The Economics of Sport
  • Sports Economics
  • About
  • Workshop
  • Selected Publications
  • Book Reviews
  • A Primer on Gaelic Games
  • Upcoming Events
  • Media
  • Education
  • Resources & Links
  • Data

French Top 14 rugby and Losing Bonus Points

20/8/2014

 
Picture
By John Eakins

The French Top 14 rugby season kicked off over the weekend with Jonny Sexton guiding Racing Metro to victory over Montpellier in one of the first games. This season should be interesting from a number of perspectives, besides the involvement of Sexton. In April, the governing body of French club rugby, the LNR (Ligue Nationale de Rugby), announced new plans (titled the ‘New Deal’) to improve the competition. One of the lesser publicised changes is to the losing bonus point system. From this season, losing teams will have to be within 5 points rather than 7 in order to get a losing bonus point. The suggestion is that teams are not attacking enough in the closing stages of games and are predominantly looking for a drop goal or trying to earn a penalty rather than looking for a try. Whether this will make any significant difference is debatable. If fact, you could argue that its simply shifting the goal posts (sorry - couldn't resist!). 
 
So before the rule change teams that are losing by 8-10 points had the incentive to kick for a 3-pointer. If you are losing by 11-12 points (or more) you had to go for a try. Now teams that are losing by 6-8 points have the incentive to kick for a 3-pointer and teams losing by 9-10 points must go for a try. The point being is that the incentive to kick for a 3-pointer to earn a losing bonus point is still there and instances will still occur. The other problem with the new rule change is that it only has an impact in the last 10 minutes or so of a game (to be fair this is a problem with the losing bonus point system in general). A clearer incentive to promote attacking play throughout the whole game would be to amend the try bonus points system, perhaps on a sliding scale, for example, 1 point for 3 tries scored, 2 points for 4-6 tries scored, 3 points for 7 or more tries scored.
 
Another interesting perspective is how the trend in losing bonus points in the Top 14 league compares with the Pro 12 (Celtic League) and the English Premiership. The figure below plots the average losing bonus points per team in each of the three leagues across the last 10 seasons. The French Top 14 and English Premiership both have similar levels of losing bonus points per team with the Pro 12 generally lying below these two competitions. This could be because both the Top 14 and English Premiership are national competitions and involve a greater degree of rivalry resulting in closer matches between teams. The Pro 12 on the other hand involves teams from a number of different countries with less traditional rivalry. It’ll be interesting to see how it all unfolds this season however given the difference that now exists in the losing bonus point system across the three competitions.

Picture

Comments are closed.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013

    About

    This website was founded in July 2013.

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    American Football
    Athletics
    Baseball
    Basketball
    Behavioural Economics
    Boxing
    Broadcasting
    Competitive Balance
    Cricket
    Cycling
    Darts
    David Butler
    Declan Jordan
    Drugs
    Ed Valentine
    Epl
    Esports
    Expenditure
    F1
    Fifa World Cup
    Finances
    Funding
    Gaa
    Gaelic Games
    Gambling
    Game Theory
    Gary Burns
    Geography
    Golf
    Greyhound Racing
    Guest Posts
    Horse Racing
    Impact Studies
    John Considine
    John Eakins
    League Of Ireland
    Location
    Media
    Mls
    Mma
    Olympics
    Participation
    Paul O'Sullivan
    Premier League
    Regulation
    Research
    Robbie Butler
    Rugby
    Simpsonomics
    Snooker
    Soccer
    Spatial Analysis
    Sporting Bodies
    Stephen Brosnan
    Swimming
    Taxation
    Teaching
    Technology
    Tennis
    Transfers
    Uefa
    Ufc
    World Cup
    Wwe

Related

The website is not formally affiliated to any institution and all of the entries represent the personal views and opinions of an individual contributor. The website operates on a not-for-profit basis. For this reason we decline all advertisement opportunities. 

Contact

To contact us email sportseconomics2013@gmail.com or find us on Twitter @SportEcon.