England became the first side to reach the 2019 Rugby World Cup semi-finals on Saturday. They ran riot against Australia, beating their old rivals 40-16. A Jonny May double and an uninspired Wallabies side turned the first quarterfinal into a bit of a letdown.
But knockout games are traditionally conservative anyway, right? Well, sort of.
There are have only been seven occasions through the history of the tournament where a team scored more than four tries in a Rugby World Cup quarterfinal.
The most recent instance was New Zealand vs France in 2015. The All Blacks ran nine tries past France, beating them 62-13. At the same tournament, Australia scored five against Scotland with an eye-watering tight 35-34 win. South Africa also scored five in a QF once – back in 2007 when they beat Fiji 37-20.
The chart below shows the most tries scored by a team in a QF at all the previous RWC tournaments.
Most tries by team in a RWC QF
Embed code for this graphic.
<iframe src="https://content.extratime.media/mosttriesinqfs/" style="border:0px #ffffff none;" name="myiFrame" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" marginheight="0px" marginwidth="0px" height="730px" width="950px" allowfullscreen></iframe>The same is true for total points scored by a team in a RWC QF. Just once (New Zealand vs France in 2015) has a team passed the 50-point mark. England’s 40 vs Australia at the 2019 edition made them just the seventh team to score 40 or more in a Rugby World Cup QF.
Most points by team in a RWC QF
The chart below shows the most points scored by a team in each of the previous RWC QFs. The total points is the total sum for both teams.
Embed code for this graphic.
<iframe src="https://content.extratime.media/rwctestpoints/" style="border:0px #ffffff none;" name="myiFrame" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" marginheight="0px" marginwidth="0px" height="450px" width="650px" allowfullscreen></iframe>You may republish this article ? provided you comply with our?Terms and Conditions.?Please credit Extra Time Media/the author and add a link back to this article.