IRB Chairman Dr Syd Millar presents the IRB Under 19 World Championship trophy to New Zealand captain Chris Smith after their 31-7 victory over South Africa at Ravenhill.

Chris Smith gets his hands on the trophy at the second attempt
Photo: John Dickson

Division A - final statistics

We bring you some interesting statistics from Division A at the IRB Under 19 World Championship 2007 in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

* New Zealand were crowned world champions after beating South Africa 31-7 in the final at Ravenhill.

* The final standings in Division A are: 1. New Zealand 2. South Africa 3. Australia 4. Wales 5. France 6. England 7. Samoa 8. Argentina 9. Ireland 10. Scotland 11. Fiji 12. Japan.

* New Zealand are the leading try scorers in Division A with 37, just over double the 18 scored by runners up South Africa. By contrast Scotland scored only four tries in their five games in finishing 11th.

* A total of 1,253 points have been scored in Division A, down slightly from the 1,349 scored in the 30 matches in last year’s tournament.

* Four of the five drop goals in the tournament were kicked in Division A with two by French fly half Morgan Parra and one by Matías Thomas of Argentina and Japan’s Keisuke Masuda.

* Leigh Halfpenny of Wales and Scotland’s Stephen McColl kicked the most penalties in Division A with eight in their side’s five matches, two more than Titi Jnr Esau of Samoa.

* Twenty-two yellow cards were handed out in Division A with Fijian players receiving five of these, while New Zealand centre Robert Fruean was the only player to be sin-binned twice in the course of the tournament.

* No matches in Division A ended in a draw, unlike in 2006 when two were played out on the final match day involving England and France and then Japan and Romania.

* The leading try scorer in Division A was New Zealand wing Kade Poki with six, one more than Australia’s Andrew Barrett and Henry Speight, who scored a hat-trick in Fiji’s 11th place playoff defeat of Japan.

* A total of 344 replacements were made by the 12 Division A sides.

* Fly half Daniel Kirkpatrick kicked the most conversions in Division A with 12 for New Zealand, three more than Mathieu Belie managed for fifth placed France.

* Ninety-three of the 175 tries scored in Division A were successfully converted.

* New Zealand are the leading point scorers in Division A with 245, a figure swelled by their 107-6 defeat of Japan in their second pool match. New Zealand’s total is more than double the next best total of South Africa (114), while Australia (111), Fiji (109), Wales (109) and France (107) also passed through the century of point’s barrier.

* A total of 175 tries were scored in Division A at the IRB Under 19 World Championship 2007 – the same number of times the try line was crossed in last year’s tournament in Dubai.

* New Zealand kicked the most conversions on the way to the title with 21, nearly double the 11 managed by Wales in finishing fourth in Division A.

* Wales wing Leigh Halfpenny is the leading point scorer in Division A with 57 points, some 15 more than New Zealand full back Trent Renata, whose teammate Daniel Kirkpatrick and South African centre Stefan Watermeyer both scored 37 points.

* England made the most replacements in Division A with 34 in their five matches, one more than both champions New Zealand and Fiji. By contrast, Australia made the fewest with only 21.

* Japan scored the least points in Division A with 48 in their five matches, although only by four points from Scotland.

* Scotland kicked the most penalties in the 30 Division A matches with 10, two more than both Samoa and Wales managed in the tournament.

* New Zealand converted 21 of the 37 tries they scored, although Wales had the best record with 10 of their 13 tries being seven pointers.

A total of 175 tries were scored in Division A at the IRB Under 19 World Championship 2007, the same number of times the try line was crossed in last year’s tournament in Dubai

IRB Game Analysis Centre

* Two of the red cards handed out by referees have gone to Division A sides, with Australia and Samoa each receiving one.

* A total of 60 penalties were kicked in Division A.

And overall:

* A total of 321 tries were scored in the IRB Under 19 World Championship 2007, of which 169 were successfully converted.

* The leading individual try scorer in the tournament is New Zealand wing Kade Poki with six, one more than Australia’s Andrew Barrett, Henry Speight of Fiji, Italian captain Alberto Chiesa and Romania’s number 8 Bodgan Petreanu.

* The leading individual point scorer in the tournament is Leigh Halfpenny, the Wales wing scoring 57 points, one more than Uruguayan fly half Germán Albanell with Sione Toke of Tonga the third highest on 54 points.

* A total of 2,303 points were scored in this year’s tournament.

* A total of 665 replacements were made by the 24 teams in the tournament.

* A total of 115 penalties were kicked across the 60 matches.

* Chile were the recipients of the Fair Play Award, presented by Mr and Mrs McCall in memory of their son John, who tragically died during the IRB Under 19 World Championship 2005 in Durban while playing for Ireland.

* Neither Argentina or USA received any yellow cards in the tournament.


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