South African players are dominating stats logs in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship, thanks to the resurgence of their sides in the past few weeks against overseas opposition.
South African players top almost every log when it comes to individual player stats, and given the form of the DHL Stormers and Vodacom Bulls in particular it is no surprise how much home ground advantage has buoyed them.
Seabelo Senatla’s try-scoring feats at home put him at the top of the try-scoring log, two clear of Irish wingers Mack Hansen and Simon Zebo, with Jack O’Donaghue and Ulster’s Nick Timoney part of the Irish chasing pack.
Also in the chasing pack are the Bulls Johan Grobbelaar and Marcell Coetzee, as well as Leolin Zas, who are also on six tries.
Manie Libbok leads the overall points scorers log with 94 points, a solitary point ahead of Leinster’s Ross Byrne with the Bulls’ Chris Smith in seventh spot with 70 points, and Curwin Bosch in 10th with 66.
But it isn’t just in terms of points-scoring that there has been an impact - individual performances have also not gone unnoticed and the Stormers’ form in particular has seen Evan Roos top the successful carries log - posting a massive 77 carries this season, eight ahead of the Scarlets powerhouse Sione Kalamafoni, with equally impressive Bulls loose forward Eligh Louw third with 67.
Two more Bulls make their appearance in the successful carries log - with Marcell Coetzee joint sixth with 59 while Harold Vorster is eighth with 55 carries.
The Bulls speedster Madosh Tambwe is joint top when it comes to clean breaks, sharing the honour with Scarlets’ Steff Evans, while his back-three team-mate - Springbok Sevens speedster is second with 14. Senatla is breathing down their necks with 13, showing how well the South African speedsters have done in the competition.
Tambwe also tops the metres gained stat - with a massive 710 metres - more than 110 metres ahead of second placed Henry Immelmann, South African-born who features for Edinburgh at 599.
Arendse (573) and the Stormers’ Warrick Gelant (565) round out the top four in a stat that is heavily dominated by locally-born players. Aphelele Fassie is ninth, with Evan Roos 11th.
Immelmann grabs the top spot when it comes to defenders beaten, with 42, while Mack Hansen is second with 38. Tambwe (3rd), Roos (4th) and Arendse (5th) also feature heavily.
When it comes to offloads, the king is Bulls’ captain Coetzee, who heads the stat with 25, followed by Gelant on 24 and Tambwe in fourth on 18.
South Africans don’t feature highly on defence, perhaps because of their lopsided games of late, but the one stat that could be improved is the turnovers lost stat - where Immelmann, Tambwe, Louw and Libbok all feature in the top five.
Not surprisingly Boeta Chamberlain is clear leader in the drop goal category with four, three more than any other player.