Tackle Count and Completion Calculator
Rugby Tackle Count and Tackle Completion
Tackle completion for rugby league and rugby union, on whichever denominator you are using — because the National Rugby League defines three tackle outcomes and World Rugby two, and neither publishes a percentage. Also what rugby league’s set of six tackles does to a defence’s tackle count.
Tackle completion
Your denominator, stated32 tackles made, 3 missed, 2 ineffective, six opposition sets, on the two-category denominator
Formula
- tackles made
- the NRL’s words: “Defensive player successfully completes tackle”. World Rugby splits the same event between a “Tackler”, “The defender who has attempted and succeded in making a tackle and as a result has gone to ground”, and an “Assist Tackler”, the same but who “has maintained they’re feet” — both typographical errors are the body’s own
- tackles missed
- the NRL: “Defensive player does not bring player to ground or complete tackle”. World Rugby: “When the defender has failed to complete the tackle when he/she would have reasonably expected to have done so”. The union definition contains a judgement, so two analysts can disagree about the same passage of play without either being wrong
- ineffective tackles
- the NRL’s third category and rugby league’s alone: “Defensive player does not stop attacking player from offloading in tackle”. A tackle made that did not prevent the pass. World Rugby has no equivalent, so a union figure has only the two-category denominator available
- the set of six
- Section 11, Law 7(a) of the International Rugby League’s 2024 laws: “A team in possession of the ball shall be allowed five successive play-the-balls”, with the handover when “The team is tackled a sixth time”. The LAW counts play-the-balls and the commentary counts tackles, which is why five and six are both correct. Section 11, Law 10(g) puts the defence ten metres back at each of them
Worked example
32 tackles made, 3 missed, 2 ineffective, six opposition sets, on the two-category denominator
32 + 3 = 35 attempted on the two-category denominator; 100 x 32 / 35 = 91.4%
On the National Rugby League's three categories the denominator is 32 + 3 + 2 = 37 and the answer is 86.5% — nearly five percentage points lower from exactly the same defensive work, which is why the convention is a field here and not a decision taken for you
It is a rate, both ways. Double every count — 64 made, 6 missed, 4 ineffective — and the two-category answer stays 91.4%. Halve the denominator while holding the numerator: 10 made with 30 missed is 25%, and 10 made with 10 missed is 50%
Now the set arithmetic, which is rugby league's and nothing to do with the percentage. Six opposition sets at six tackles each would be 36 tackles. This defence made 32, four fewer and 5.33 a set — so on average these sets ended before the sixth tackle, through an error, a kick or a penalty. A defence making MORE than six a set is conceding repeat sets
The refusals: no tackles made and none missed gives no figure rather than nought, and with no opposition sets entered the per-set rows disappear entirely instead of dividing by zero
The two bodies’ tackle definitions, and the percentage neither publishes
| National Rugby League (rugby league) | World Rugby (rugby union) | |
|---|---|---|
| A completed tackle | “Defensive player successfully completes tackle” | split in two: a “Tackler” who “has gone to ground” and an “Assist Tackler” who “has maintained they’re feet” |
| A missed tackle | “Defensive player does not bring player to ground or complete tackle” | “When the defender has failed to complete the tackle when he/she would have reasonably expected to have done so” |
| A tackle that failed to stop an offload | “Ineffective tackles — Defensive player does not stop attacking player from offloading in tackle” | no equivalent category |
| The player going for the ball afterwards | not in the glossary read for this page | “Jackler — When the first arriving defending player attempts to get his/her hands on the ball after a tackle has been made” |
| A tackle completion percentage | NOT DEFINED | NOT DEFINED |
| So the denominator is | yours: two categories or three | yours: two categories only |
What the set of six does to a tackle count
| Rugby league | Rugby union | |
|---|---|---|
| The unit of possession | a set: “five successive play-the-balls”, handover on the sixth tackle — Section 11, Law 7(a) | no equivalent; possession ends when it is lost |
| Tackles a completed set costs the defence | six | unbounded — a union phase count has no ceiling |
| Where the defence must retire to | “ten (10) metres from the point at which the ball is played” — Section 11, Law 10(g) | behind the back foot of the ruck |
| So a defence facing 6 sets makes | about 36 tackles | no figure follows from any law |
| Fewer tackles a set than six means | sets ending early, through an error, a kick or a penalty | not applicable |
| More tackles a set than six means | repeat sets conceded, through a penalty or a six-again | not applicable |
| Players doing the tackling | 13 — Section 4, Law 1 | 15 — Law 3.1 |
A capped possession, and a percentage nobody publishes
Rugby is two sports, and this page will not answer for both at once. Rugby union is governed by World Rugby and played fifteen a side under its Laws of the Game; rugby league by the International Rugby League, thirteen a side under its own International Laws. The two separated in 1895 and have published different numbers ever since — a try is five points in union and four in league, a penalty goal three and two, a drop goal three and one. So the code is an input here, and the other code’s figure is printed beside the answer. A number here belongs to a period as well as to a body: union’s try has been worth one point, two, three, four and five at different dates, and league’s long-range drop goal is one point under the international laws and two under the National Rugby League’s own competition rules. Every figure is printed with the body that publishes it and the clause it was read from.
Rugby league’s possession is capped by law, and almost everything about a league tackle count follows from that. Section 11, Law 7(a) of the International Rugby League’s 2024 laws allows a side in possession “five successive play-the-balls”, with a handover when “The team is tackled a sixth time”. So a completed set costs the defending side six tackles, and a defence facing six sets will make somewhere around thirty-six. That makes the raw count almost uninformative and the DEVIATION informative: fewer than six a set means sets ending early through errors, kicks or penalties, and more than six a set means repeat sets conceded. Rugby union has no equivalent — a union possession ends when it is lost and a phase count has no ceiling — which is why the set field here is rugby league’s and asks you to enter nought for a union figure.
A note on five against six, because both numbers are right. The law counts play-the-balls and allows five. The commentary counts tackles and says six. Those are the same thing seen from different ends: the first tackle produces the first play-the-ball, the fifth tackle the fifth, and the sixth tackle produces the handover instead. Quoting the law gets you five and watching the match gets you six, and a page giving one number without the other leaves its reader thinking the other source was wrong.
Now the percentage, where the problem is that nobody owns the denominator. The National Rugby League publishes a stats glossary defining three tackle outcomes: “Tackles made — Defensive player successfully completes tackle”, “Missed tackles — Defensive player does not bring player to ground or complete tackle”, and “Ineffective tackles — Defensive player does not stop attacking player from offloading in tackle”. World Rugby’s definitions cover a “Tackler”, an “Assist Tackler” and a “Missed tackle” and have no third-outcome equivalent at all. Neither body defines a tackle completion percentage, a tackle efficiency or any other ratio anywhere in either document. So whether an ineffective tackle belongs in the denominator is a question each analyst answers privately, and the answer moves the figure by several points: in the worked example, 91.4% becomes 86.5% on identical work.
A union missed tackle contains a judgement, and the body’s own wording admits it. World Rugby defines one as occurring “When the defender has failed to complete the tackle when he/she would have reasonably expected to have done so”. Whether a defender beaten by a step from eight metres away has missed a tackle therefore depends on whether they could reasonably have been expected to make it. Two competent analysts will disagree about the same passage of play without either being wrong, and a union missed-tackle count is softer data than a league one, where the NRL’s definition turns on the observable — whether the attacking player was brought to ground.
For rugby union’s own unit of possession, which is the set piece rather than the set, see the scrum and lineout retention calculator; for the ten metres a league defence must retire at every play-the-ball, and the lines it is measured against, see the pitch dimensions interpreter; and for what the tries a defence concedes are worth in each code, see the rugby scoring interpreter.
Every number on this page is arithmetic on a count, a law or a regulation that a governing body or a competition publishes, and each one names where it was read. Nothing here is a commercial prediction, and no page in this section is.
Frequently asked questions
How is tackle completion calculated in rugby?
Tackles made divided by tackles attempted, but there is no agreed denominator. On two categories it is made over made plus missed; on the National Rugby League’s three it also includes ineffective tackles, which are tackles made that failed to stop an offload. Neither governing body publishes a percentage at all, so the choice is the analyst’s and this page makes it an input.
Why is a rugby league set six tackles?
Because Section 11, Law 7(a) of the International Rugby League’s laws allows a side in possession “five successive play-the-balls” and hands the ball over when “The team is tackled a sixth time”. The law counts play-the-balls and gets five; the commentary counts tackles and gets six. Both are right and they count different events.
What is an ineffective tackle?
A National Rugby League category with no rugby union equivalent: “Defensive player does not stop attacking player from offloading in tackle”. The tackle was made and the pass still went. Whether it belongs in a completion denominator is a convention, and including it lowered the figure in this page’s worked example from 91.4% to 86.5%.
Can union and league tackle percentages be compared?
No. The denominators differ, because rugby league names a third outcome union has no word for. And the definitions differ in kind: the NRL’s missed tackle turns on whether the attacker was brought to ground, while World Rugby’s rests on whether the defender “would have reasonably expected” to complete it, which is a judgement two analysts can make differently.
Related calculators
References
- National Rugby League. NRL Stats Glossary — official stats definitions, nrl.com/operations/the-game/official-stats-definitions (read 15 Oct 2026), in sections headed Points Scoring (Try Scoring, Conversion, Penalty Goal, Field Goal), Ball Runs, Attack, Passing, Defence, Kicking and Negative Play. Quoted: “Tackles made — Defensive player successfully completes tackle”; “Missed tackles — Defensive player does not bring player to ground or complete tackle”; “Ineffective tackles — Defensive player does not stop attacking player from offloading in tackle”; “Conversion — An attempt at goal after a try has been scored”, resolving to “Points- Conversion is successful” or “Missed – Conversion is unsuccessful”; “An error is when the ball is lost by the attacking team or when defensive players have reset tackle count to zero.” It defines no tackle efficiency, no tackle break, no completion rate and no percentage of any kind. About 6,500 characters including navigation.
- World Rugby. Game Analysis Definitions, world.rugby/the-game/game-analysis/definitions (read 15 Oct 2026) — the governing body’s own statistical dictionary, in sections headed Scoring, General Play, Set Piece and Sanctions, about 50,000 characters including navigation. It contains NO definition of territory and NO percentage or success rate for a scrum, a lineout or a tackle: it defines the events and leaves every ratio to whoever computes it. Several typographical errors below are the source’s own and are reproduced as found. Quoted: “Missed tackle — When the defender has failed to complete the tackle when he/she would have reasonably expected to have done so”; “Tackler — The defender who has attempted and succeded in making a tackle and as a result has gone to ground”; “Assist Tackler”, the same but who “has maintained they’re feet”; “Jackler — When the first arriving defending player attempts to get his/her hands on the ball after a tackle has been made”; “Own ruck won — A ruck is won when a team in possession at the start of the ruck retains possession when the ball leaves the ruck”.
- International Rugby League. International Laws of the Game, 2024 edition (cover: “2024 International Laws of the Game”, © 2024 International Rugby League), PDF at rugby-league.com (read 15 Oct 2026). Quoted only where the TEXT says it; the extraction runs to roughly 50,000 characters and is truncated partway through Section 17, and Section 1’s ground plan is an IMAGE, so no field dimension is quoted from this document anywhere on this site. Section 4, Law 1: “The game shall be played by two teams each consisting of not more than thirteen players on the field at any one time.” Section 4, Law 2(a): four nominated replacements and “A maximum of 8 interchanges … from the 17 named players.” Section 7, Law 1: “The game shall normally be of eighty minutes duration.” Section 11, Law 7(a): “A team in possession of the ball shall be allowed five successive play-the-balls”, with a handover when “The team is tackled a sixth time”. Section 11, Law 10(g): defenders other than the marker and acting half “are out of play if they fail to retire ten (10) metres from the point at which the ball is played.” Section 12, Law 3: “No more than six players on each team shall assist in the formation of a scrum.” Section 16, Law 6: the referee may “caution, temporarily suspend for ten minutes, or dismiss the offender.” Section 1, Note 3: “The goal posts are considered to extend indefinitely upwards”; Section 2’s glossary: a corner post “not less than 1.25m. high”.
- National Rugby League. NRL announces rule changes to make game more entertaining, nrl.com, Friday 11 December 2020 (read 15 Oct 2026). The Australian Rugby League Commission, on its innovation committee’s recommendations, confirmed for the 2021 Telstra Premiership that “a two-point field goal will be awarded for teams who kick a field goal from outside the 40-metre line”, field goals from inside the 40 remaining worth one point. The same item records that field goals “were reduced from two points to one in 1971”; that six-again replaces the penalty for 10-metre infringements while referees keep the power to penalise and sin bin; that a ball or carrier into touch restarts with a play-the-ball rather than a scrum; and that “A conversion attempt will not be permitted until the Bunker is satisfied a try has been scored”.
- World Rugby. Laws of the Game — Law 3 (Team) and Law 5 (Time) (passport.world.rugby, read 15 Oct 2026). 3.1: “Each team has no more than 15 players in the playing area during play.” 3.4 allows a union up to eight replacements for an international, 3.5 leaves the number to the match organiser up to the same eight, and 3.8 sets minimum front-row cover by squad size. 5.1: “A match lasts no longer than 80 minutes”, in halves “each of not more than 40 minutes plus time lost”, with extra time only where “the match organiser has authorised the playing of extra-time in a drawn match within a knock-out competition”. 5.2: half-time is “an interval not exceeding 15 minutes as decided by the match organiser”.