Jack Dempsey’s flawless Six Nations tackle stats underline his importance to Scotland

What the stats say about Scotland’s opening two games of the 2024 Six Nations

Scotland's Jack Dempsey offloads against France under pressure from Posolo Tuilagi. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

Statistics aren’t foolproof but they do help crystallise important information and one little nugget produced this week underlined just how reliable Jack Dempsey is for Scotland.

According to Opta, the Scotland No 8 is the only player to have made 50-plus tackles without missing any in the Guinness Six Nations this decade. Dempsey, who won his 17th cap in Saturday’s 20-16 defeat by France, has made 73 of 73 tackles in the championship.

It’s a remarkable stat and puts him among some good company. Hamish Watson, another Scotland back-row stalwart but not in the squad this year, has long been seen as the benchmark for tackling reliability and Opta have the 59-cap flanker on 99.5 per cent for tackle success. Other Scotland forwards to feature in the upper echelons are Grant Gilchrist (98.6 per cent) and brothers Richie and Jonny Gray (98 and (97.8 per cent, respectively).

Dempsey started on the bench in the Six Nations opener against Wales in Cardiff this season as he continued his comeback from a nasty facial injury that required surgery. But he played the full 80 minutes against France in a match dominated by the controversy around the non-award of a try to the Scots when Sam Skinner grounded the ball in the final play of the game. Scotland had led from Ben White’s opening try in the seventh minute until the 72nd minute, when Thomas Ramos converted Louis Bielle-Biarrey’s try. It was the first time France had won a match in the Six Nations after trailing at the break since their 2016 game against Ireland. Between then and Saturday they had lost 11 times after being behind at half-time.

Opta also noted that Gael Fickou’s opening try for France at Murrayfield was his third in a row against Scotland in the Six Nations and his fifth overall, over twice as many as he has scored against any other nation in the championship (two each against Wales, England and Italy). Bielle-Biarrey, meanwhile, has now scored six tries in seven starts for France since making his Test debut against Scotland in Edinburgh in August last year, a game in which he also scored a try.

Another startling stat from Opta from Saturday’s game was that Duhan van der Merwe failed to beat a single defender in a match for the first time for Scotland and for just the second time in his Test career (the first being the second Lions Test against South Africa in 2021). It should be noted, however, that the winger made a try-saving tackle on Fickou early in the first half, then got up, made a key interception and cleared the danger.

While Saturday’s defeat has been overshadowed by debate around the try that wasn’t, the general consensus was that the match shouldn’t have hinged on the outcome of the final play, such was Scotland’s dominance. That’s born out in Opta’s ‘Expected Points’ analysis, which puts Scotland’s xP at 32 and France’s at 24.1.

Looking across Scotland’s first two matches in this season’s championship, it is prop Pierre Schoeman who has made the most successful tackles - 24 according to Opta. Sione Tuipulotu has had the most carries - 19 - three more than van der Merwe, Huw Jones, Dempsey and Zander Fagerson who are all on 16.