1982

Introduction

Playing and coaching kept me away from real-time analysis in 1981. I returned to hand notation in 1982. I was still using some very basic templates.

I notated four of the 1982 Five Nations Championship games:

• Scotland v England (Google Sheet)
• Ireland v Wales (Google Sheet)
• England v Wales (Google Sheet)
• Wales v Scotland (Google Sheet)

Scotland v England

16 January 1982

Referee: Ken Rowlands (Wales)

This was the first time I attempted to measure precisely ball in play time. I used a very basic stopwatch to record start and stop in play from the broadcast of the game.

First half game time was 42min 33s and ball in play time was 10min 28s.

Second half game time was 44min and ball in play time was 13min 10s.

In this game, I approximated ball in play time to be 27% of the available game time (27.31%).

The game was a 9v9 draw. Scotland scored a drop goal and two penalty goals, England scored three penalty goals. The scoring sequence was 3v0 (drop goal at 5min 10s game time), 3v3 (23min 20s), 6v3 (25m 41s), 6v6 (28min 30s), 6v9 (40min 38s), 9v9 (43min 30s).

I had not made a note of weather conditions on the day but there is some background information here.

Ireland v Wales

23 January 1982

Referee: J A Short (Scotland) (his second international game)

One of the students I coached at St Mary's college was playing for Wales in this game. I focussed on him and did not take a measure of ball in play. Game time in the first half was approximately 49 minutes and 44 in the second half. This was the first game in which I tried to record the shirt number of each player kicking the ball in the game.

The player I was watching closely touched the ball five times in the whole game (4 in first half, 1 in second half). He made three tackles (2 in first half, 1 in second half).

Ireland won the game 20v12. Ireland scored 3 tries, Wales 1.

England v Wales

6 March 1982

Referee: Francois Palmade (France)

This was another game in which I tracked the student from St Mary's College. In this game he had nine touches of the ball (4 first half, 5 second half) and made four tackles (1 first half, 3 in second half). The five touches in the second half occurred in two passing movements, the first in the 44th minute and the second in the 67th minute. Three of the four tackles made were on his direct opposing player and one of these was made as his opponent scored.

I continued collecting some basic game information and started to refine by kick by shirt number notation and included the foot kicking the ball. I was interested in how teams used left foot kicking for field position. In this game there were 21 left foot kicks (England 13, Wales 8). England used left foot kickers 9 times in the second half.

England won the game 17v7 scoring two tries to one.

Wales v Scotland

20 March 1982

Referee: J.P. Bonnet (France)

This was the final game of the 1982 Five Nations Championship. Scotland defeated Wales 34v18 and scored five tries to Wales' one try. It was also the final opportunity to track my student's involvement in the game. In this game he had 9 touches of the ball (4 first half, 5 second) and made 3 tackles (2 first half, 1 second).

I added a scoring sequence to my notation. In this game the sequence was: 3v0, 3v4, 3v 7, 3v11, 3v13, 6v13, 9v13 (end of first half), 9v17, 9v19, 12v19, 12v23, 12v25, 12v28, 16v28, 18v28, 18v32, 18v34 (end of game). I started to identify to where the ball was thrown in the lineout.