A LOOK at the player stats from Warrington Wolves’ Challenge Cup semi-final victory reinforces what we could all see – that it was a dominant and impressive team display.
However, the numbers certainly help to put meat on the bones of a superb showing against Huddersfield Giants to book their place at Wembley Stadium.
Here are some of the key things we picked out from the match stats…
A warm-weather masterclass
With the game being played on one of the warmest days of the year to date, respect for the ball was always going to be crucial.
To that end, Wire put on a clinic when it comes to playing in those kinds of conditions.
Their completion rate of 94 per cent is highly impressive whatever the weather, meaning they controlled the ball and turned it over on their own terms.
They made just three errors, conceded just one penalty when Josh Thewlis sent the restart following Adam Swift’s try out on the full and gave away just one set restart.
By contrast, Huddersfield made eight errors and conceded five penalties while their completion rate was down at 70 per cent.
Less is more for Vaughan
We had got used to seeing Paul Vaughan churn out lung-bursting stints during his first season at the club.
While there appears to have been a conscious effort to make sure the workload is spread around more this year, the Australian is still managing to punch out some superb numbers.
Vaughan was on the field for just over half of the game on Sunday but still managed to clock a superb 161 metres at an average of just under 11 per carry.
That figure is comfortably higher than any other forward on the field – Ben Currie’s 117 is the next best Wire figure while none of Huddersfield’s pack men reached three figures with the exception of Leroy Cudjoe, who managed 137 but played the entire second half on the wing.
He may be playing shorter minutes, but he’s showing no signs of slowing down.
Dufty has company in the 200 club
It will surprise nobody to learn that Matt Dufty once again passed the 200m mark on Sunday – he ran for 213 metres from 20 carries, bringing about an average of 10.65m each time he took the ball in.
Three line breaks and eight tackle busts – the highest figure for both on either side – go with his two tries and two assists to complete another superb all-round display.
Matty Ashton joined him by clocking up 209 metres, but the game’s highest metre-maker came from the opposite side.
Huddersfield centre Esan Marsters – his side’s stand-out player on the day – clocked up 228 metres.
Nicholson’s work rate shines again
They did not have to do as much defending as they may have planned for, but Matty Nicholson still got through his work off the ball.
With Huddersfield targeting Wire’s right edge pretty much exclusively, the second rower once again topped the tackle count with 40 and with just a solitary miss, his tackle completion rate came in at an impressive 97.6 per cent.
To highlight that imbalance, Nicholson and right-edge cohorts George Williams, Rodrick Tai and Josh Thewlis made 76 tackles between them while the left-edge unit of Lachlan Fitzgibbon, Josh Drinkwater, Toby King and Matty Ashton needed only to make 26.
Luke Yates – widely tipped to be on his way to Warrington in 2025 – topped the Huddersfield tackle charts with 39 with Jack Murchie (38) close behind.
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