TODAY THE SIX Nations analytical partner, Accenture, released a video showing a quick compilation of charts with the vital statistics from the 2013 Six Nations.

Stats don’t tell the whole story of course, but they are useful in illustrating some key elements which led to a result.

We’re 10 months on from that horrible tournament, so hopefully we will begin to see a sharp change in the patterns you can see in five of the six slides below.

There wasn’t much wrong with the tackling, we were second only to the champions

But second best on this chart is quickly cancelled out by the other five; which show Ireland consistently in the bottom two – which makes sense when you consider Declan Kidney’s side only just avoided the wooden spoon.

Ireland were second in penalties conceded too

Five tries, it wasn’t the worst…

… it was just joint fourth. Matching the attacking prowess of Italy and England is not where these players have set the bar over the past decade.

In five games, you can count the total number of line breaks on two hands

And it’s worth noting that the free-flowing Ireland attack shown in the clip below was not the result of a line break, but of charge-down on Dan Biggar.

The results here show beating your man doesn’t guarantee victory, but it helps

Wales only slipped out of the top two once in the six metrics taken

Metres gained is a good measure of an NFL team’s effectiveness. Not so much in rugby.

Here’s the video in full

YouTube credit: RBS 6 Nations

Now, let’s move on from all that unpleasantness, shall we?

Joe Schmidt: ‘I feel nervous pressure about trying to be the best prepared we can be’

Rory Best: ‘The tackle that broke my arm didn’t feel bad until I heard a snap’