ball being involved in 17 attacking rucks, he managed two turnovers from the seven defensive rucks he got involved in for the Stormers.

Jack Dempsey in a similar role made two turnovers against Toulouse with his attack/defence ruck percentage sitting at 91% and 9%.

But the stand out forward this weekend was Freddie Douglas who attended just seven defensive rucks and managed three turnovers this weekend.

CTR | Carries, Tackles & Rucks:

Here we look at the combined effort of these three stats to show the high volume work horses. We have two lists compiled, one with the actual CTR numbers from round two of the Champions Cup and one with CTR per 80 minutes (minimum of 10 minutes played)

Darge hit 39 rucks and made 15 carries, six of which were dominant carries. Willis made nine dominant carries from his total of 12 along with his 26 tackle attempts.

With the CTR per 80mins played it brings in players either taken off or brought on, making a huge impact in their time on the field. Corentin Mézou, at just 20 years old, topped the charts with a CTR score of 80 followed by the Springbok, Thomas du Toit, on 77 (He also made five dominant tackles coming off the bench, more than any other player this weekend). Jack Boyle and Danny Priso, both on 77, round up the players that finish above the players on the CTR Actual list