Just a number: Average ages of starting positions in Super Rugby
Esportif Intelligence have compiled and released the average ages of every starting position for New Zealand, Australian and South African Super Rugby sides.
Loosehead prop is on average the oldest position for New Zealand and Australian teams at 29, while scrumhalf is the oldest position for South African teams, also at 29.
For South African and New Zealand sides, the youngest position is outside centre with average ages of 22 and 23 respectively, followed by flyhalf at 24.
Blindside flanker is the youngest position for Australian teams at 23.
Individually, the youngest players to appear from each country this season are Stormers’ flyhalf Damian Willemse (South Africa, 19 – also Super Rugby’s youngest points scorer this year), Chiefs’ flyhalf Tiaan Falcon (New Zealand, 20) and Jaguares’ flanker Marcos Kremer (Argentina, 20 – also youngest international to play this year.)
Hulking 19-year-old Brumbies back rower Rob Valetini is the youngest Australian and youngest player in the competition. His teammate, Josh Mann-Rea, is the competition’s oldest at 37 – nearly twice Valetini’s age. After scoring a try in the Brumbies’ season opener, Mann-Rea is also the competition’s oldest point scorer.
Hurricanes prop Ben May is New Zealand’s oldest player at 35, with Leonardo Senatore (Argentina) and Keegan Daniel (South Africa) not far behind for their respective countries at 33 and 32.
Excluding departing and retiring All Blacks Jerome Kaino and Wyatt Crockett, Blues midfielder Sonny Bill Williams is the oldest All Black at 32, and the tenth oldest player in the competition.
Looking back ten years ago to the 2008 Super Rugby season, a 17-year-old James O'Connor was the competition's youngest player, and four 18-year-olds were also in the mix. 19-year-old Zac Guildford was New Zealand's youngest.
Former Lions coach Johan Ackermann was the oldest player in 2008 at 37 years old.
The youngest starting XV in 2008 had an average age of 25 - two years older than 2018's youngest, while the oldest averaged out at 27 - one year younger than 2018's oldest.
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Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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