6 Nations 2021 Data Visualisation Project - Wales

Team: Wales 

Number of point scoring occasions: 46 

Number of players present for at least 1: 34 

Who scored the points? 

   

Wales were another team where the kickers scored most of the points, but tries were reasonably evenly spread. 

When were the points scored?  

Wales's points were well spread over time 

Who scored when? 

 

Percentage version of the previous  

The spread of point scorers is borne out when the points per minute chart is coloured in by scorer. 

Who was present for more than one point scoring opportunity?  

Louis Rees-Zammit and Justin Tipuric were the only Wales players present for all point-scoring moments. 

 

The "who was on the pitch when for points" line chart shows Wyn Jones, Tomas Francis, Josh Navidi, Dan Biggar, Adam Beard and Jonathan Davies were players who were taken off before the end of matches. Certainly the times for Dan Biggar might explain why Callum Sheedy got so many points.

Who was on the pitch at the same time when points were scored?

Dendrogram

Heatmap

 

What's clear from the heatmap that wasn't clear from the dendrogram is that the Welsh team was very much Josh Adams, Dan Biggar, Adam Beard, Gareth Davies, Jonathan Davies (no relation), Louis Rees-Zammit, Justin Tipuric, Talupe Falatau, Alun Wyn Jones, Liam Williams, Wyn Jones (also no relation), Tomas Francis, Ken Owens, George North and Josh Navidi, with everyone else being brought on only if one of those needed to be taken off.

Matrix

    

The matrix view doesn't show the central fifteen as well as the heatmap, because it shows not just the "core" team, but also the players most likely to be subbed on because Wales scored a lot of points after minute ~65 when the substitutions occurred. 

This is a good example of why producing all three types of diagram is useful. Patterns may be more obvious in one view that the other two, and which of the three shows the patterns most clearly may change based on the underlying data. 

(Files for this: json - https://github.com/fulltimesportsfan/6-Nations-2021/blob/main/Walespoints.json?raw=true 

Rproj - https://github.com/fulltimesportsfan/6-Nations-2021/blob/main/Six%20Nations%202021%20Wales.R?raw=true )

6 Nations 2021 Data Visualisation Project - Scotland

Team: Scotland 

Number of point scoring occasions: 39 

Number of players present for at least 1: 35 

Who scored the points? 

   

Scotland's points were quite evenly spread between Finn Russell and Stuart Hogg, this is partly because of Finn Russell's injuries/yellow cards, but it also shows that they have two attacking prongs, which I think is part of why they did better in 2021. 

When were the points scored?  

Scotland's points are remarkably evenly spread out through out the 80 + extra time minutes. 

  Who scored when?

 

 The point scored by Russell and Hogg are also reasonably distributed by time, neither of them was "the one that scored at the start of the match" or "the one that finished matches off".

 

Percentage version of the previous 

Who was present for more than one point scoring opportunity?  

No Scotland player was present for all the points. Those present for the most were Stuart Hogg and Duhan van der Merwe who were present for 39/41 points.  

Scotland probably shows the best what I wanted to describe with this visualisation, so you can see that Matt Fagerson, Rory Sutherland, George Turner, Darcy Graham, Sam Johnson, Sam Skinner and Finn Russell were the players subbed off (I think in Russell's case, to prevent him picking up yet more yellow cards). 

Who was on the pitch at the same time when points were scored?

Dendrogram

 

There does look to be a clump of Hogg, van der Merwe, the two Fagersons, Jamie Ritchie, Sutherland, Turner, Ali Price, Russell, Chris Harris (no, not that one) and Cameron Redpath (who makes me feel ancient) and then everyone else.

Heatmap

    

The number and the mix and match nature of the Scotland team is born about by most of the heatmap being very pale, with only really Hogg, van der Merwe and Hamish Watson always being together.

Matrix

    

That's also borne out by the matrix view, which has a lot of players on it (23), but the previously identified central chunk with lots of players sticking out from it. 

(Files for this: json - https://github.com/fulltimesportsfan/6-Nations-2021/blob/main/Scotlandpoints.json?raw=true 

Rproj - https://github.com/fulltimesportsfan/6-Nations-2021/blob/main/Six%20Nations%202021%20Scotland.R?raw=true )

6 Nations 2021 Data Visualisation Project - Italy

Team: Italy 

Number of point scoring occasions: 16 

Number of players present for at least 1: 28 

Who scored the points? 

 

Not unexpectedly, the kickers. 

When were the points scored?  

Italy's points tend to be scored in the first 20 minutes of each half. Possibly this is related to the terrible phenomenon of "Italy are in the game for 60 minutes and then it all falls to pieces". 

Who scored when? 

   

(Sorry about the colour clash between Garbisi and Ioane) 

Who was present for more than one point scoring opportunity?  

Only Ioane was on the pitch for all Italian points scored, then there's a clump of 6 players (Negri, Garbisi, Lamaro, Bigi, Meyer and Brex) who were on the pitch for 14/16 points scored.

 

Other than Riccioni, there's no-one who is a clear "front row 50th minute sub off", possibly because players who were subs in one match were starters in the next. 

Who was on the pitch at the same time when points were scored? 

Dendogram

 

Heatmap 

   

The Italian heatmap ... is a Rorshach blot that looks like a beetle. Again, this possible reflects the same thing as the "when players played" diagram, because players who were starters in one match were subs in the next. 

Matrix 

   

As well as Riccioni sticking out (also seen in other diagrams), Lovotti, Cannone and Fischetti do, and I think they're all front rowers. (Double checks) Lovotti, Riccioni and Fischetti are props, but Cannone is a lock so I can't explain that. I will discuss with the subject matter expert and amend if I get any more information. 

(Files for this: json - https://github.com/fulltimesportsfan/6-Nations-2021/blob/main/Italypoints.json?raw=true Rproj - https://github.com/fulltimesportsfan/6-Nations-2021/blob/main/Six%20Nations%202021%20Italy.R?raw=true )

6 Nations 2021 Data Visualisation Project - Ireland

Team: Ireland 

Number of point scoring occasions: 41 

Number of players present for at least 1: 32 

Who scored the points? 

Johnny Sexton. 

   

No really, as an Ireland fan, I am not at all terrified by how dependent Ireland are on a now 37 year old Johnny Sexton. And that domination is with him missing a game due to concussion protocols. 

 When were the points scored?  

A lot of Ireland's points were scored in minutes 30-50. 

Who scored when? 

   

And now the percentage view.  

This view makes it even more clear how dependent Ireland are on Sexton. 

Who was present for more than one point scoring opportunity?  

Only Hugo Keenan was present for all of Ireland's points.  

Because Ireland's team were more mix and match there is less of a "and these are players who swap for each other", except for Josh van der Flier and Tadhg Furlong. 

  Who was on the pitch at the same time when points were scored?

Dendrogram

Heatmap

 

The mix and match nature of the Irish team shows up in the heatmap, with there being sort of a 8 core, followed by another bunch of 8, then a less used 8, then the least used 8 (including Peter O'Mahony who was banned for 3 games after that sending off). There's also more of a weaving of colours.

Matrix

   

Again, the matrix view supports the information from the others, that Ireland swapped a lot of players in and out, with a lot of players in it as co-occurring, even though they missed several matches. 

(Files for this: 

json - https://github.com/fulltimesportsfan/6-Nations-2021/blob/main/Irelandpoints.json?raw=true Rproj - https://github.com/fulltimesportsfan/6-Nations-2021/blob/main/Six%20Nations%202021%20Ireland.R?raw=true )

6 Nations 2021 Data Visualisation Project - France

Yes, the delay was partly making sure I didn't mispell Jalibert's name as Jalabert. Jaja forever. 

Team: France 

Number of point scoring occasions: 39 

Number of players present for at least 1 point scoring moment: 28 

Who scored the points?

 

The points scorers are more evenly spread for France, but that might be because Jalibert was injured for a match and a half. Never the less, 3 non-kicking players scored 3 times, and another 2 scored twice.

 When were the points scored?  

France like scoring points in minutes 7-11, with 4 sets of points scored then. It's also interesting how early most of the points are with most coming before the 60th minute - only 5/39 coming after then. 

Who scored when? Sorry about the colour clash between Penaud and Jalibert.  

It's interesting that the points when Ntamack took over kicking came later in matches, even in the match he started rather than coming on as a substitute for Jalibert. 

This is the % version of the same diagram -  

Who was present for more than one point scoring opportunity?  

Charles Ollivon and Brice Dulin were on the pitch every time France scored. Gregory Alldritt, Gael Fickou and Antoine Dupont only missed one. 

The French version of the time on the pitch for the players (below) clearly shows the players who play in roles that lead to being subbed off (Haouas, Baille, Willemse and Marchand). It also shows the fact that Jalibert's points all come early really well too.

 

Who was on the pitch at the same time when points were scored? 

Dendrogram

  

Heatmap

 

France don't have quite the same "two clear sets of players" as England, with France it's more a core of Ollivon, Dulin, Alldritt, Dupont and Fickou who can either play with Group 1 (Vakatawa, Villiere, Le Roux, Haouas, Baille, Willemse, Cretin, Jalibet, Penaud, Vincent, Thomas and Marchand) or Group 2 (Toafifenua, Jelonch, Ntamack, Rebbadj). It also nicely shows players who don't play together, probably because of positional overlap (Vakatawa and Villiere and Le Roux).

Matrix

   

The matrix agrees with the heatmap, with the addition of Pierre Bourgarit sticking out. 

Files for this: 

json - https://github.com/fulltimesportsfan/6-Nations-2021/commit/e5afc284ab723602f3b446b0b6276f6e940095ef?raw=true 

Rproj - https://github.com/fulltimesportsfan/6-Nations-2021/commit/e5afc284ab723602f3b446b0b6276f6e940095ef?raw=true

6 Nations 2021 Data Visualisation Project - England

Team: England 

Number of point scoring occasions: 32 ( It's deliberately phrased as number of point scoring occasions as, in this, a try, a conversion and penalties each count as one.)

Number of players present for at least 1: 27 

Who scored the points?

 

Despite how heavily tilted that is to Owen Farrell, it's about what you'd expect, because, even without penalties, the person assigned kicking duties (normally the fly half), Owen Farrell in England's case, gets a chance to score after each try. So you expect them to have roughly as many point-scoring occasions as everyone else added together. 

When were the points scored? Here we have literally the only problem I've found, I can't convince the code to put points scored in minutes 0-9 ahead of the number 10. It's less of a problem with England, because there was only one points-scoring occasion before 10 minutes, but it's definitely a problem for Wales's data.

   

Who scored when? The diagrams highlight the Farrell domination.  

This is the % version of the same diagram -  

I think the not-percentage version is clearer. 

Who was present for more than one point scoring opportunity?

 

For England, Tom Curry, Maro Itoje, Jonny May and Anthony Watson were present for all the point scoring moments. 

This next diagram nicely shows which players tended to get subbed off due to the position they played  

I'll get back to this in the final, future work section of the summary post, but I'd be really interested to see how this looks for something like rugby league where you have rolling substitutions (or, indeed ice hockey). 

Who was on the pitch at the same time when points were scored? 

 Dendrogram

   

 Heatmap 

 

You can clearly see the Curry, Itoje, May and Watson cluster, but I am intrigued by the Genge, Stuart, Robson, Lawrence, Earl, George mini-cluster at the top of the diagram. I wonder if they're the ones that get subbed on to finish games. 

Matrix of co-occuring players  

The mini-cluster are also present in the matrix diagram, separate to the main cluster of players frequently on the pitch when England scored. There's a central 11 (Vunipola B, Curry, Itoje, Slade, Watson, Youngs B, May, Daly, Sinckler, Ford and Farrell), who also correspond with what I'd consider as Eddie Jones's core team from last year.