Most common scores in premiership rugby

I am well aware that the most common score in premiership rugby is a bit of a pointless metric. Yet it is interesting, to me at least and hopefully to you as well to take a brief look:

As we saw previously the most common or mode score for all games is 20. This has happened 319 times in premiership rugby up to the end of the 2021/22 season. Overall 4.67% of all premiership scores finished as 20, ironically almost 1 in 20.

A bar chart showing the frequency of scores in premiership rugby matches. The most common score is 20.

Of those 319 scorelines 20 has been scored 176 times by away teams (it is the most common away score) and by 143 at home teams. It is the second most popular home score, as 24 has been recorded by 147 home teams.

20 has been scored 191 times by a losing team and 128 times as a winning team. Though 20 is the most common score it is neither the most common winning or losing score (24 and 13 respectively). Nor is 20-20 the most common scoreline in drawn games either. 27-27 is the most common draw in premiership history (11 times or 22 scores).

Looking at the data season by season 5 times 20 has been the most common score. Last season (2021/22) saw a modal score of 27, the second highest ever. The highest most common score for a premiership season was 34 in 2016/17. This was more than double 15 which was the most common score in 2015/16.

Finally this might be the only premiership rugby table that Richmond top this year, I've looked at the most common scores for each team that have played premiership rugby over the past 25 years....

It is not surprising that Richmond who haven't played that many games would top this table, in 32 games they scored 32 4 times. Of the those teams with longer premiership it is maybe surprising there is a whole converted score between Northampton/Gloucester and Harlequins/Wasps. Northampton's 39 scores of 24 is the highest number of the same scores recorded by any premiership team.

32 - Richmond (4 times)
24 - Northampton (39 times)/Gloucester (34 times)
20 - Bath (29 times)/Leicester (29 times)/London Irish (31 times)/London Scottish (3 times)/Rotherham (5 times)/Sale (28 times)
19 - Bedford (5 times)/Exeter (14 times)/Saracens (28 times)
17 - Harlequins (28 times)/Wasps (34 times)
16 - Leeds (14 times)
14 - London Welsh (5 times)/West Hartlepool (3 times)
13 - Bristol (23 times)/Worcester (25 times)
12 - Newcastle (27 times)

Next up on this odyssey - rare scores in the premiership. The number 49 may well feature.

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