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The Rugby Championship 2025 is at an end - will it be the last one ever? If so, the final chapter of the history book will show the Springboks from South Africa ended as back to back champions. But if we ignore the headlines and use data to dig a little deeper, what might we find?
Delguy (3', 65'), Isgro (81')
Tries
Reinach (37', 51'), Marx (43', 57')
Carreras (4', 65', 82')
Conversions
Feinberg-Mngomezulu (38', 52', 58')
Carreras (17', 26')
Penalties
Feinberg-Mngomezulu (9')
The Rugby Championship 2025 is at an end - will it be the last one ever? If so, the final chapter of the history book will show the Springboks from South Africa ended as back to back champions. But if we ignore the headlines and use data to dig a little deeper, what might we find?
Australia saved their worst for last. This game was a tough watch but the stats make for even tougher reading. Australia naively persevered with trying to play possession rugby despite the terrible weather conditions - it didn’t work.
New Zealand were happy to let them have the ball knowing they weren't going to pose a threat. Australia had 112 rucks with 71% of them taking under 3 seconds but they were all in the wrong areas. Just 14% of their ball (4 entries total) was in the All Blacks 22m whereas 44% was in their own half. When they did get a platform high up they were likely to make an error, losing 5 of their 12 lineouts, meanwhile they evaded just 9% of the All Blacks tackles - normally we'd expect to see around 15%.
Throw in 16 turnovers lost, 14 penalties conceded, 2 yellow cards and some wayward kicking and we are safe in calling this Australia's worst performance of 2025 so far. 53% of the ball but just 41% territory is the stat most damning of their naivety.
Despite New Zealand being 7 from 9 in 2025 there are still huge question marks over the direction of this team. Their strong suit is currently their forward pack, so a game in the hammering rain should have suited them. Yet, bizarrely, they too kept trying to play expansively.
They once again registered well over 2 passes per ruck. Of their 112 ball carries, 52 (46%) came from the starting backline with the top 4 carriers all being backs. The top carrying forward was Scott Barrett with 8 but he achieved just 7 meters. Ardie Savea, arguably the best ball carrier in the world, got just 5 touches.
They eye test says Argentina were well beaten by the 'Boks - certainly the scrum battle was heavily one sided for the majority of the match. But, in many of the key stats, Los Pumas actually had the upper hand. Had Canan Moodie received a 2nd yellow for a deliberate knock-on (which even Rassie admitted he maybe should have done) then it could have been a very different game.
The were in the lead of this game for 41 minutes and enjoyed a great percentage of possession. They had better 22m conversion, more line breaks, more post contact meters and better tackle success. Having lead at half time, one could argue that it was only minutes 38 to 65 (10 of which they played with 14 men) that South Africa were on top. The difference is that when they were they made it count on the score board.
South Africa played this match like a knock-out game - they tightened up their approach, the offload count dropped, asserted forward dominance, controlled territory and struck when it mattered. By the time the 70th minute arrived, they knew they had a cushion they could manage to full time.
As always, it was built on forward dominance. They key stat is taking 2 of Argentina's own scrums off them whilst using the scrum to milk penalties and hence control territory - they managed to win the territorial battle despite having the minority of possession. On another day the referee may have carded one of Los Pumas struggling props, too.
Maclom Marx now looks to have fully taken the starting number 2 jersey away from Bongi Mbonambi. So far in TRC 2025 he had put in some so-so performances with the game at Eden park being a low point for him. However, in this game he delivered a title winning performance that repaid Rassie's faith.
