I was originally going to do a post on the infuriating predilection of Northern Hemisphere journos and blogosphere posters to label New Zealand (and Australia) as poachers of Pacific Island talent. I got all the data I could on players at the World Cup and looking at how much analysis I'd have to do, I came to the decision that a post on more general statistics of the player pool would be much easier.

So, here you go: trivial figures to regale and bore your friends with. (Slight disclaimer: these stats are based on the player profiles at the official Rugby World Cup website, so any wrong information is their fault.)

Height and Weight

The heaviest player at the World Cup is Namibian Marius Visser. Weighing in at a svelte 140kg (308lb, or 22 stone), one Visser unit is equal to two Abuserdize units, which is the same as two Samkharadze units, which is the same as two Shkinins. That's right, Georgia has three players who are 70kg (154lb, or 11 stone): Irakli Abuserdize, Bidzina Samkharadze and Giorgi Shkinin. Ladies and gentlement, the lightest players.

The tallest players are Isoa Domolailai of Fiji, and another Namibian, Nico Esterhuize. Both of these men stand 205cm (6'9") in their stockinged feet. And both men are almost half a metre taller than the shortest player, Heini Bock, yet another Namibian, who stands 161cm (5'3") tall. What is it with the Na­mibians? Have they stacked their team full of circus freaks? Can we dare to hope that a bearded lady or a painted man will turn out for them in their next match? Come for the freak, stay for the rugby.

On average, the heaviest team at the tournament is the Fijian team, weighing in at 105.7kg per player. New Zealand, at 103.4kg per player, is heavier than Australia
(103kg) , England (102.4kg) and South Africa (102.3kg) and France
(99kg). Wales is the heaviest home nation at 103.9kg.

Portugal take the prize for being the lightest team around, with an average weight of 94.3kg. Amazingly, this is still heavier than Buck Shelford's playing weight for the 1987 All Blacks (93kg). How times have changed, and how, mercifully, shorts have gotten longer.

The tallest team at the tournament is the South African team. They stand an average of 188.7cm tall (just a shade over 6'2"). New Zealand is 7th tallest at 186.1cm (about 6'1").

The shortest team is Portugal, who, at 181.7cm (just over 5'11"), are almost three inches shorter per man than South Africa.

Country Statistics

This is getting into the area I was originally looking at: how the various squads are made up and where all the players come from.

In terms of the biggest presence from any one country, New Zealand has
supplied 47 players spread across ten different countries: 22 in the NZ
squad, 12 in the Samoan squad, four for Japan, three for Italy and one each
for England, Fiji, Ireland, Tonga, USA and Wales.

South Africa isn't far behind, having supplied 44 players spread across nine different
countries: 28 in the SA squad, four for Namibia, three for USA, two each for
Canada, England and Italy and one for Australia, France and Wales.

In terms of which teams gain most from foreign-born players, Italy turns out to be only 47% Italian. The Italian squad contains players from eight different countries of origin: 14 Italians, seven Argentinians, three Kiwis, two South Africans and one each from Canada,
England, Fiji and France.

Both Romania and Georgia have benefited the least from foreign influence: they have exactly zero foreign-born players in their squad. South Africa is the most homogeneous of the big nations: 93% (or 28 out of 30) of their players are South Africa born. Of the other two, one was born in Namibia (Percy Montgomery - update: Percy was born in a part of what is now Namibia, but what was then South Africa, so he technically is South African through and through; which all just goes to show how stupid this "born" argument is!), and one was born in Zimbabwe (Bobby Skinstad).

The Home Nations, for all their bleating about player poaching, are as follows:

• England: 87% homogeneous. The foreign-born players are Mike Catt (South Africa), Matt Stevens (South Africa), Perry Freshwater (New Zealand) and Simon Shaw (Kenya).
• Scotland: 67% homogeneous. The foreign-born players are Dan Parks (Australia), Nathan Hines (Australia), John Barclay (Hong Kong) and seven Englishmen: Craig Smith, Gavin Kerr, Andrew Henderson, Rob Dewey, Simon Webster, Hugo Southwell, and Jim Hamilton.
• Ireland: 83% homogeneous. Their foreign-born players are Frankie Sheahan (Canada), Malcolm O'Kelly (England), Simon Easterby (England), Isaac Boss (New Zealand) and Ronan O'Gara (USA).
• Wales: 77% homogeneous. Their foreign-born players are Tom Shanklin (England), Will James (England), Colin Charvis (England), Chris Horsman (England), Sonny Parker (New Zealand), Ian Evans (South Africa) and Dafydd James (Zambia).

In comparison, New Zealand is 73% NZ-born. Of the eight born outside New Zealand, five were born in Samoa (Jerry Collins, Chris Masoe, Mils Muliaina, Rodney So'oialo and Isaia Toeava), two in Fiji (Josevata Rokocoko and Sitiveni Sivivatu) and one in Tonga (Sione Lauaki). To get back to the original point I was going to make about player poaching: none of these players were "poached" for their rugby playing ability. Most came to New Zealand with their families when they were very young and have been through the public school system. The closest to being "poached" would be Sivivatu, who came to New Zealand in his later teens.

It is also interesting to note that of the 30 in the Samoan squad, 12 were born in New Zealand. We taketh, and we giveth away.

Slightly related to country of origin, it should be noted that there are 26 players born in Buenos Aires at the World Cup: 25 in the Argentinian team and one in the Italian squad. Tblisi in Georgia is next with 21 players (all in the Georgian team). By comparison, only 8 players were born in Auckland, and of those only two are in the New Zealand team (Ali Williams and Doug Howlett)! The others are: Tanielu Fuga (Samoa), the fantastically named Census Johnston (Samoa), Leo Lafaiali'i (Samoa), Gavin Williams (Samoa), Ephraim Taukafa (Tonga) and Kaine Robertson (Italy). Christchurch has supplied four of the New Zealand squad (Andy Ellis, Aaron Mauger, Chris Jack and Reuben Thorne), otherwise the rest of the All Black squad is spread remarkably evenly around New Zealand (not counting those from the Pacific Islands, of course).

A "Country of Origin" tournament would be very interesting!

Player Ages

The youngest player at the cup is Thretton Palama of the USA. Thretton turns 19 on 22 September.

The USA also contains the oldest player: Luke Gross is 37, and will turn 38 on 21 November.

On average, the Canadian team is the youngest, at an average age of 26.4 years.

The oldest, unsurprisingly, given their ponderous playing style against the USA in their last game, is the English squad with an average age of 29.9 years.

New Zealand's average age is a comparatively young 27.5 years.

That's all we have for now. If the numbers conspire to throw up new and exciting trivialities, we'll be sure to tell you.