The Efficiency Playing Field - Rugby Roundup - April 6, 2021
Need a primer on what efficiency is? Check out our introduction to efficiency calculations
Another week, another look at the efficiency ranking for rugby around the globe. This week we have updates for Week 7 of Super Rugby Australia and Week 6 of Super Rugby Aotearoa, as well as a first (maybe slightly too early) look at Major League Rugby following their round 3 clashes. No updates for Gallagher Premiership Rugby this week as they are off for the Challenge Cup.
Super Rugby
After teasing us for weeks, it's finally 1st place across the board for the Brumbies as they overtook the Rebels to nab the top spot in the Defensive Efficiency ranks. The question is whether anyone will catch them for the rest of the season. The closest team to doing so is the Reds, who move to 2nd in Attacking Efficiency after their strong win over the Rebels. However the Reds middle of the pack 5th ranking in Defense is holding them back from making a real run at the Brumbies.
The Crusaders upset loss to the Highlanders let the Reds sneak past them, as well as lifted the Highlanders to 6th spot in Net Efficiency and moved them from last to 8th in Defensive Efficiency.
The big losers of the week are the Rebels. After being number 1 in Defensive Efficiency for the past 3 weeks, they drop to 4th after their performance against the Reds.
Major League Rugby
This is our first chance to see what the Major League Rugby efficiency rankings look like. It might be too early to really get a good sense of what the real ranking are since the season is only 3 weeks old ( or 2 for the teams who have had a bye). I usually like to wait until teams have 4 games under their belt to account for any outliers. Indeed when you look at the spread of values between the top and bottom teams it is much wider than we see in other leagues, but these will likely start to revert back towards each other as the sample improves.
