All Blacks-Wallabies: The stats don't lie

Tracey Nelson is the stats guru for haka.co.nz and will provide statistical analysis of the All Blacks' matches during their end of year tour.

The All Blacks ended their 15-match winning streak falling three short of Lithuania's (yes, Lithuania) world record of 18 consecutive test wins as the Wallabies finally halted their 10 match losing streak against the men in black, winning the Hong Kong test 26-24.

It was the start from hell, with the Wallabies hogging 88% of the possession in the first 15 minutes of the game and the All Blacks looking tentative and error-prone with sloppy handling and indiscretions at the breakdown, conceding two penalties in the first three minutes.

A mis-firing All Black lineout saw only one lineout won from four throws in the first half, but an improved second half had all seven throws safely won. Despite conceding a couple of free kicks for early engagement the All Black scrum was clearly dominant all game and had the Wallabies scrum back-pedalling, particularly in the first half with the Australians only winning one of their five feeds.

Overall the All Blacks won 73% of their lineouts and 75% of their scrum feeds, while Australia only won 67% of their lineouts and a meagre 56% of their scrum feeds. Yet despite this, the Wallabies still managed two set piece tries to the All Blacks' none - the first from a lineout 5m in All Black territory that saw Adam Ashley-Cooper bust the tackle of Dan Carter and neatly side-step Cory Jane to score un-touched, while the second came from a hummer of a move from a scrum set 5m in Austalia's half.

The Wallabies won the battle of the breakdown, turning over All Black ball eight times and only conceding three penalties in the process, while the All Blacks won five turnovers but conceded a whopping 11 penalties in the contest zone.

Handling errors also proved costly, with the All Blacks coughing up possession 14 times.

The heroes:
Richie McCaw led from the front being in the first three to the breakdown 28 times, made 14 tackles and five assists, and missed just one tackle all game. But Kieran Read wins the prize for the forwards with 14 tackles, 12 ball carries and being in the first three to the breakdown 16 times.

Nonu made three linebreaks and scored a try, but his error rate (two handling errors and two ruck penalties) sees him lose out to Conrad Smith as the All Blacks' most valuable back. Smith made 10 tackles including three huge efforts in the final two minutes of frantic play, plus his overall work rate saw him amongst the first three players to arrive at the breakdown on no less than 14 times during the game.

The villains:
It's hard to go past Stephen Donald - in his 20 minutes on field he threw a forward pass and missed a relatively easy penalty kick at goal that would have given the All Blacks an 8 point lead into the last 6 minutes of the game. His meltdown in the final 12 minutes saw three kicks from our 22 (including THAT one) going straight to Wallabies hands, plus he missed a tackle and put in a head high tackle on Ashley-Cooper. Toeava missed two key tackles in his 29 minutes on the field, out of position and slipping over as Drew Mitchell scored from the scrum set-move, and also missing Beale as he counter-attacked from the Donald failed touch-finder in the 79th minute.

Notable milestones reached during this test match were Rokocoko playing his 67th test and Dan Carter playing his 75th test to become the seventh most capped All Black. McCaw and Muliaina played not only their 90th test matches for the All Blacks but also their 70th test together, while Woodcock clocked up his 70th cap.

In-depth game stats can be found at Haka.co.nz.