So who missed out? The Stats.

by Juan Cote at Green and Gold Rugby

While it is hard to argue with the majority of the Wallaby selections announced today, there are a few players that could feel a bit unlucky. The selection of Matt Hodgson in front of Ben Mowen and Mitchell Chapman was a bit of a surprise as was the inclusion of Quade Cooper and one wonders what Will Caldwell has to do to get a chance.

A big surprise for me was the fact a specialist fullback was not chosen, sure, O’Connor and AAC have spent a fair bit of time there this year, but someone like Cameron Shephard might feel a bit miffed – even Mungo McLinden might have been burning a candle.

Anyway, below is a statistical comparison between the player chosen and the other players that may have been in the selection mix

I guess looking at the Locks, based on pure stats it is hard to see how Caldwell didn’t get a run, maybe the fact the Noodles had better attacking stats tipped the balance.

Dick Brown wins out over Hoiles because he is more potent off the back of the scrum racking up more metres/run than Hoiles although Hoiles is clearly the better attacking option with far more offloads and try assits, not to mention line-out steals

Mitch Chapman outpoints Hodgson in all areas except metres/run and the defensive stats so maybe that suggest Deans want his blind-side flanker to do plenty of dirty work.

Quade, well he doesn’t stack up too well against Lealiifano huh?

As much as I rate Mungo and Shephard, it is pretty clear that young JO’C is the man.