By John McMurtry July 16, 2021
Ireland used 33 players during the tournament, Connacht (5), IQR (2), Leinster (11), Munster (5 ) and Ulster (10). The breakdown by minutes played is shown above, Irish Qualified Rugby coming in at 1.4%
Only Jamie Osbourne played every minute of every game though Harry Sheridan isn't far behind, the Ulster man only missing 4 minutes. Alex Kendellen was the only Munster player to get into the top 10 for minutes played.
Ireland scored 20 tries, including one penalty try. Munster made the largest contribution thanks to 6 tries from captain fantastic Kendellen and one from Daniel Okeke. 68% of tries came from the forwards.
Ireland scored 151 points from 19 tries, 11 conversions and 9 penalties plus a penalty try. Nathan Doak was the main kicker with 8 cons and 9 pens. Corkery added 2 cons and Humphreys 1, giving a conversion rate of 58%.
Ireland made 3324 metres over the 5 matches. No 8 Kendellen carved out an extraordinary amount of meters for a forward with centre Cathal Forde also punching it up, showing the game Ireland were most comfortable with.
The bulk of Ireland's 555 carries came from the forwards and inside centre with only really Osbourne, Doak and Jennings adding variety from the attritional punch it up the centre game.
Ireland completed 595 successful tackles for an 87% tackle success rate. A huge workload from Kendellen with carries and tackles with Forde and second row Sheridan also contributing well in both.
A new stat from the Six Nations is tackles broken and it's no surprise that Kendellen tops this one as well with 17 from a total of 111. That only 3 of the top 10 are forwards is reflective of the generally close quarter work of the pack.
The Ulster players came up a bit light on most of key contribution factors, Doak's kicking accounting for the points surplus. In fairness, in a ruck and reload forward focused side it's no surprise that the 7 backs struggled to be involved.
It was a very impressive tournament from, Ireland captain, Alex Kendellen with the Munster player recording the most tries, most meters carried, most carries, most tackles and most tackle breaks. Don't need to say any more really!
Player images courtesy of IRFU and INPHO Statistics courtesy of Six Nations Rugby