It may seem the number of carries in a rugby match, and who carried the ball, is simply a bald figure that shows who made the most yards, or, who was in possession the most.

But the numbers can also show a qualitative as much as a quantitative picture and can illuminate the tactics of a side in any given match.

This graphic, which excludes kick returns as they can skew the stats in favour of fullbacks, shows that in the game between France and Scotland, the French, unsurprisingly, went to their huge centre Mathieu Bastareaud more than any other player to break the gainline. His return was 33 metres from 12 carries.

Wing Teddy Thomas made the most yards of anyone, however, with 60 metres gained from seven carries.

Bastareaud was the only French player to carry the ball more than 10 times, while eight Irish players had 10 or more carries in their opening match against Italy.

In the Irish backrow Jordi Murphy with 16 carries and Peter O'Mahony with 15 carries were Ireland's two biggest ball carriers, while tryscoring flanker Tommy O'Donnell gained the most metres (39) after centre Jared Payne.

Irish centres Robbie Henshaw and Payne were among the biggest ball carriers and yard gainers in the match showing that Ireland went to those players along with Kearney, to unlock the Italian defence.

The graph shows that while backline players on both sides may get less ball, they often make the most metres.

Frontrow players Mike Ross, Seán Cronin, James Cronin, Marty Moore and Rory Best made 13 metres between them, indicating the type of trench warfare they were engaged in.

Best, before he went off concussed, had thundered up for just two metres from five carries. Jack McGrath was even more spectacularly at the coal face. From his nine carries, he gained two metres.

Mike Ross had two carries but didn’t make any gains at all.