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The Six Nations is notorious for fans overreacting after one game. However, the opening round of the 2026 tournament was so compelling that it impossible not to take lessons from the numbers it produced. Here are 6 key stats from last weekend:
The Six Nations is notorious for fans overreacting after one game. However, the opening round of the 2026 tournament was so compelling that it impossible not to take lessons from the numbers it produced. Here are 6 key stats from last weekend:
The France we saw play against Ireland on Thursday night was the one we all love watching. They were confident, purposeful and their star players were able to show what makes them so special. Whether it be through physicality or through fleetness of foot, their ability to beat Irish defenders was sensational. In all, they managed an incredible 13 line breaks across the 80 minutes. On reflection, they are probably disappointed not to score more than 5 tries. Meanwhile, the French also made 21 offloads (the next most on the opening weekend being England with just 8) and the most kicks retained with 9 – an interesting development as contestable kicks are not usually a French tactic. Plenty to be excited for in their next game!
Tackle percentage is one of the most maligned stats in rugby; often trotted out with no real context and frequently rejected as irrelevant by defence coaches. However, Ireland’s tackle success of just 67% is a low figure in any context. It wasn’t just how many tackles they missed (41 in total, 12 more than any other side) but the fact they managed just 8 dominant contacts in the whole game – the lowest of anyone. This shows how they were neither nimble nor physical.
Sam Prendergast’s tackling has been a bone of contention for so long that it barely counts as analysis anymore. However, his numbers in this game do eloquently demonstrate one thing: a player making a high volume of tackles in a match (20, in this case) does not always mean they have a high work rate, sometimes it just means the other team ran at them a lot!
Saying that Italy won thanks to the rain is not only limp analysis but also does a disservice to their tireless and gritty defensive effort. However, the fact that the Azzuri went 2 scores up within the first 15 minutes, before the rain truly started hammering down, does go a long way to explaining why the result went the way it did. After the 14th minute, Italy only scored 2 more penalty goals but this was enough to secure the win. For the rest of the match, all they had to do was dig in and let Scotland over-play in the monsoon-like conditions.
The stats bare this out: Italy had just 36% possession and 31% territory. They made 226 tackles – over 40% more than any other side – and made just 68 passes in the whole game. Fly-Half Paolo Garbisi made just 8 passes and 6 kicks across the whole match, with the majority of the game management coming from his half-back partner Alessandro Fusco who made 14 kicks. Add in 4 lineout steals and a dominant scrum and it was the prefect recipe for success on a day for the ducks in Rome.
Gregor Townsend has been a coach under heavy scrutiny for some time, but the one thing his teams have always been known for is incisive and creative attacking play. Therefore, the most damning of all stats for Scotland’s performance on Saturday has to be that they made zero line breaks in the whole game. Yes, the weather was atrocious and yes, 5 lineout losses and a struggling scrum heavily limits what magic the backs can weave, but Scotland still managed 10 22m entries in this game and yet only came away with a conversion rate of 1.5. Even a (still below average) conversion rate of 2.0 would have been enough to win. If a Townsend team doesn’t have an attack, what does it have?
Steve Tandy’s reputation is almost entirely built off being a defensive guru. His title-winning Ospreys team averaged just 1.1 tries against per game and his later Scotland teams achieved similar feats. Therefore, we must ask serious questions as to why this current Wales side has averaged 50 points conceded per game since he took over. Forget organisation, Wales couldn’t even manage uncontrolled aggression against England with their 2 dominant hits being the lowest of any team. The myth that Tandy has improved the attack looks to be busted too, with 1 try in the last 2 test matches and just 11 tries in 5 – coincidentally, the same number of cards his team has been shown in that time.
England fly-half George Ford loves to kick the ball. On Saturday, England were successful in drawing Wales into a long kicking battle which suited Ford down to the ground. He was able to sit back in his own 22m and ping the ball wherever he wanted it.
England kicked the ball 42 times against Wales, the most of any team last weekend. George Ford made 26 of those kicks, 7 more than any other player in the competition. What’s more, England kicked a whopping 1,332 metres against Wales, of which Ford was responsible for nearly 75%. His personal kick meterage was just 20 shy of the full kilometre. He had more kicks that found grass than any other player last weekend (9) and had the longest average kick length at 37.7 metres. To top it all off, he had the most successful kicks at goal, too.