MATT Dufty was certainly at the heart of Warrington Wolves’ victory over Castleford Tigers on Friday night.

The full-back showed signs of his dazzling best in The Wire’s 30-8 victory as he set up both of Matty Ashton’s first-half tries before getting on the scoresheet himself after the break.

And looking at the stats from last night, it is clear to see the influence he had.

Willing to put in the graft, Dufty took in a team-high 27 carries against the Tigers and they yielded a superb 231 metres with ball in hand – the highest individual metreage for a Wire player so far this year.

He also busted eight tackles – only Josh Thewlis (11) broke through more on the night – and recorded three clean breaks.

Warrington Guardian: Matt Dufty is congratulated after scoring in the second halfMatt Dufty is congratulated after scoring in the second half (Image: Mike Boden)

Four more Wire players broke the 100m mark and they could be classed as “the usual suspects” – Thewlis made an impressive 140m while Toby King (118), Matty Ashton (112) and Paul Vaughan (108) all made three figures once again.

Indeed, King and Vaughan continued their record of having reached the 100m mark in all three matches this season.

Defensively, Danny Walker topped the Wire tackle count with 31 including six from marker with just one miss, closely followed by second rowers Lachlan Fitzgibbon (28) and Adam Holroyd (27) and half-back Leon Hayes (26).

Warrington Guardian: Danny Walker topped Wire's tackle count with 31Danny Walker topped Wire's tackle count with 31 (Image: SWPix.com)

Areas for improvement

Interestingly enough, Wire’s average metres per carry across the board was slightly down on that of their visitors (6.18 compared to 6.4) but there is a case to be made that Wire’s were more impactful.

They recorded comfortably more post-contact metres (692 to 534) while they broke through more than double the number of tackles of their opponents (34 to 16).

However, Sam Burgess will want to see an improvement in his side’s error rate having made 10 during the match – the same as in Round Two against Hull but slightly down on the 11 they made against Catalans.

There is still a feeling, too, that Wire are allowing their opponents to make too much ground in yardage and on kick returns – Castleford made 114 metres compared to Wire’s 95 while their starting back five averaged 7.86m per carry compared to Wire’s 6.92.