GETTING STARTED
Q. What is Pick and Go?
P&G is a search engine designed to interrogate a series of database tables containing men's international
rugby union test match results and present them in a variety of formats. A separate database contains Super 12/14/15 results. Each P&G screen
is controlled from a single search panel and offers huge flexibility for
grouping results together. By using the variety of filters on the search panel,
millions of combinations of queries are just a single click away.
Note that the following instructions apply to the the P&G Test match facility, with additional references for the Super Rugby feature.
Q. What sort of things can I do with Pick and Go?
The following are just a
few examples of the type of queries P&G can process:
and some examples using the Super 12/14/15 database:
Please feel free to experiment with the multitude of options on the selection panel and you will soon get to grips with what P&G can do.
Q. How do I use it?
Pick and Go is controlled from the dark grey search/selection panel near the bottom of the screen.
The easiest way to start using P&G is via the "Competitions/Tours" drop-down box.
Simply pick one of the first six trophy or tour options, click "and Go!", and
you will be presented with a summary screen showing the full history of that
event. Alternatively you can click on one of the trophies in the Major Trophy Holders table (
Version 2 update) or one
of the link columns in the fixture list.
You can then drill in by clicking on any country that you are interested
in and see the full match details followed by summary stats underneath. Note
that by doing this, you are still viewing the same selection screen but some of
the filter boxes on the selection panel will now contain additional search
criteria.
An example:
Select "6 Nations" from the "Competitions/Tours" drop-down box.
Select Irelands results for 2004 by clicking on "IRE". You will see that
in the whole competition the triple-crown winning teams average score was 26-16
(46 points more than their opponents), they scored 17 tries and let 8 in, and
they won all 3 of their home games.
On the same screen, scroll down to the selection panel. You will notice that
the "to" and "from" years have been filled in and "Ireland" is in the "Team(s)"
box with the blue background.
Click the "Home" check box and then "and Go!"
Notice that the blue title above the results box now says home. You will
also see that Ireland's average score at Lansdowne Road was 31-11 and they
scored 11 more tries than their 3 visitors.
Q. Help! There are so many different options on the selection panel, which ones
should I use?
The filter boxes enable you to zoom in on results meeting specific criteria. If
you don't enter anything in a filter box, it defaults to "all" so that box will
not be a factor in the selection process. For simple "team A playing team B and
the stats", just select the team and their opponent and away you go.
Below the
"Team(s)" boxes are a number of checkboxes and "Other" options. With the
exception of "ranking matrix", you must enter something in at least one of the four light blue
boxes to use any of these options. This is because the results need to be aligned so that
the stats can show a country, or group of countries results versus something else. Sorry if this
sounds complicated. It isn't, and once you start using it, hopefully you'll see
what I mean!
Q. How about a more advanced example?
Clear any existing filters in the search panel by clicking on "Start Again".
In the first "from" Year box enter "1987" and in the "to" box next to it enter "2004"
In the light blue "Hemisphere" box underneath "Team(s)" choose "SH"
In the light blue "Tier" box choose "1"
In the Opponents "region" box (not the light blue one), pick "BRI"
Click "and Go!" and you will see that in the period 1987-2004, the Tri-Nations teams
played British Home Nations teams 149 times and won 78% of the time, the
average score being 31-16.
Now, on the selection panels "Other" drop-down box, choose "longest winning
streak" and click "and Go!"
You will see that from Nov 1989 through to Oct 1992, the SH sides had a 16
match winning streak.
Back on the selection panel, check the "draw" checkbox "and Go!".
You should now see that from Jul 1997 to 1998, the SH had a 23 match
undefeated streak which included 2 draws.
Finally on the selection panel, choose "worst to best" from the "other" box
"and Go!"
Each match has now been assigned ranking points and will be sorted
accordingly from the SH's perspective with England's 2003 RWC win at the top down to
Australia's 1991 RWC win at the bottom.
SPECIFICS
Q. What match results are in the databases?
The test match database currently contains every recognised test match played between the All Blacks,
Springboks, Wallabies, France, England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, and Argentina and anyone else they played between 1871
and the present. You will also find the results for every British Lions test (including tours by Great Britain/Anglo-Welsh teams) and
every Rugby World Cup match ever played.
The Super Rugby database contains detailed match results for every game since the Super 12 began in 1996.
Incidentally, if you have any results or corrections to results in the database, please email them to me and I will attempt to add/correct them. As well as the date, score, and location info, I'll need try counts too.
I think this is best summed up in The Reed Book of All Black Records 1883-2003 By Geoff Miller. Reed, 2003:
A test match in its simplest terms should be a test between the best players of one country and the best players of another country.
It is the right of an individual country to decide whether or not to recognise the game as a test match. The New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZFRU)
have used their right more often than all other countries in declining test match status to a large number of games.
The biggest group of these is the 24 games played against the New South Wales Waratahs from 1920 to 1928. Rugby union was not played in Queensland
at this time, so in effect NSW was Australian rugby. The Australian Rugby Union recognise these games as test matches but the NZRFU steadfastly
refuse to do so.
Other games declined test match status against the best another country could produce include Argentina 1976 (2), 1979 (2); Canada 1980 (1); Fiji 1968 (1),
1974 (1), 1980 (2); Italy 1977 (1), 1979 (1); Japan 1987 (2); Uruguay 1976 (1); USA 1980 (1).
P&G does contain such results as the NSW games and the rebel NZ Cavaliers tour but these won't appear if viewing NZ's overall test record.
Q. What is the "Adv" column?
"H" - Home Advantage, "A" - Away, "N" - no advantage as the match was played at a
Neutral venue e.g. World Cup. The results of many games are so close these days
that home advantage is becoming an increasingly significant factor.
Q. How did you decide which teams went into which tier?
The tiers align with World Rugby.
Q. How do the trophy cabinet displays work? (Feature added in Version 2)
There are two different types of trophy displays:
Major Trophy Holders.
Just enter a "to" year, with no teams specified and the major trophies at the end of that year will
be displayed with holders at that time displayed beneath. Click on a trophy to see its entire history. Click on a holder to
see all winning results.
Country Trophy cabinets.
In most cases, whenever a team is selected in the blue box, their trophy cabinet will be displayed at that time (default
is the current contents). When a team has held a trophy but subsequently loses it, the trophy logo changes to a cobweb.
Click on a trophy or cobweb to see the entire trophy history. Click on a "held since" or "lost in" year to see those results.
Country trophy cabinets at quarterly intervals are displayed by zooming in from a ranking matrix.
Q. Why haven't you got many results for the lesser rugby nations?
It's a matter of obtaining those results. You email them to me (including try
counts) and I'll gladly add them in.
Q. How do I change the winning and losing streaks into undefeated streaks i.e.
including draws.
Click the "draw" checkbox along with the streak (note that it won't be saved for
next time but the title will change to "undefeated" or "including draws").
Q. What are Wilko wins/losses?
I could have just as easily called them Don Clarke wins/losses but somehow it
doesn't have the same ring to it. Wilko wins are where a team beats its
opposition but fails to score more tries than them i.e. victory comes courtesy
of penalty kicks and drop goals.
Q. What are the ranking histories and how do I use them?
The ranking points history shows the equivalent team rankings as calculated by World Rugby for each quarter of the year going right back to 1962 (change the from and to dates in the grey search panel).
The actual IRB rankings only started in 2003 but I've used the same algorithm that World Rugby use to calculate them back further in history.
The default ranking history display shows each of the top 10 tens represented by their flag with the team with the most points at the top. The team holding the RWC at that time has a gold background. The other display (static) shows the teams in a fixed position in the stack but with their actual position in brackets after the IRB score. You can click on any of these flags/totals to show the last 12 games played by that team ending at that time.
Read about how the World Rugby rankings work here.
Team Rankings were added for Super Rugby teams in version 9.8.
Q. What are the date shortcuts?
The following single lowercase letters may be entered in the leftmost "from"
Year field to prime the dates accordingly:
m - modern era (present date back to 1987)
p - professional era (present date to 1996)
a - amateur era (1995-1871)
c - this century (present to 2000)
The "from" field also supports decade requests for the past 100 years e.g. "80s" will set the from date to 1980 and to date to 1989.
Both "To" and "From" fields now support explict dates in the format yyyy-mm-dd e.g. 1991-06-24 (Version 9.4)
Q. What do the "a", "n", "s", and "e" in the "Round" column of Bledisloe/Mandela/Freedom Cup/Cook Cup/3N results mean?
Due to the strange rules governing who retains/takes these trophies, the
lowercase letter indicates whether Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, or England held the relevant trophy
following each match. Challengers must normally win both home and away legs to take these trophies
whereas current holders can retain by just winning one.
Q. How does the Super 12/14 section work?
The Super Rugby database was added in Version 4. The main screen looks like the ubiquitous standings
table however this version allows you to zoom in on actual match results, wins, draws, losses, home,
away, bonus points etc etc. The table for the current year also includes a fixture list for games still to be played.
By changing the year/round on the selection panel, you can also see what the table looked like at
any other time in the competition since 1998, or at the competitions completion in years prior to that. This makes
it easy to compare a teams progress with previous years.
By selecting a team name, a comprehensive history is
displayed showing past championship results and competition statistics.
PROBLEMS
Q. I keep getting the message "0 matches have been displayed"?
Silly answer but check that you are entering valid options in the search panel!
The blue title at the top of the screen will also indicate which options you have chosen. Start from
scratch and add filters in the search panel one at a time. Don't add filters unless they are necessary to uniquely
identify your selection e.g. Selecting "Team=All Blacks, Hem=SH, Region=PAC, Tier=1" will yield the same results as
"Team=All Blacks".
If it's still not displaying a valid result you may have found a bug so please
email me a screen snapshot.
Q. Why don't the results always have the statistics and summary boxes underneath
them?
Unless you enter something in one of the 4 light grey boxes under "Team(s)", P&G has
no way of knowing what you want to total up. The default view is to display the
results in the format that they are stored in the database in i.e. home games
always on the left. Incidentally if you prefer this view, leave the blue boxes
empty and enter the team details on the "Opponent(s)" side.
Q. I select various options but all I keep getting are the 20 latest results or a padlock displayed?
P&G defaults to the 20 latest results if you enter an invalid or ambiguous combination of options.
You also now need to subscribe to see some of the stats. Read about registration here.
Q. Sometimes when I pick "winning or losing streaks", additional results are
returned.
Unfortunately this is a foible that occurs at the start/end of some streaks. If
other matches were played on the same day (matching the same criteria), they
will also be listed. The streak is still correct, just ignore
the extra results.
Q. The output doesn't look right in my browser.
I attempt to test P&G with most popular browsers (chrome, firefox, edge, explorer) but please email me details of any problems you find.
MISCELLANEOUS
Q. Why did you do this?!
Two reasons. I wrote the search engine to get more experience writing PHP (PHP
Hypertext Preprocessor) and MySQL (My Structured Query Language). The webpage is
dynamic, i.e. each time you make a selection, the HTML (the language that
describes the webpage and its content) is rebuilt based on data retrieved from
the database. To a computer geek like me, that is kinda cool!
The other reason
is that as an avid rugby supporter, I couldn't find anywhere on the web that
offers this kind of information, all from one place. There are plenty of
excellent websites with stats for one country but my aim was to produce something that was more
global.
Q. How long did it take to develop?
It took about 2 months to write and test the main 3000+ line PHP program. I've
been collecting match results for quite a while but I had to resort to using
library books for some of the older stuff.
Q. Can you write a similar thing for me?
<shameless plug!>
Yes, by all means. My rates are very reasonable! MySQL is ideally suited to
many types of data and by combining it with PHP, you can create a very powerful
application quite quickly. It needn't be sports results, but anything that can
be stored in a database.
Please email me with details of what you have in mind.
</shameless plug!>
Q. Are you going to add other information like player statistics?
Not at this stage.
