Perfect Pumas, horrendous Welwitschias, the SRC group stages by the numbers

The group stages of the SuperSport Rugby Challenge may have been shorter by a game this year, but that didn’t exactly reign in the free-scoring of the 16 teams involved (the Zimbabwe Academy were the new addition). Below are the more eye-catching of the numbers from the regular season.

353 – The Windhoek Draught Welwitschias’ points difference from a season in which they weren’t as plucky as they usually are. As you’ll see from their league points below, the Namibians had other things in mind this year, what with the World Cup around the corner.

Zero – The number of points scored by the Welwitschias in the whole competition, which means not only did they lose all their games, they didn’t even lose them by seven points or less.

Two – The hat-tricks scored by North West Leopards players Eugene Hare and Edmund Rheeder in a losing cause against the Hino Valke. The final score was 52-50 in JP Immelman’s team’s favour.

Eight – The bonus point count for the Leopards. Former Springbok flyhalf Andre Pretorius’ men won just one game but ended up with a whopping 12 points, which means they were as competitive as they had lapses in defence.

10 – Toyota Free State XV winger Jamba Ulengo’s try count from the seven games he played in the group stages. Given that he had lost his contract at the Vodacom Blue Bulls, and been passed up after a trial by the Southern Kings, these are 10 reasons to suggest his career is still alive.

13 – The fact that the Ulengo point was above this one serves to emphasise just how difficult competition debutants Zimbabwe Academy found scoring tries in only ending up with an unlucky number 13 from seven games.

14 – If the Zim Academy’s try count felt a little on the light side, consider how sterling the Boland Cavaliers’ defence has to have been to have conceded just 14 from their seven games, the best in the competition.

18 – The age of prop Jacobus Agenbag, who made his senior debut in the 43-40 win against the Hino Valke.

26 – The number of conversions made by DHL Western Province flyhalf Abner van Reenen in the group stages. The 20-year-old also managed the most penalties in the regular season – 11. Not bad for a guy who once got two out of eight against Grey College while playing for Paarl Boys High in 2017.

35 – The ISG Pumas’ log points after seven games in the North Section. You don’t have to be a genius to realise that they won all seven games by bonus point, which means the Boland Cavaliers have a biggish job on their hands this weekend.

52 – This is the freakish number of tries scored by the Toyota Free State XV in the South Section, which was all in vain given that they still finished third in their group. The team which came close to them was the Pumas with 50, which speaks volumes about how bad a miss this was for the Free State XV.

90 – The total of the top points scorer in the competition thus far, DHL Western Province flyhalf Abner van Reenen, courtesy of 26 conversions, 11 penalties and one try. As a former fullback he might quibble with that last statistic, but he does have two weekends to potentially fix it.