The Golden Lions were handsome winners of the 2011 Currie Cup when they beat the Sharks 42-16 at Coca-Cola Park in Johannesburg on Saturday. We give some statistics for the match. Interestingly there was a low number of stoppages but also low 'Ball in Play' figure.

Sanctions

Yellow Card

CJ van der Linde (Golden Lions) - tipping

Penalties conceded

In this section we record the times a team was penalised.

Golden Lions vs Sharks

Total number of penalties: 22

Golden Lions: 9
Sharks: 13

The reasons for the penalties were as follows:

* = points conceded

Golden Lions:
Tackle: 4 (Undetermined, Strauss, Rhodes*, Minnie)
Offside: 3 (Hollenbach, 'Whole backline'*, Killian)
Discipline: 2 (Van der Linde* - obstruction; Rhodes - late tackle)

Sharks:
Tackle: 8 (Alberts*. Terblanche*, Daniel 2, Kankowski , Deysel, Bismarck du Plessis, Pietersen*)
Scrum: 3 (Mtawarira* 3)
Discipline: 2 (Daniel* - air tackle; Kankowski* - late tackle)

Golden Lions missed a penalty kick at goal - a long one by Jaco Taute.

Tackles/Penalties

This gives the number of penalties at ruck/tackle as a fraction of the total number of penalties: 12/22 - 55%

Free Kicks conceded

Golden Lions: 1 (line-out)
Sharks: 0

Getting possession - line-outs, scrums, free-kicks, drop-outs, turn-overs

In this section the figures represent the number of times you get to play with the ball.

Golden Lions:
Line-outs: 9 (3 lost, 1 penalty, 1 free kick)
Scrums: 9 (2 resets, 2 collapses, 1 lost, 1 penalty)
Free-kicks: 0
Drop-outs: 3

Sharks:
Line-outs: 10 (2 lost, 1 skew, 1 quick)
Scrums: 4 (2 penalties)
Free-kicks: 1 (line-out)
Drop-outs: 0

Stoppages (total of line-outs, scrums with resets, free kicks, penalties, drop-outs): 59

In the World Cup Final there were 72 stoppages.

'Ball in Play' Time

Golden Lions vs Sharks (Lawrence):

15 minutes 43 seconds + 15 minutes 51 seconds = 31 minutes 34 seconds

The average for this sort of match is 33 minutes 29 seconds.

In the World Cup Final, the 'Ball in Play' time was

In the Under-19 Final between the Golden Lions and the Blue Bulls, the time was 28 minutes 52 seconds

In the Under-21 Final between the Blue Bulls and the Sharks, the time was 30 minutes 12 seconds

Finals are hard work! 

Tries

This is the number of tries each team scored.

Golden Lions: 3 (Killian, Cilliers, Taute)
Sharks: 1 (Alberts)

Tries/penalties scored: 4/9

This gives the ratio of tries scored to penalties scored by each team:

Golden Lions: 3/6
Sharks: 1/3