RL WC 2017 : Group Stage Summary

The three rounds of group or pool games have been completed and it has been a bit different from 2013. The emergence of pacific Island nations has been an obvious one. Some high scores have been registered as the game speeds up and teams not quite in the contest get blown off the park. Some interesting stats comparing the last two WCs.

Points scored 2013: 901
Points scored 2017: 1,020

Average per game 2013: 42.9
Average per game 2017: 48.6

Average winning margin 2013: 19.7
Average winning margin 2017: 32.0

So the points scored were up 13%, the winning margin in each game up 62.4%. Therefore, the games were more lop sided. RL rewards the better side and this shows some teams have lifted and others not. Part of that was the decision of some nations to increase the number of local players rather than stack sides with heritage players. That was a bold and sensible move but it did increase the gap between teams. Also some teams hit the ground running, others had poor starts.

Below is a summary of the games so far and the quarter final match ups:

Group 1				Group 2					Group 1
AUS	18	LEB	29	NZL	38	TON	50		AUS	6	+94
ENG	4	FRA	18	SAM	8	SCO	4		ENG	4	+35
									LEB	2	-42		QF
AUS	52	ENG	29	NZL	74	TON	32		FRA	0	-87		AUS
FRA	6	LEB	10	SCO	6	SAM	18		Group 2				SAM
									TON	6	+66
AUS	34	ENG	36	SAM	14	TON	28		NZL	4	+92		NZL
LEB	0	FRA	6	SCO	14	NZL	22		SAM	1	-44		FIJI
									SCO	1	-114
Gr 3		Gr 4		Gr 3 / 4					Group 3				TON
PNG	50	FIJI	58	IRE	36				PNG	6	+116		LEB
WAL	6	USA	12	ITA	12				IRE	4	+44
									WAL	0	-138		ENG
PNG	14	ITA	46	FIJI	72				Group 4				PNG
IRE	6	USA	0	WAL	6				FIJI	6	+140
									ITA	2	-6
IRE	34	FIJI	38	PNG	64				USA	0	-156
WAL	6	ITA	10	USA	0

To see the Quarter Final Summary, simply click here.
For the 3rd Weekend Summary, just click here.