US Grand Prix

A few notes first.

As Friday second practice was not run due to the weather, I took the results of the first Friday practise session instead.  I did the same thing with the Q2 results as there was no Q3.

Fastest Friday  Practice	Price	Fastest Saturday Practice	Price	Fastest Qualifying	Price
Nico Rosberg	5/2	Lewis Hamilton	8/15	Nico Rosberg	5/4
Amount won/lost on a £1 bet	-£1	Amount won/lost on a £1 bet	£1.53	Amount won/lost on a £1 bet	-£1
Amount won/lost on a £10 bet	-£10	Amount won/lost on a £10 bet	£15.33	Amount won/lost on a £10 bet	-£10
Season Total £1 bets	-£6.61	Season Total £1 bets	£6.72	Season Total £1 bets	£6.05
Season Total £10 bets	-£66.03	Season Total £10 bets	£65.21	Season Total £10 bets	£67.67

Rugby World Cup Semi-Finals In Diagrams

New Zealand remain in splendid isolation, while Toulon are the only team guaranteed to have a player in the final. That noise you just heard was European rugby union fans going 'blasted Toulon' or something stronger. Australia are the national team closest to the centre while Toulon are the club team closest to the centre, probably because they're the team holding South Africa, Australia and Argentina together. The Argentine Super Rugby side remain the team with the most players represented with 20, followed by the Waratahs and the Crusaders with 10.

The total players used diagram is now a lot more even, with all the teams having only had to add 1 or 2 players to their original starting squad. Something which may also have helped their teams gel and their overall performances.

Four Thoughts About The Rugby World Cup Quarter-Finals (And Some Diagrams)

1 - I don't think this is the end of Northern Hemisphere rugby

All of Ireland's injuries (and one idiotic suspension), and several of Wales's, were starting players.  So we know that Ireland B and Wales A minus can't beat full strength South African and Argentine sides.

Scotland were done out of their match by a mistake.

France had their first choice kicking person off-injured and seem to have a thing against choose Trinh-Duc, who is better than Michalak anyway.

Reports of the death of Northern Hemisphere rugby may have been greatly exaggerated.

2 - New Zealand look to be terrifyingly good

Because France were not bad in that match, despite what the scoreline says.

But Julian Savea is something else.  Mum's boyfriend was cooing over him.

3 - If this is how Argentine play after getting Super Rugby, think how good Japan will be

Stolen from a friend, but so true.  The possibilities for Japanese rugby are magnificent.

4 - Bringing in the new concussion protocols was a good idea.

For evidence see Scott Baldwin's 'no, I'm fine' after being knocked spark out and also Dan Biggar's.  We can't expect players, who are desperate for their team to succeed and see themselves as part of that, to declare when they're injured.

The diagrams took longer than expected to produce because of the number of teams that were removed and size of each team.

New Zealand are now drifting along in splendid isolation, with the loss of the Tongan and Samoan players that play for New Zealand teams.

Argentina are the national team closest to the centre, while Bordeaux Bègles are the club team closest to the centre.  Leinster and the Argentine Super Rugby franchise are the teams with the most players represented with 20 each.

The important advice remains 'don't be Wales' but don't be Ireland is also important.  When all players used are counted the Argentine Super Rugby franchise has the most players represented, followed by Leinster and Glasgow Warriors.

Rugby World Cup player usage up to the end of the group stage

Running late because of RL stuff.

The most important thing is, as I've said, don't be Wales.  In this graph, paler is worse and they are the palest nation by some way.

(As an aside, does anyone know any way of adding colour spectra to Gephi?  I find the automatic ones to be unsuitable for what I want to do.)

Several of these injuries occurred before the World Cup, in the "friendly" match against Samoa (which also cost Samoa a few players).

Interesting questions include did Wales etc really get more injuries than say Namibia and Uruguay, or is it that Namibia and Uruguay couldn't call up players so they just had to rotate their squads more?  And are Wales doing something particularly wrong in their training, as a lot of their injuries came in training not in matches?

Russian Grand Prix

Fastest Friday  Practice	Price	Fastest Saturday Practice	Price	Fastest Qualifying	Price
Felipe Massa	50/1	Nico Rosberg	11/8	Nico Rosberg	11/8
Amount won/lost on a £1 bet	-£1	Amount won/lost on a £1 bet	-£1	Amount won/lost on a £1 bet	-£1
Amount won/lost on a £10 bet	-£10	Amount won/lost on a £10 bet	-£10	Amount won/lost on a £10 bet	-£10
Season Total £1 bets	-£5.61	Season Total £1 bets	£5.19	Season Total £1 bets	£7.05
Season Total £10 bets	-£56.03	Season Total £10 bets	£49.88	Season Total £10 bets	£77.67

Apparently no-one who wins qualifying wants to win grand prixs.  And Rosberg is cursed.

Diagram Update and Four More Things To Think About From The Group Stages

The Italian team had to sub out two more players, making them almost as injury-prone as Wales.  Samoa are still the central national team, with Agen the central club team.

I stand by what I said in the last 4 Things post despite South Africa's recovery.  Because Japan really are that good and Samoa are being inexplicably bad.

1 - I discovered I care more about Fiji missing out on automatic qualification than about England going out.

It strikes me as unfair that an improving Fiji team (who have been awesome) are going to have a harder time qualifying for the next World Cup because the IRB are incompetent.

2 - England, and the English press, are living down to expectations now they're out

In particular, blaming someone who wasn't even on the pitch for either of the collapsing parts of the Wales and Australia games.  I don't like being right about them turning on Sam Burgess but I said this was going to happen.

3 - Ireland's fixture list is probably as good as it could have been 

Their match order has been Canada, Romania, Italy and then France, easiest to hardest, giving them a chance to work their way into the competition.  Given the Italy game, this is probably a good thing, since they need to beat France to avoid New Zealand.  Avoiding New Zealand is important.

4 - The turn-around time for the minor nations really is ridiculous.

Poor Uruguay, who are made up mostly of amateurs, had to face Fiji on Tuesday, and then have to play England on Saturday.  That's 4 days.  It's like they're trying to make it more difficult for the smaller teams.

Japanese Grand Prix

Fastest Friday  Practice	Price	Fastest Saturday Practice	Price	Fastest Qualifying	Price
Daniil Kvyat	40/1	Nico Rosberg	11/8	Nico Rosberg	11/8
Amount won/lost on a £1 bet	-£1	Amount won/lost on a £1 bet	-£1	Amount won/lost on a £1 bet	-£1
Amount won/lost on a £10 bet	-£10	Amount won/lost on a £10 bet	-£10	Amount won/lost on a £10 bet	-£10
Season Total £1 bets	-£4.61	Season Total £1 bets	£6.19	Season Total £1 bets	£8.05
Season Total £10 bets	-£46.03	Season Total £10 bets	£59.88	Season Total £10 bets	£87.67

Hopefully final changes to the diagram for the second round

With Georgia calling up Anton Peikrishvili to replace Davit Kubriashvili.  While it doesn't stop Samoa being the central national team, it moves Agen to being the central club team.  It also really squishes the diagram due to Peikrishvili playing for Bayonne, which pulls Namibia up towards the centre of the diagram.