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Super Rugby Pacific

7 stats you should know around the 2018 Super Rugby final

By Ben Spratt

02 Aug 2018

The Crusaders face the Lions in a Super Rugby final rematch this weekend as the New Zealand side look to defend their title.

Scott Robertson’s Crusaders ran out 25-17 winners last year at Ellis Park and the league’s outstanding team have the opportunity to go back-to-back in Christchurch.

The odds look to be firmly in the Crusaders’ favour – the Lions finished 17 points behind Saturday’s opponents in the regular season – but the whole campaign now boils down to one match.

Ahead of the crunch clash, we have picked out the best Opta facts.

FINALS FOOTY! Can the BNZ Crusaders make it 2️⃣ #SuperRugby titles in a row? Or can the Lions who are in their third final in three years claim a Super Rugby title❓🤔#DontMissAThing pic.twitter.com/0HBy0FQ8Sc
— Super Rugby NZ (@SuperRugbyNZ) July 29, 2018

Continue reading below…

1 – This game will mark the first time in Super Rugby history that consecutive finals have been contested by the same teams.

2 – Two of the last three Super Rugby finals have been won by the away team on the day, including the Crusaders’ victory in the 2017 edition.

4 – The Lions have lost their last four games in New Zealand, scoring an average of just 16 points per game.

6 – The number of victories from the Lions’ last eight play-off games in Super Rugby; however, they have finished as runners-up in each of the last two campaigns.

9 – The Crusaders have won nine of their last 10 games against the Lions, including their last two in succession.

14 – The length of the Crusaders’ winning run. The last time they won more consecutively was a 16-game streak from April 2005 to April 2006.

87 – The amount of tries scored by the Lions this season is greater than any other team in the competition, but just one more than the Crusaders (86).

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Comments on RugbyPass

RedWarrior 10 minutes ago

Autumn Nations Series 2024: Everything you need to know about round four

Can't have a Kiwi comment without blaming someone else for their defeats. A 14 point try to France apparently the culprit last week!!

5 Go to comments

PB 19 minutes ago

Let's be real about these All Blacks

Guess you aren’t a SA’can!

Maybe a disgruntled expat!

50 Go to comments

RedWarrior 22 minutes ago

Jake White: Ireland, Australia and Wales all have the same problem

"They start with Ireland away, and then they go over to Paris to play France."

England are playing France in Twickenham in the 2025 6N.

14 Go to comments

RedWarrior 29 minutes ago

Andy Farrell faces up to concerning Irish 'trends' ahead of Fiji

There is nothing particularly significant about Ireland in this regard compared to other Tier 1 nations. To look at 'strategy' for illegal play its best to see what teams push boundaries with new laws. SA have milked two tries at ruck block downs. The strategy is to charge the first few before the ball is out at about 4 seconds but pull out and put up hands in reigned apology. The referees usually allow the scum half to clear without awarding a penalty in this scenario. The problem with that being that the scrumhalf is now taking over 5 seconds through no fault of his own. Having achieved a few slow balls > 5s , the SA forward can now pick a scrum to charge dead on 5s. Now if the scrum half waits, he will concede a penalty, as we saw against Scotland. With the new rule in place, any early charge should result in an immediate penalty.

SA also got an offside block against England which was pivotal again after a couple of 'apologetic' offside aborted charges forcing England to clear slowly.

2 Go to comments

RedWarrior 46 minutes ago

Ex-All Black accuses Ireland's Jack Crowley of 'disgusting' act in Argentina win

Yep, you're not the sharpest tool in the shed are you?

45 Go to comments

Mark 57 minutes ago

Fin Baxter wades into debate over the England losing streak

Totally agree, and with the Greenwood comment you have hit the nail on the head, England have never managed to replace Greenwood.

And although it's a simple analogy if you look at today's England side, how many of them would make a combined world xv?.

As you allude to, they are I'm afraid mediocre.

3 Go to comments

Lisa Decker 1 hour ago

Ex-All Black accuses Ireland's Jack Crowley of 'disgusting' act in Argentina win

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45 Go to comments

Werner 1 hour ago

Let's be real about these All Blacks

I dare say it's an "everyone against the ABs" scrapbook. Only time I've seen him give half a compliment is when he talks about other teams beating the Springboks. Even in this article he puts the Argentina win in NZ down to the ABs being bad rather than the Argentines playing well, which they have been doing all year round.

50 Go to comments

AA 1 hour ago

Fin Baxter wades into debate over the England losing streak

Agreed. Borthwick will have to write a new excuse book soon .

I have looked at the two world cup final teams from 2003 and 2020.

2003 team scored 187 tries between them in 389 caps

2020 team scored 113 tries between them in 473 caps. As you can see a huge disparity in scoring rate. Only Johnny May with 36 tries in 78 caps scored a higher amount of tries. Elliot Daly comes close but the rest are frankly very poor.

Farrell and Ford scored a pathetic 20 tries between them in a combined 210 caps.

There again , the 2003 team did have Wilko and Greenwood etc whereas 2020 team had Ford and Farrell .

So much people saying that Fords strength is of bringing others into the game .

Really. The figures totally disprove that notion .

It has been mentioned elsewhere that we have accepted mediocrity far too often and the figures would indicate that players are or have been picked far too often without performing .

3 Go to comments

Alex 1 hour ago

Let's be real about these All Blacks

Not disputing that NZ are ahead of Eng. Also not saying Eng are unlucky (though clearly the tone of the article is not that the ABs were unlucky but that they 'should have' won). Your team are looking great and are on the up. I just felt that Pundits have argued Eng 'should have' won the first test against the ABs, when it's more nuanced than that, and very fine margins determine results that Eng didn't get right. Same applies, therefore, to NZ and other nations. Ben Smith though doesn't seem to see it that way. To be clear: I'm not saying I agree with the 'should haves', but more that I take issue with the phrasing.

Good to see your respect for other nations is so strong! Proper rugby fan you are!!!

50 Go to comments

RedWarrior 1 hour ago

Did Rassie Erasmus miss a trick with his latest South Africa squad?

GB is England, Scotland, Wales. They are the 3 constituent countries in Great Britain. Ergo playing only those three countries is a tour of GB. The difference between GB and the UK is Northern Ireland. It's not a huge deal to be accurate and call places by their correct name. But please refrain from your idiotic attempts to BS that GB=UK. It doesn't.

52 Go to comments

RedWarrior 1 hour ago

'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'