WORK RATE

If you watched Munster’s scrappy win over Cardiff, you noticed the same thing that I did: a real battle at the breakdown against one of the best defensive breakdown teams in the league.

It was an ugly, scrappy battle that Munster only really saw through after a dramatic adjustment at halftime that saw breakdown steals for Cardiff plummet off the back of tighter, more direct carrying.

That game produced some really interesting ruck work, so let’s get straight into it.

Munster’s OFFENSIVE RUCK WORK SCORE vs Cardiff

A Dominant Clean is an action that decisively secures possession or that puts the defending player on the ground and keeps them there. It is worth 3 points.
A Guard Action is where a player plays a role in helping to retain possession and either secures against a counter-ruck or ensures the players we’ve put on the ground stay there. Let’s assign this action 2 points.
An Attendance can be anything from adding a bit of bulk to ward against a counter-ruck to extending your leg to make space for a box kick. I’m marking this down as being worth 1 point.
An Ineffective Action is a blown cleanout, a lean, a breakdown penalty or an action that I couldn’t see any direct benefit for. This will be worth -2 points.

Player	Dominant Clean	Guard Action	Attendance	Ineffective	Total Actions	ORW Score	ORW / Action	ORW Share %
4. Kleyn	7	11	1	1	20	42	2.1	10.9
3. Jager	3	14	1	1	19	36	1.89	9.4
5. Wycherley	4	9	1	1	15	29	1.93	7.5
12. Nankivell	2	10	0	0	12	26	2.17	6.8
6. Ahern	8	2	0	1	11	26	2.36	6.8
8. Coombes	2	10	1	1	14	25	1.79	6.5
13. Kelly	3	8	2	1	14	25	1.79	6.5
1. Loughman	4	7	2	2	15	24	1.6	6.2
7. Quinn	3	8	0	1	12	23	1.92	6.0
16. Barron	2	7	0	0	9	20	2.22	5.2
15. O'Connor	0	9	0	0	9	18	2.0	4.7
17. J. Wycherley	1	6	0	0	7	15	2.14	3.9
2. Scannell	0	6	2	0	8	14	1.75	3.6
19. O'Donoghue	0	8	0	1	9	14	1.56	3.6
10. Crowley	0	6	0	0	6	12	2.0	3.1
20. Gleeson	1	3	1	0	5	10	2.0	2.6
11. Abrahams	0	4	0	0	4	8	2.0	2.1
18. Foxe	1	2	0	0	3	7	2.33	1.8
23. O'Brien	1	3	0	1	5	7	1.4	1.8
9. Coughlan	1	0	0	0	1	3	3.0	0.8
14. Daly	0	0	1	0	1	1	1.0	0.3
21. Patterson	0	0	0	0	0	0		0.0
22. Butler	0	0	0	0	0	0		0.0
TEAM TOTAL	43	133	12	11	199	385	1.93	100.0

Team Totals

Dominant: 43 | Guard: 133 | Attendance: 12 | Ineffective: 11
Total actions: 199 → 1.93 ORW per action; 5.5% of actions were ineffective
Actions per ruck: 2.31 | ORW per ruck: 4.48

Top ORW contributors (volume)

Kleyn 42, Jager 36, F. Wycherley 29, Nankivell 26, Ahern 26 (then Coombes 25, Kelly 25)

Most efficient (ORW/action, ≥6 actions)

Ahern 2.36, Barron 2.22, Nankivell 2.17, J. Wycherley 2.14, Kleyn 2.10

Ineffective notes

Only Loughman had more than one (2). Single ineffectives for: Kleyn, Jager, F. Wycherley, Ahern, Coombes, Kelly, Quinn, O’Donoghue, O’Brien.

Low involvement

Patterson, Butler (0 actions). Daly (1 attendance), Coughlan (1 dominant)

What changed from Round 1?

Platform quality edged down: ORW/Action dipped 2.00 → 1.93 and ORW/Ruck fell 4.71 → 4.48. Ineffective actions climbed 1.8% → 5.5%.
Action mix shifted: Guard share dropped 77.6% → 66.8%, with more Dominant actions (raw 23 → 43) but also more errors; conditions and opponent contest pushed inefficiency up.
Work rate steady-high: Actions/Ruck stayed strong (2.36 → 2.31), pointing to consistent breakdown effort even if translation to clean speed wasn’t quite as sharp in the second round.

Player movement highlights (both rounds played)

Up: Kleyn (+19 ORW; 23→42, ORW/Act 1.64→2.10), Barron (+13; 7→20), Nankivell (+9; 17→26), Kelly (+8; 17→25).
Down: Scannell (21→14, −7; ORW/Act 2.10→1.75), F. Wycherley (33→29, −4).
(Big R2 gains from Ahern, Quinn, G. Coombes reflect selection/role change)

The biggest mover in the second round was Ahern half-to-half — he played a wider role in the first half against Cardiff, more like a backrow in the traditional #6 role that we saw last season — but his numbers skyrocketed in the second half when he played more centrally. Something to note. Nankivell and Kelly had another really strong ruck game against Cardiff that also reflected the intensity of the contest and their growing power as a unit.

***

From a Linebreak per Ruck perspective, the second round of the URC saw a marked decrease in linebreaks across the board.

Round 2 LBR (Linebreak per Ruck) Ranking

Team	Rucks	Linebreaks	LBR	Per-100 Rucks
Bulls	55	8	0.1455	14.55
Glasgow	99	8	0.0808	8.08
Leinster	120	9	0.0750	7.50
Stormers	81	6	0.0741	7.41
Cardiff	88	6	0.0682	6.82
Dragons	86	5	0.0581	5.81
Lions	99	5	0.0505	5.05
Sharks	54	2	0.0370	3.70
Munster	86	3	0.0349	3.49
Zebre	73	2	0.0274	2.74
Ospreys	82	2	0.0244	2.44
Benetton	90	2	0.0222	2.22

Round 2: Two fixtures postponed.

Combined LBR (Linebreak per Ruck) Ranking

Rank	Team	Total Rucks	Total Linebreaks	Combined LBR	Per-100 Rucks	Games
1	Stormers	150	15	0.1000	10.00	2
2	Bulls	143	13	0.0909	9.09	2
3	Cardiff	165	15	0.0909	9.09	2
4	Glasgow	189	16	0.0847	8.47	2
5	Munster	156	13	0.0833	8.33	2
6	Leinster	169	14	0.0828	8.28	2
7	Ulster	113	8	0.0708	7.08	1
8	Ospreys	142	10	0.0704	7.04	2
9	Dragons	134	7	0.0522	5.22	2
10	Sharks	158	8	0.0506	5.06	2
11	Lions	174	7	0.0402	4.02	2
12	Scarlets	103	4	0.0388	3.88	1
13	Benetton	191	7	0.0366	3.66	2
14	Zebre	120	3	0.0250	2.50	2
15	Connacht	117	2	0.0171	1.71	1
16	Edinburgh	62	1	0.0161	1.61	1

Note: Some teams have only one game in this combined view.

For me, the biggest x-factor was the weather in this round.

League Pooled LBR

R1: 0.0668 (6.68 per-100)
R2: 0.0573 (5.73 per-100) → −14%

By region (pooled across teams that played)

Northern Hemisphere
- R1: 0.0672 (6.72 per-100)
- R2: 0.0511 (5.11 per-100) → −24%
South Africa
- R1: 0.0655 (6.55 per-100)
- R2: 0.0727 (7.27 per-100) → +11%

That pattern aligns with the Storm Amy aftereffects: wetter/windier conditions typically result in worse handling quality, more conservative shapes, slower ball, and more contestable kicking — all of which suppresses clean linebreaks. You can see big NH drops like Munster: 0.1429 → 0.0349 and Ospreys: 0.1333 → 0.0244.

Meanwhile, SA teams trended up (e.g., Bulls).

When you look at the rolling league average, it becomes pretty clear.

Munster’s LBR ranking went down alongside the average, but a little more than expected, due to the side we were playing alongside the greasier conditions on the night.