Deans v. Fox

Press, 24 October 1984, Page 34

Deans v. Fox

A number of people have contacted “The Press” asking for comparisons of the points scored in the 1984 rugby season by Grant Fox (Auckland) and Robbie Deans (Canterbury). Excluding the present All Black tour to Fiji, Fox scored 391 points from 25 first-class games (and this includes Auckland’s fivematch world tour in March). This gives Fox an average of 15.64 points a game. Deans totalled 331 points from 24 games for an average of 13.79. In matches for their provinces Fox scored 235 points from 14 games, an average of 16.78, and Deans 150 points from 10 games, an average of 15.00. However, while Fox may have the better averages Deans would probably have the superior strike rate. Deans’ strike rate in all games was just under 70 per cent. Fox’s is not known, because “The Press” does not have any record of how many kicks at goal he missed. But conversions of tries scored by their provinces may offer a clue. In its 10 national championship matches, and Fox played in all 10, Auckland scored 70 tries, and Fox converted just over half of them, 38. Canterbury scored only 18

tries in its-10 championship games, and there were 15 in the eight games that Deans played. Of these 15 he converted 11, better than twothirds. So anyone wanting to argue the relative merits of Deans and Fox as goalkickers would need to be very careful. Fox certainly has the points, but he was helped greatly by the dominance Auckland enjoyed in nearly all of its games. Deans, on the other hand, did not have as many kicking opportunities, and it would be a safe bet that he is superior to Fox from the longer distances. The best course might be to accept that both men are class goal-kickers, and leave it at that.