Do you like tries? Good, because the Gallagher Premiership has been serving them up by the bucketload this season. In fact, we are on track for more tries on average per game in a Premiership season than ever before if teams keep this up which, with 7.48 tries currently being scored in each match. Given we are entering the part of the season with the best weather conditions, breaking that record seems highly likely.
Even Pat Lam at Kingsholm on Saturday – while clearly unhappy with his Bristol side’s failure to put into practice the work they had put in on the training field to try to contain Gloucester’s attack – admitted that the entertaining rugby Gloucester played in scoring nine tries was exactly what the game needed. “People want to be entertained. That’s what we’re in. I mean, our game needs people coming to rugby,” Lam said.
And for those lamenting the death of defences? “The purists might not like it, but it’s not about the purists. It’s about the young people, enjoying coming to games, with a sell-out here.”
With that in mind, Telegraph Sport examines the surge in tries being scored in the Premiership this season and the best statistics that demonstrate how far it has gone.
Bonus-points before half-time
Of the 65 Premiership matches played so far this season, there have been 17 try bonus-points in the first half alone, meaning 26 per cent – over a quarter – of games have seen teams explode out of the blocks.
Those fast starts have a knock-on effect in that the losing side has enough time to run up scores of their own later on when the contest is already long over. Look at Bristol at Kingsholm on Saturday. Could that lead to a discussion around whether four tries is enough for a bonus-point, or whether the model used in France of outscoring your opponent by three tries, should be looked at? Possibly.
Four tries in a half is nice, but how about six?
Doubling down on that previous point, between 2009-10 and 2022-23 there were only 10 instances of teams scoring six tries in a half, which is fewer than one a season. However, in the last two seasons, that has happened on seven occasions, including twice in the last two weeks with Bristol’s win over Exeter and Gloucester’s win over Bristol, which is an astonishing shift.
Who would bet against more instances of this before the season closes?
Teams starting stronger than they finish
One other statistic to keep in mind: this is the first season since records started in 2015-16 where the number of tries on average in the first half – 3.98 – has eclipsed the number in the second half, 3.49. Historically teams have scored more of their tries after half-time, but those previously mentioned faster starts have led to a notable shift. Teams are trying to start fast and then hold on, rather than scrapping back to win at the death.
Race to fastest bonus-point
Newcastle Falcons have unfortunately gone through an attacking buzzsaw on a couple of occasions this season – they currently have the league’s worst points ...
