If stats are the indicator, the quality of the IRB Sevens World Series tournament at Twickenham last Saturday was the best of the seven tournaments held so far in the 2009/10 series.
The Hong Kong tournament, with more teams competing and the quality of the opposition more often than in other tournaments not up to standard, has to date had the highest number of points per game scored, i.e. 41 -mainly because of poor opposition and defence and more tries scored under the posts and therefore more conversions.
In London, the average points were 39 per match - the highest of the other tournaments.
The try average of 6.3 per game has also been bettered only once, at Hong Kong. More tries (46per cent) originated from a team's own half and more passes were necessary per try than in the previous six tournaments, indicating better defence and better handling and patience than before.
Retention at rucks and mauls was also better (87per cent), meaning fewer turnovers conceded; 86per cent of the restarts were contestable and there were only three scrums and only two lineouts per match on average.
Penalties awarded were the lowest in this year's series (4,8 per match). South Africa's nine tries from turnovers in their own half were the most at Twickenham.
In all, 10 of the Springboks' 34 tries came from turnovers won. Only Kenya, with 12 turnovers leading to tries and the United Stats (11) did better in this respect than the Springboks who scored 22 of their tries from their own half.
The differing styles on attack and defence of the various teams also make for interesting reading. The Springboks used two or more players at defence breakdowns on 22per cent of the occasions while Samoa did so on 23per cent of their defence situations.
This in stark contrast to Australia (5per cent) who won the tournament.
When attacking, South Africa's rate of committing two or more players was 27per cent whereas Samoa did so on only 10per cent of the occasions.
This is the result of South Africa's confrontational style to draw in opposition players where the ball carrier needs support to help retain possession for phase play.
South Africa's greater preference for rucking is further emphasised by the fact that they had a sequence of five or more passes once in every 9,2 movements - the third lowest, with Fiji (1 in 3,7) the highest.
