Back line stats

[morley pie eater]

How do these stats compare to the Saints and Dragons back line?

very crudely a lot better

i've just looked at the top 20 try scorers

we have 4 in the top 10, and Jake Wardle in 12th

Catalan have Johnstone and Davies in top 10, with Keighran 16th
Saints have Makinson in 4th

https://www.superleague.co.uk/stats/player-stats

Thanks. Your stats and analysis are good and interest me, so I'm not disagreeing . . . but I would point out re the above that a Saints fan, for example, could say that our cluster of backs scoring so many tries means Saints are more capable of scoring right across the squad! I'd argue that, as a team we've scored more than them so that's not true!

In the extreme it's like one player scores 100 tries and the rest get zero. Do you say "Great, we are top try scorers!"? Or "What if he gets injured? We'd be shot!"?

They could come back with their poor form at the start of the season being responsible. I'd go away and check stats for 2nd half of the season, and so on and on.

The moral is that stats are persuasive and interesting, but our interpretation can still be questioned.

Keep it up though

[the pieman]

How do these stats compare to the Saints and Dragons back line?

very crudely a lot better

i've just looked at the top 20 try scorers

we have 4 in the top 10, and Jake Wardle in 12th

Catalan have Johnstone and Davies in top 10, with Keighran 16th
Saints have Makinson in 4th

https://www.superleague.co.uk/stats/player-stats

Thanks. Your stats and analysis are good and interest me, so I'm not disagreeing . . . but I would point out re the above that a Saints fan, for example, could say that our cluster of backs scoring so many tries means Saints are more capable of scoring right across the squad! I'd argue that, as a team we've scored more than them so that's not true!

In the extreme it's like one player scores 100 tries and the rest get zero. Do you say "Great, we are top try scorers!"? Or "What if he gets injured? We'd be shot!"?

They could come back with their poor form at the start of the season being responsible. I'd go away and check stats for 2nd half of the season, and so on and on.

The moral is that stats are persuasive and interesting, but our interpretation can still be questioned.

Keep it up though

i agree, stats only tell you part of the story, and can be very misleading

i was just responding to Meds on a specific question re our backs, who this season seem to have stood up well against the top sides

we all know that on here our pack has been slated for a few seasons, as they dont make lots of metres, so the flip side could be Saints, Cats, Leighs pack have made more collectively than our pack, but we dont have enough detail to confirm that with it only taking the top 20 of each stat into account

it also doesnt tell us what we see at a game re style, although our backs scoring suggests we are playing an expansive type of game, given both wingers are up there and similar for Leigh and Catalan.

for interest i also switched to the top 20 errors and there's no surprise that we also have 3 players in the top 20 there, with French, Field and King, guys who touch the ball more than most. Equally Tom Johnstone is up there too with Welsby, Ratchford, Dufty, Briscoe, Widdop etc, so lots of player who touch the ball more than others on the park

[medlocke]

How do these stats compare to the Saints and Dragons back line?

very crudely a lot better

i've just looked at the top 20 try scorers

we have 4 in the top 10, and Jake Wardle in 12th

Catalan have Johnstone and Davies in top 10, with Keighran 16th
Saints have Makinson in 4th

https://www.superleague.co.uk/stats/player-stats

i know that's only looking at the top 20 try scorers, but does show how the backs have performed this year in terms of tries. I havent bothered to take everything else into account, but our 5 backs named above had all made over 2000m

Stats show Tom Johnstone had an outstanding year in the South of France

Edit you can click on the metric in the table and change from Tries to Metres Made, we still come out very well on that as Faz and King appear too. No saints player in top 20. Johnstone and Davies in top5

Cheers Pieman, I can never read those chart thingies, all the numbers make me eyes go doolally

[Brennox7]

Here’s an alf decent stat.

Most try assists in an NRL season.

Former Wigan half back Tim Smith - 40 assists

[Exiled Wiganer]

One key element of this is the role of the forwards in making this happen. It seems to me that we have focused more on metres after the tackle and denting the line far more this year than in previous “Waneball” years. Which means that the backs are getting the ball with more time and space. It also does no harm having 2 actual centres playing centre.

(And, it’s good to see Keighran scoring so many tries for Catalans: bodes well for 24.)