On the eve of the Aviva Premiership Rugby semi-finals we can confirm it is has been a record-breaking season for the League.
776 tries were scored – the MOST ever beating the 750 tallied in 1999/2000
6379 points were scored – the most since 1999/2000
Those tries were scored by 283 different players, eight scored hat tricks including Dan Robson’s four in a game for Wasps against Sale in round one
For the second season running there were NO tryless fixtures
546 conversions – again the MOST ever
449 penalty goals kicked – the FEWEST ever – previous lowest was 514 last season
Overall penalty kick success rate was 82.4% – by far the best ever
88 try bonus points – the MOST ever
Owen Farrell was the top points scorer with 186, the lowest ever total by the winner of the golden boot – previously 201 by Charlie Hodgson in 2007/08
Exeter’s tally of 85 league points is the 2nd best ever after Saracens 87 points in 2013/14
535 different players were named in matchday squads for the 132 matches, of those four (Ross Harrison, Jono Ross and Faf de Klerk all of Sale and Franco van der Merwe of London Irish) started all 22 games.
220 are capped players for 18 different countries, 29 are British & Irish Lions
441 started at least one game, whilst six did not actually take to the field
112 players made their debut in Premiership Rugby
Franco van der Merwe played the most minutes (1684)
Joe Simmonds of Exeter was never on the losing side in his 8 appearances, whilst Luke McLean lost all his 8 games for London Irish
Four players appeared for two different teams – Marland Yarde, Blair Cowan, Nathan Charles and Jono Kitto, whilst Kitto began the season in the Leicester squad without playing but went on to appear for Worcester and Harlequins
The most appearances off the bench was Sale’s Halani ‘Aulika with 17, he also made just one start
The biggest comeback to win this season was 17 points by Gloucester at London Irish in March, and by Sale at home to Wasps in April.
The fastest try was scored after just 50 seconds by Denny Solomona for Sale v Gloucester at the end of September
The most points in a game by a player was 24 by Tommy Bell for London Irish against Harlequins in round 1
The highest scoring match was at the Ricoh Arena in round 1 when Wasps beat Sale 50-35, there was also a season high 12 tries scored in the encounter
The youngest player was 18-year-old Cameron Redpath against Bath in February although he did not come onto the pitch. The youngest to actually play was Sale team mate Luke James against Saracens in September. The youngest to start was Marcus Smith in round 1, who was also the youngest try scorer against Worcester at the end of October.
The oldest player was 39-year-old Peter Stringer against Bath in October.
The oldest try scorer was 36-year-old Schalk Brits at London Irish in round 22.
In round 22 at Sale George Ford became only the third player since 2010 to score in all four ways (try, conversion, penalty goal and drop goal) in the same Premiership match.
Three new venues hosted Premiership rugby this season: Talen Energy Stadium in Philadelphia, London Stadium and St James’ Park in Newcastle, taking the tally to 38 different grounds to have staged a game in the competition.
Owen Farrell and George Ford became the 20th and 21st players to tally 1000 career points in the Premiership.
Three players scored their 50th Premiership try: Danny Care, Niki Goneva and Jonny May.
Ben Foden, Stephen Myler, David Paice and Mike Brown all made their 200th Premiership appearance.