Maybe it’s post-pandemic time acceleration but the first five weekends of the United Rugby Championship seemed like they took more time than they did in reality.
Five weekends is nothing, isn’t it? That’s one of those long months where the salary stretches a little too tight. So why did it feel like three months? Maybe that’s just me. The grind of week to week coverage can age you prematurely like you’re caught in a time bubble, especially when you have a particularly spiteful InterPro thrown into the early season mix.
One thing I’ve done every season since I went to the Five Star Wally Rating system is to keep track of my ratings week to week to give me an impression of who’s playing well, who isn’t and how that relates from everything to big game selection to contract renewals.
With one block of the season out of the way, I thought it would be good to get a read on how the squad is playing or, at the very least, how I am rating their performances through my own lens of subjective and objective metrics.
Star Ratings for the first block of URC games 2021/22
| URC 1.1 | URC 1.2 | URC 1.3 | URC 1.4 | URC 1.5 | Avg Star Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dave Kilcoyne | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3.67 | ||
| Niall Scannell | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3.75 | |
| Diarmuid Barron | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3.5 | |
| Kevin O'Byrne | 3 | 3 | 3 | |||
| John Ryan | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3.25 | |
| Jeremy Loughman | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3.4 |
| Josh Wycherley | 4 | 3 | 3.5 | |||
| Keynan Knox | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3.67 | ||
| Stephen Archer | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3.3 | ||
| Thomas Ahern | 3 | 4 | 3.5 | |||
| Jean Kleyn | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3.75 | |
| Fineen Wycherley | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| Tadhg Beirne | 3 | 2 | 2.5 | |||
| RG Snyman | 3 | 4 | 3.5 | |||
| Jack O'Donoghue | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3.4 |
| Jack Daly | 3 | 3 | ||||
| Peter O'Mahony | 4 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 3.5 | |
| Gavin Coombes | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3.75 | |
| John Hodnett | 3 | 3 | ||||
| Chris Cloete | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | ||
| Jack O'Sullivan | 3 | 4 | 3.5 | |||
| Alex Kendellen | 3 | 3 | ||||
| Craig Casey | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3.5 | |
| Rowan Osborne | 3 | 3 | ||||
| Conor Murray | 2 | 2 | ||||
| Neil Cronin | 4 | 4 | ||||
| Paddy Patterson | 3 | 3 | ||||
| Joey Carbery | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | ||
| Ben Healy | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3.75 | |
| Jack Crowley | 3 | 4 | 3.5 | |||
| Rory Scannell | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3.33 | ||
| Damian De Allende | 2 | 2 | ||||
| Dan Goggin | 2 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | |
| Liam Coombes | 4 | 3 | 3.5 | |||
| Keith Earls | 3 | 2 | 2.5 | |||
| Simon Zebo | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3.3 | ||
| Andrew Conway | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3.3 | ||
| Mike Haley | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | ||
| Shane Daly | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3.3 | ||
| Calvin Nash | 3 | 5 | 4 | |||
| Matt Gallagher | 3 | 2 | 2.5 |
Here are some of the key takeaways.
Highest Rated Players Who Have Played 3+ Games
- Fineen Wycherley – 4 star average from 5 games
- Niall Scannell – 3.75 star average from 4 games.
- Gavin Coombes – 3.75 star average from 4 games.
- Ben Healy – 3.75 star average from 4 games.
- Jean Kleyn – 3.75 star average from 4 games.
- Chris Cloete – 4 star average from 3 games.
- Mike Haley – 4 star average from 3 games.
Best Collective Team Rating
- URC 1.3 – Scarlets (A) – 3.9 star average per player.
- URC 1.2 – Stormers (H) – 3.68 star average per player.
- URC 1.1 – Sharks (H) – 3.56 star average per player.
- URC 1.4 – Connacht (H) – 3.09 star average per player.
- URC 1.5 – Ospreys (A) – 2.73 star average per player.
Overall average rating per player for entire block – 3.29 star rating per player per game.
