Key stats from Warrington Wolves' Round Six defeat

Perhaps you do not need a look at the stats to find that out as The Wire ultimately gave themselves too much to do following a nightmare start to the game, but a few of the numbers may open up some other lines of enquiry.

Having combed through the Super League player stats from Warrington’s 32-24 defeat, here’s a few interesting things we found...

Quality over quantity

Warrington out-ran their opponents in terms of metres gained – 1,285 compared with 1,159 – but Catalans’ carries were more impactful.

Indeed, the contrast between the average metres per carry is stark – Catalans’ players averaged 7.74m every time they took the ball in, while Wire’s mean was down at 6.19.

Much of that heavy-lifting for the Dragons was done by the outside backs – three of their back five cleared the 100m mark with winger Tom Davies clocking in with a game-high 152m.

Arthur Romano (137m) and Tom Johnstone (115m) contributed to a combined effort of 555m gained by the Dragons outside backs from 73 carries, an average of 7.60m each.

By contrast, Wire’s back five combined to make 483m from 72 carries for a comfortably lower average of 6.70m.

Matt Dufty once again led the way with 141m gained while Rodrick Tai (128) and Matty Ashton (100) also cleared three figures.

Up front, the only two forwards to clear 100 metres both came from the Warrington side – Lachlan Fitzgibbon made 135 while James Harrison ran for 105.

Danny Walker and Ben Currie attempt to halt Catalans winger Tom Johnstone (Image: Mike Boden)

Wire had enough chances

Particularly in the second half, Warrington had the run of the play as they hammered away at the door in an attempt to overhaul the Dragons.

Indeed, it begs the question as to whether Wire could have done more with the opportunities they had.

For the game as a whole, they had almost four times the number of play-the-balls inside the opposition 20 as Catalans did – 39 compared to 11 – as well as having more possession, making fewer errors and completing at a higher rate.

Much of the credit has to go to the Dragons defence for holding on when Wire threatened to overwhelm them while at the other end, they exposed Wire’s fragilities ruthlessly.

Paul Vaughan is held just short of the line as Wire attack in the second half (Image: Mike Boden)