IT’S time for a look at the Super League match stats following Warrington Wolves’ hammering of Huddersfield Giants.
Here’s a few things we found by looking closer at the 66-0 thrashing dished out by Sam Burgess’ side at the John Smith’s Stadium...
Total dominance
As the scoreline suggests, this was as dominant a performance as it’s conceivable to imagine.
Warrington’s superiority was as clear as it was expected, and pretty much every stat shows it.
They averaged a try every three sets in possession – they completed 40 to Huddersfield’s 14 – while they made more than a kilometre more than their opponents with the ball as a team (1,649m to 643m) and had more than four times as many play-the-balls inside their hosts’ 20-metre zone (41 to nine)
That is perhaps expected when Warrington had significantly more carries (237 to 108) but even on average, the visitors made a metre more per carry than their hosts (6.95m to 5.95m).
Huddersfield had to make nearly twice as many tackles as their opponents (363 to 186) while the physical dominance can be seen in the number of post-contact metres (642 to 276) and tackle busts (49 to 13).
Tai tops the charts
Rodrick Tai’s growth during what is his first season as a first-grade player has been among the more satisfying elements of this season.
And the Papua New Guinean put in another display full of impact and threat to top the team’s metre-making charts.
Tai’s 17 carries in possession yielded a massive 241m at an average of just over 14m per carry, including the long-distance individual try he scored to round off the scoring.
Another five Warrington players made more than 100m (Cai Taylor-Wray and John Bateman’s stats are not available publicly), with Zane Musgrove next on the list with 150m.
Toby King (124m), Joe Philbin (113m), James Harrison (109m) and George Williams (106m) were Wire’s other centurions.
Walker moves clear
Danny Walker appears to have mastered the art of dummy-half kicking as he booted another 40-20 on Saturday night.
That was his fourth in Super League this season and no player in the competition has kicked more.
Man of Steel contenders Marc Sneyd and Mikey Lewis are on three, as is London’s seemingly Wire-bound half-back Oli Leyland and his Broncos teammate James Meadows.
Walker is arguably Warrington’s best and most accurate long-range kicker and it is a part of his game that sets him apart from other players in his position.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here