First home game of the season. Ospreys vs Zebre. Both teams chasing their first win of the season. What better time for a Stat Attack.
Let’s start with Zebre. Centre, Enrico Lucchin made a squad-high 98 carries and 128 metres in contact last season. He also produced seven offloads, four try assists, and beat 13 defenders. He was a definite dangerman for the Italians last season.
Two Zebre Parma players feature in the URC Top 100 this season: Simone Gesi is ranked 14th and Enrico Lucchin is ranked 55th. Gesi was also named in the URC Elite XV last season.
Looking to the team’s kicking. Zebre’s goalkicking success rate of 60.6% last season was the poorest in the league; they left an average of 3.4 points unscored per 80 minutes last season. For context, they lost to Leinster by four points in their opening match last season and missed nine points off the tee. Despite this, Zebre were joint 1st in kicking stats according to BKT URC stats in their opener.
Now to the Ospreys. The boys were a force in the scrum last season. The Ospreys won more scrum penalties than any other team, with 54 in total.
The Ospreys were the 4th ranked team in defense according to the BKT URC stats last week with 6 turnovers won (7th in league) and a tackle success rate of 90%.
Discipline was also a key determiner for the boys’ comeback in the second half last week, with the team ranked second after week 1. They conceded the third least amount of penalties in the league with eight throughout the whole game.
Join us on this Saturday 28th October against Zebre, kick off 1pm. We'll be celebrating Justin Tipuric's 200th cap: it's an incredible achievement for the man in the blue hat and we need as many supporters as possible to pack the stands and show our captain what he means to our region.
