Munster legend finally says what needs to be said about rugby’s stats obsession

Patrick McCarry

Emphatically said, and about bloody time.

We have been guilty, here, of doing something that irks Tomás O’Leary.

Following a big game, we often go back over the match statistics and use the raw numbers to rave about, or critique, a player or team. A player had 20+ carries and 15+ tackles so he is the new rugby messiah. If only it were so simple.

Sparked by a conversation about ruck inspectors, on The Hard Yards, O’Leary took a cut at the current obsession with statistics and hitting numbers. His comments will hit home with some many who love the game and know what they see.

“I found that, once stats come in, guys were trying to hit rucks needlessly just to try and get their number of impacts up,” O’Leary began.

“Lads started playing by stats almost. That’s what pissed me off, more than a ruck inspector. If a fella went to a ruck needlessly, just to get his stats up and say he hit 15 rucks.”

The former Munster and Ireland star spoke a hell of a lot of sense on the matter. Here, in full, are O’Leary’s thoughts on the matter:

“I hated stats and I hated people playing by stats.

“Even after the games now, you’ll here, ‘Oh the Number 8 had 15 carries’ or ‘He made 17 tackles’ but you look at it and he might have carried for an average of a metre and a half per carry. That’s not exactly too effective and yet the fella who might have made seven carries could have made four or five metres on each one. That’s a lot more effective but he won’t get the platitudes or whatever because he hadn’t a massive number of carries.

“I think stats can be misleading and I it can be dangerous for coaches. In reviews and previews of games, I think some coaches got a little obsessed with stats and, I think, if you play by stats, you take away from your natural game. You take away from making the correct decisions. Like, the fella out on the touchline might be spreading the defence yet he might not touch the ball for five minutes. But he could create space for some guy to make the inside break. He’d obviously get no credit, but if he was in trying to get a carrying or hit a ruck the space isn’t going to be there for a line break. So I’ve no problem with ruck inspectors. I’ve a problem with fellas chasing stats!”

At this point, former Ireland lock Mike McCarthy chipped in about ‘the fear of the stats sheet going up on the wall, in camp’. He noted how players had often been guilty of carrying into contact instead of passing and how many an overlap or try-scoring opportunity paid the price.

O’Leary believes top level coaches have got better at spotting the stats-chasers but, as a recently retired player, it still ticks him off to see it in practice.