We bring you some interesting statistics from the opening match day at the IRB Junior World Championship 2008 in Wales.
* South Africa scored the most tries with 16 in their 108-18 defeat of USA in Pool B – three more than Australia managed against Canada as the only other side to reach double figures in their opening match.
* A total of 72 tries were scored across the eight matches on day one with Tonga and Ireland the only teams not to cross the try line in their Pool A defeats by New Zealand and Argentina.
* Forty-nine of the 72 tries scored were converted with South Africa fly half Josias Ebersohn leading the way with 10 against the USA, double the number kicked by Mathieu Belie of France and Australia’s Quade Cooper.
* Samoa wing Alatasti Tupou kicked the only drop goal on day one in their 29-17 defeat of Scotland in Pool B at the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham.
* Seventeen penalties were kicked across the eight matches with 11 teams adding three-pointers – Samoa, Tonga and Ireland each kicking three.
* South Africa’s 16 tries against the USA were scored by 10 players, including twin brothers Robert and Josias Ebersohn.
* A total of 515 points were scored on the first ever IRB Junior World Championship match day, South Africa scoring the most with 108 and Ireland and Tonga the fewest with only nine.
* Australia full back Dane Haylett-Perry was the leading try scorer with four tries in his side’s 81-12 defeat of Canada, one of five players to claim hat-tricks with Japanese hooker Ryuhei Arita, France number 8 Raphael Lakafia and South African duo Pieter Janse van Vuuren and Stefan Watermeyer the others.
* Fifty-three players crossed for tries on the opening match day.
* A total of 92 replacements were made by the 16 teams with Australia, France, Japan, Scotland, South Africa and USA using the full complement of seven, unlike Italy and Canada who used only three replacements.
* Josias Ebersohn is the leading point scorer after one match with 25 from 10 conversions and one try for South Africa against the USA, five points more than Australia’s Dane Haylett-Perry.
* Eight players were sin-binned on the opening matches, two of them for Argentina including their captain Lisandro Ahualli de Chazal.
* New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, England, France and Wales all picked up a bonus point for scoring four or more tries in their opening fixtures.
