Warrington Wolves key player stats from Magic Weekend win

A look at the match stats from the Super League website has once again revealed some impressive individual numbers, and some statistical trends that may well have contributed The Wire’s 24-6 victory.

Here’s a look at a few things we noticed in ‘Stat Attack’

Wire’s back three come up big

This was a battle of two impressive back threes – and there can be no doubt as to which trio came out on top.

It was a simply huge performance from Wire’s full-back and wingers, who made more than 100 metres more collectively than their Rhinos counterparts (564m compared to 447m) and on average, their carries gained over a metre more than their opposites (9.6m to 8.5m).

For the second week in a row, Matty Ashton topped Warrington’s metre-making charts and cleared the 200m mark but unlike the victory over London, he did not have two long-range tries to bolster his figures.

Ashton made 240m from 22 carries, with hat-trick hero Dufty making 192m having also taken the ball in 22 times. Josh Thewlis (132m from 15 carries) completed a big back-three effort.

Toby King too got through plenty of effective yardage work, making 144m from 21 carries – many of which were coming off his own line.

Matty Ashton cleared the 200m mark for the second match in a row (Image: Neil Ashurst/P&B Pictures)

The grunt up front

Not to be out-done, Wire’s middle unit also stepped up on both sides of the ball with two of the usual suspects standing out.

While he may have had the unfamiliar role of coming off the bench, James Harrison was clearly loving playing on the home ground of his beloved Leeds United, making 106m at a shade under 10 metres per carry while also making 21 tackles with just one miss.

Paul Vaughan too punched out similar numbers – 103m from 11 carries, 23 tackles with one miss – as the duo once again displayed the consistency they have become known for.

Paul Vaughan takes in another powerful carry (Image: PA Wire)

Wire carry greater incision

One thing that will please Sam Burgess – and no doubt annoy his counterpart Brad Arthur – will be the regularity with which Warrington were able to break the Leeds line.

In total, they ended up with six clean breaks as Dufty, Ashton and Danny Walker all made two each.

At the other end, the Wire line remained largely intact as they gave up just two line breaks – one to Paul Momirovski and one to James McDonnell.

Danny Walker was one of three Wire players to create two line breaks (Image: SWPix.com)

More quiet effectiveness from Nicholson

He may not have the same kind of spectacular highlight reel as other back-rowers, but Matty Nicholson continues to get his job done efficiently.

On both sides of the ball, he was highly effective and showed just why Canberra Raiders were so keen to bring him over to the NRL for 2025.

He topped Warrington’s tackle count with 37, with Ben Currie (32) close behind, while with the ball, he carried plenty of threat.

His eight carries of the ball yielded 72 metres – an average of precisely nine metres per carry – with his regular right-edge cohorts George Williams, Rodrick Tai and Josh Thewlis back alongside him.

Matty Nicholson is tackled by Leeds hooker Andy Ackers (Image: PA Wire)