NZ Super Rugby Team of the Decade

We select our Kiwi team of the last decade and what a team! Choc-a-block full of All Blacks of course...

New Zealand teams have won seven of the last 10 titles with the Crusaders leading the way with the last three titles followed by the Chiefs with two, and Highlanders and Hurricanes with one each. Despite the team dominance of the Crusaders on paper the statistics show the Hurricanes have contributed more individual players to the team of the last decade. Therein lies the secret of the Crusaders perhaps, a team of players, not a team of individuals?

The most capped Super Rugby player of all time Wyatt Crocket [pictured below] leads the front row having played 7,097 minutes in 202 matches. Crockett also scored the second most tries (9) and made the second-most tackles (729) amongst props.

Hard to argue with the lock combination of All Blacks Sam Whitelock and Brodie Retallick. Whitelock won more lineouts (367, inc. 51 steals) than any other New Zealand player in the last decade and made 1,053 tackles. Retallick played 7,898 minutes and made the most carries (694), metres gained (1,565), offloads (60) and beat the most defenders (81) of any New Zealand lock.

Kieran Read gets the nod at No.8 having gained the most metres (3,131) from the most carries (892) of any No.8 and was also one of only two such players to make 800+ tackles. No surprise that wrecking ball Ardie Savea gets the seven berth while the six jersey goes to Hurricane Brad Shields as his 722 tackles were the second most of any player to wear the No.6 jersey. Shields also won 59 turnovers, made 43 offloads and 36 clean breaks.

Highlander Ben Smith locks down the fullback spot with some impressive stats: He made the most carries (1,314) for the most metres gained (8,859) of any player in Super Rugby in the last decade; he also beat the most defenders (379) of any player in this period and scored 33 tries. He is joined in the back three by try-scoring wingers Waisake Naholo [45 tries] and Julian Savea [50 tries] who joins his brother in the team.

The centre combination is a powerful one with Ngani Laumape and Anton Lienert-Brown - still active their line-breaking and ability to beat defenders comes to the fore. The halves are not a surprise either with Hurricanes' scrum-half TJ Perenara getting the nod at nine. TJ scored the most tries (55) of any New Zealand player in the last decade, gained the most metres (3,445) of any scrum-half and was the only such player to make 100+ clean breaks (115). 

At 10 is Beauden Barrett whose statistics are very impressive. He is the top point-scorer (1,238) in Super Rugby in the last 10 years, while no fly-half scored more tries (34) or beat more defenders (236); Barrett also made the second most try assists (60) of any player. He is the NZ Player of the Decade.

Opta Index: How does it work

The Opta Index allows genuine opportunities to compare and contrast both player and team strengths and weaknesses across Super Rugby, providing real insights pre-game as follows: 
After every match Opta completes a video analysis of every touch of the ball. Each action in the match is awarded a points value depending on the relative importance of the action. So for example, a try scores more points than a tackle, but a player loses points for a missed tackle.

The points are then weighted against the score at the time when the action took place (higher points if the score is closer), the time in the match (higher points at the start of the match) and the position on the pitch where it took place (higher points for actions closer to the goal line).

The player is then given a score for the match by adding up all his actions while he was on the field. The total match score is then weighted to take account of the strength of the opposition so that performances across many matches can be judged fairly.