Fourie du Preez injured!

[Darwin]

My source is ruggastats.com . Go check for yourself

I had a look at the website - It seems you can only get data from individual games, rather than a collation of individual player data from the whole season. You are correct, according to this site Pienaar has 45 Errors and 36 Handling errors for the year. While I'm dubious as to the accuracy of these stats (well more dubious as to what the define as a handling or forced/unforced error), even if they are accurate they certainly don't support the claim that Pienaar is more error prone than Pretorious. Pretorious himself has 23 forced/unforced errors and 35 handling errors, in substantially less playing time. If we look at a per 80 minute basis according to this site:

Pienaar - 3.83 Forced/Unforced errors, 3.06 handling errors
Pretorious - 3.00 Forced/Unforced errors, 4.57 handling errors

If anything Pretorious looks more errors prone than Pienaar!

While I think its great that you use stats in your argument, you have to be careful how you use them - an isolated stat e.g "Pienaar has 45 Errors and 36 Handling errors for the year" seems to suggest that Pienaar is a bumbling fool - but when put into context ,it seems he is no more error prone than other players!

 

[rugbywriter]

I had a look at the website - It seems you can only get data from individual games, rather than a collation of individual player data from the whole season. You are correct, according to this site Pienaar has 45 Errors and 36 Handling errors for the year. While I'm dubious as to the accuracy of these stats (well more dubious as to what the define as a handling or forced/unforced error), even if they are accurate they certainly don't support the claim that Pienaar is more error prone than Pretorious. Pretorious himself has 23 forced/unforced errors and 35 handling errors, in substantially less playing time. If we look at a per 80 minute basis according to this site:

Pienaar - 3.83 Forced/Unforced errors, 3.06 handling errors
Pretorious - 3.00 Forced/Unforced errors, 4.57 handling errors

If anything Pretorious looks more errors prone than Pienaar!

While I think its great that you use stats in your argument, you have to be careful how you use them - an isolated stat e.g "Pienaar has 45 Errors and 36 Handling errors for the year" seems to suggest that Pienaar is a bumbling fool - but when put into context ,it seems he is no more error prone than other players!

And I thank you for arguing back at me with stats . And I'll admit you have a point there. Perhaps Pretorious may be more error prone then Pienaar but really, and I'm not trying to make excuses, look who he's had playing around him. Because of so many injuries, its mostly been the Cheetas B team this year. And the fact is, he did still get 3 man of the match performances in a row and I'm willing to venture that his attacking stats are far better then Pienaar's (line-breaks, % line gain, offloads, metres gained etc.) But agin, thanks for arguing back with stats. When I used to post on the SuperSport forum people would only argue back going after your spelling and stuff so it's cool to know that people here aren't so childish.

 

[Haysie]

This is exactly how the forum is supposed to work. Congratulations to both you two for having a mature debate!

 

[Darwin]

And I thank you for arguing back at me with stats . And I'll admit you have a point there. Perhaps Pretorious may be more error prone then Pienaar but really, and I'm not trying to make excuses, look who he's had playing around him. Because of so many injuries, its mostly been the Cheetas B team this year. And the fact is, he did still get 3 man of the match performances in a row and I'm willing to venture that his attacking stats are far better then Pienaar's (line-breaks, % line gain, offloads, metres gained etc.) But agin, thanks for arguing back with stats. When I used to post on the SuperSport forum people would only argue back going after your spelling and stuff so it's cool to know that people here aren't so childish.

You might be right regarding attacking stats - I haven't had a chance to look at these in depth but Pretorious does seem like a good ball runner. From the little I've seen of Pretorious I have been impressed - I'd certainly rate him ahead of Januarie (though I suppose that is not saying much!). I did notice somewhere (maybe on the foxsports site?) that Pretorious had a low tackle percentage - maybe that is an area of his game he needs to work on.

Personally I like the look of Duvenge from the Stormers (though he was outplayed by du Preez in the final) - there certainly are a number of talented 9's in South Africa!