MATT Dufty once again stole the show for Warrington Wolves as he played a key role in helping them beat Leeds Rhinos.
However, one particular run of consistency came to an agonising end for the Australian full-back.
We have become used to seeing Dufty pass the 200m mark for ground gained this year – indeed, he has done so eight times in Super League matches this season to help him open up a seemingly insurmountable lead at the top of the competition’s metre-making charts.
He had made at least 200m with the ball in the past three Super League matches – his longest run consecutively – but against the Rhinos, he fell just one metre short of making it four.
Still, the 199 run metres he managed from 23 carries (8.65m per carry average) was comfortably more than any other player on the field at The Halliwell Jones Stadium.
Leeds pair Ash Handley and Brodie Croft were the next-best with 142m each with full-back Lachlan Miller (138m) close behind.
The next highest Warrington figure was George Williams’ 120m, with Matty Ashton (111m) and Paul Vaughan (107m) also reaching three figures.
In defence, Ben Currie topped the Warrington tackle count with 32 but it was an unusually mixed night off the ball for Matty Nicholson.
The back-rower, who was named as Sky Sports’ player of the match, was second to Currie with 30 tackles but also missed 10 – by far the highest number on either side.
The top three tacklers for the game all came from the Leeds side, with Jarrod O’Connor (39) leading the way from Cameron Smith (36) and James McDonnell (33).
One area that will please Sam Burgess is his side's error count - Warrington made just four in the entire match, three of which came inside the final quarter.
In total, their completion rate averaged out at an impressive 88 per cent, with the Rhinos' figure down at 69 per cent thanks in part to the 12 errors they made in possession.
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