THERE have not been too many matches this season in which Warrington Wolves have been dominated physically.

On both sides of the ball, however, that was certainly the case during their defeat to Hull KR – and the match stats on the Super League website show as much.

The Robins left The Halliwell Jones Stadium with a well-deserved 22-4 victory to climb – at least temporarily – to the top of Super League and drop The Wire to third.

And the foundation for their victory was laid by the physical dominance they established from early in the match.

With the ball, Warrington actually had comfortably more carries of the ball than their opponents (206 to 180) but still made fewer metres – the hosts totalled 1,189m at an average of 5.77m per carry, but Rovers’ total was 1,229m and made just over a metre more per carry on average than their opponents (6.82m).

Another demonstration of their physical advantage was the number of post-contact metres they were able to gain – 737 compared to Wire’s 669 – while they also busted through 34 tackles compared to just 20 from their hosts.

The Robins’ former Warrington centre Peta Hiku emerged as the game’s leading metre-maker with 184 from 21 carries, with Matt Dufty (158m) once again leading the Wire charts.

Big difference in back row

Post-match, Sky Sports pundit Jon Wilkin picked out the performances of Hull KR’s back-row trio of Dean Hadley, James Batchelor and Elliot Minchella as being particularly impressive.

The stats certainly back that up – with and without the ball, they were certainly more effective than their Warrington counterparts.

All three passed the 40-tackle mark – Hadley made 47, Minchella 41 and Batchelor 40 – while combined, they missed just five tackles with Batchelor responsible for three of them.

They were effective with the ball, too, with Hadley making 101m, Batchelor 90m and Minchella 86m and all being around the 7-8m per carry average.

The Warrington trio of Ben Currie (37), Matty Nicholson (33) and Adam Holroyd (27) were typically busy in defence but between them, they missed 13 tackles (Holroyd 7, Nicholson 4, Currie 2).

With the ball, they made fewer carries than their adversaries but averaged much less in terms of metres gained, with all around the 5-6m per carry average.

Yates quietly effective again

His side’s collective display may have meant it wasn’t quite as noticed as it was against Wigan, but Luke Yates again demonstrated what he will bring to this Warrington side moving forward.

His 16 carries was more than all of his teammates bar George Williams (25) and Matt Dufty (20) while among his fellow Wire forwards, only Paul Vaughan (106m) nudged ahead of his 103m.

Off the ball, though, he made an impressive 47 tackles – the joint-most of anyone on the field alongside Hadley – including 11 from marker with just one miss.