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The remarkable average attendance at Maro Itoje's last 7 games
By Ian Cameron
Maro Itoje is a player who can boast some remarkable stats.
Indeed the Saracens secondrow's first season in the Premiership was one littered with landmark stats, most relating to the number of games he went as a professional without losing.
His early stats for England were equally impressive, albeit under the reign of then infallible Eddie Jones.
Despite falling to defeat against Leinster in the Dublin this afternoon, the game brought Maro Itoje to a remarkable run of seven matches - but this time it was the match attendances that were remarkable.
A capacity 51,000 people watched the lock during Saracens putting in a fine performance in the European Champions Cup quarter-final, billed by some as the match that might very well hail this year's champions.
Yet it was the smallest attendance of Itoje's last seven games.
A week before he played Harlequins in front of 55,329 at the London Stadium, just a week on from the final of round of the Six Nations in Twickenham which played out in front of 82,060 on Saint Patrick's Day.
In Round 4 he played France at the Stade de France before 78,060 and in Round 3 67,144 saw him lose to Scotland at Murrayfield.
In Round 2 in Twickenham 82,000 saw England triumph over Wales and a week earlier England opened their tournament with an away victory in front of Italy in front 61,464.
That's a total attendance of 477,057 for an average attendance of 68,151.
To put that in context, the average attendance over the course of Manchester United's 31 Premiership matches so far this season is 56.731.
Itoje's average attendance would place him about 13th if he was an NFL franchise.
Okay, in the grand scheme of things maybe not the most important stat ever calculated but impressive none-the-less. Oh, and if you're wondering, neither Mako Vunipola nor Owen Farrell started against Harlequins at the London Stadium stadium last week.
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Latest Comments
Agree with Wilson B- at best. And that is down to skilled individual players who know how to play the game - not a cohesive squad who know their roles and game plan. For those who claim that takes time to develop, the process is to keep the game plan simple at first and add layers as the squad gels and settles in to the new systems. Lack of progress against the rush D, lack of penetration and innovation in the mid-field, basic skill errors and loose forwards coming second in most big games all still evident in game 14 of the season. Hard to see significant measureable progress.
Go to commentsKeep telling yourself that. The time for a fresh broom is at the beginning - not some "balanced, incremental" (i.e. status quo) transition. All teams establish the way forward at the beginning. This coaching group lacked ideas and courage and the players showed it on the pitch. Backs are only average. Forwards are unbalanced and show good set piece but no domination in traditional AB open play. Unfortunately, Foster - Mark 2. You may be happy with those performances and have some belief in some "cunning plan" but I don't see any evidence of it. Rassie is miles ahead and increasing the gap.
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