Ulster's last gasp win against Glasgow means they've now won 19 of 24 season-opening games in the URC. Their 79% win rate in such fixtures is the joint best of any team, alongside Munster.

A piece I wrote for Opta Analyst on the Springboks TRC win... 🫸 stop teams before the gainline 🏉 kick to compete 🔁 options at 10 theanalyst.com/eu/2024/10/dat…

The thing that made this win even more impressive was that the Northern Ireland starting XI had an average age of 23 years & 48 days - over a year younger than any other side in a Nations League match this season.

Momentum viz for the first half of Ulster v Ospreys. Ulster dominant for most of the half bar a decent last five minutes for the visitors.

31 - The Flying Fijians have played 31 Tests v Tier 1 nations since the 2011 Rugby World Cup, only twice have their opponents recorded a tackle success rate of 90% or better: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 - 93.9% (Nov 2022) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 - 94.2% (Nov 2024) Grounded. theanalyst.com/eu/2024/11/opt…

8 - Ireland conceded 13 penalties to New Zealand’s 5 on Friday night – not since the 2011 Six Nations (v Scotland) had Ireland conceded as many as eight more penalties than their opponents in a Test (conceded 12, won 4). Unruly. theanalyst.com/eu/2024/11/opt…

Ulster have scored a try from 52% of their 22 entries in the URC this season - the highest rate of any team in Europe. The 2024/25 club rugby stats hub is now live on the Opta Analyst ➡️ theanalyst.com/eu/club-rugby-…

Enjoyed writing this for Opta Analyst, nice to give the front row union some love... theanalyst.com/eu/2024/11/pro…

A piece I wrote for Opta Analyst on the Wallabies, who are starting to resemble Joe Schmidt's Ireland theanalyst.com/eu/2024/12/wal…

Most defenders beaten and line breaks per 80 mins in the URC since Duhan's debut: DBs - D(uhan) van der Merwe (4.9) LBs - D(TH) van der Merwe (1.6)

Zac Ward gained 125 metres from his 11 carries against Bordeaux-Begles - his average of 11.4 metres per carry was the best of any of the 71 players to run with the ball on 10+ occasions in the Champions Cup at the weekend #suftum

Scott Wilson has beaten 27 defenders in the URC since his debut, at least seven more than any prop. 43 props have played more minutes than him in that period.

Ireland were pretty sloppy during the Autumn Nations Series and conceded a record 23 turnovers in their last outing - hopefully we'll see a much sharper Irish side this weekend. My preview for the Opta Analyst 👇 theanalyst.com/eu/2025/01/ire…

Michael Jackson was top of the US charts with ‘Billie Jean’ the last time Ireland came from behind at halftime to beat England.

Well that was a bit of a Thriller 🕺

56% - Ireland have had the most territory in the men's Six Nations this year (56%), making the most 22 entries of any side in the process (22). Infiltrated. 🆕 Our #WALvIRE Preview⬇️ theanalyst.com/eu/2025/02/wal…

9 - James McNabney beat nine defenders for Ulster Rugby v Scarlets, the joint most by a forward in a URC match this season (also Taine Basham v Sharks in Oct & Cameron Hanekom v Stormers in Feb) and the most by an Irish forward since 2016 (Jack Conan, 9 v Dragons). Developing.

100 - Maro Itoje will win his 100th Test cap if he features for the British & Irish Lions in the 1st Test against Australia. Skipper. Full squad and tour preview 👇👇👇 theanalyst.com/eu/2025/05/lio…