Merwe v Cronje

Duhan van der Merwe takes it, 6–1 on categories

van der Merwe wins on metres. Cronje’s case rests on tackles, but it isn’t enough to swing it. United Rugby Championship career: van der Merwe 29 matches, Cronje 41 matches.

• van der Merwe averages 65.8 metres a match to Cronje’s 29.3 — 2.2 times as many.
• Cronje averages 8.3 tackles a match to van der Merwe’s 2.9 — 2.8 times as many.
• van der Merwe has 10 tries (one every 2.8 matches) to Cronje’s 11 tries (one every 3.2 matches).
• Cronje is in form: 6 tries in the last 5 matches, 1.2 a match (0.3 on average).
• Winners’ edge: van der Merwe’s team won 48%, Cronje’s teams won 41% of the matches they played.
• Longevity: Cronje has 41 matches across 5 seasons, van der Merwe 29 in 4 — the averages matter more than the totals here.
• Not every stat was recorded for every match (metres, tackles, clean breaks…): those averages use only the games that logged them.

Built only from games in our stats database. A read of the numbers, not a tip.