Dr Granfield’s seasonal stats: 2017-18
Pontypridd RFC Club Historian and Statistician Dr Alun Granfield compiles his review of the 2017 – 18 season…
I hate the close season and am already looking forward to the end of summer and the start of rugby again. The thought of three months without Phil Lycett’s erudite comments about referees, or Chris Kingsbury’s quiet voice on the Bob Bank, is depressing. However, it is time to reflect on what has gone by, so here is my usual listing of the stats for the past season, which are attached below in pdf and word format.
I am unsure about how to sum up the overall picture. I thought about the words that so often appeared on my school reports – “could do better” – but think that I would settle in the end for the curate’s famous description of his dodgy egg – “Oh no, my Lord, I assure you! Parts of it are excellent!”
We ended up with 30 games played and 23 won, which is a 77% success rate, compared to 58% last season and 74% the season before. We finished in third place in the league, compared to fifth last season. Had we picked up one more bonus point in the second phase then we would have finished second behind big-spending Merthyr. Yes, there were low points – the cup defeat against Cross keys and poor performances against Ebbw Vale and Llandovery – but the team rallied strongly after the Llandovery game, and pulled off superb wins against RGC and Carmarthen Quins at Sardis Road and Aberavon away.
In terms of league positions, Merthyr were clearly the front runners throughout the season, picking up a total of 126 points in the two phases of the competition. Pontypridd got 115, and Llandovery 110, but we finished behind the Drovers due to the silly way that the WRU decided to split up the season. Next season we have relegation from the Premiership, so all the teams must play each other home and away to have a fair comparison.
Chris Dicomidis topped the appearances table with 29 starts, and the big man is playing some of his best rugby these days. He was closely followed by Morgan Sieniawski, Diggy Bird, and Sean Moore, and all of them played a significant part this season. However, I hope that I may be forgiven for picking out two more players for special comment.
The first is hooker Huw Dowden, who has not had the best of luck with injuries recently, but played 23 games this season, and at the end was regularly on the field for 70 minutes or more. Huw’s physical presence and ball carrying ability has long been a crucial aspect of our forward play. The second player that shines every time he takes the field for Ponty is Rhys Shellard. He took over the captaincy after Dafydd Lockyer’s injury, and led by example as he always does.
The top scorer this season was Diggy Bird, with 227 points, followed by young Sweeney with 100. Top try scorer was Alex Webber with 15, followed by Dale Stuckey with 13 and Lloyd Rowlands with 11. They create a buzz every time they set off in attack and must be about the best back three in the premiership.
Overall, the pack has gone well this season, with Ian George and Will Davies-King making important contributions. Our lineout has creaked at times and we still have a tendency to leak soft tries, but are scoring some crackers ourselves. The whole team and our coaches and support staff deserve our thanks for giving us another enjoyable season. Can’t wait for the next one!
Alun Granfield
2017-2018 Statistics (pdf): Stats Review 2017-18
2017-2018 Statistics (word doc): Stats Review 2017-18
