IT was a real “backs to the wall” effort from Warrington Wolves in Perpignan on Saturday to secure their finest Super League victory of the year to date.
A 16-8 victory in France took Sam Burgess’ side joint top of the table and it was thanks in no small part to a herculean collective shift in defence.
That kind of effort is reflected in the match stats, which we had a look over to pick out some key points…
Stunning defensive effort
Warrington spent much of the game – particularly the first half – on the back foot, and the stats certainly reflect that.
However, they also tell of the simply awesome off-the-ball effort to keep Les Dracs to the sole Tom Davies try scored with the game all but won.
Catalans enjoyed 55 per cent of possession and completed 90 per cent of their sets, while they had a staggering 45 play-the-balls inside Wire’s 20.
By contrast, Warrington had just nine in the Dragons red zone and while an error-ridden first half hampered their completion rate, a much tidier second half bumped it up to 75 per cent.
The visitors had to make 67 more tackles than their hosts – 323 to 256 – which is the equivalent of more than 10 complete sets.
With that in mind, the fact they only made two more missed tackles than Catalans (32-30) is quite remarkable, with their tackle completion rate at 91 per cent compared to just over 89 from their hosts.
Individually, Ben Currie (42) topped Wire’s tackle count while James Harrison (36), Paul Vaughan (32) and Matty Nicholson (30) also got through a mountain of work. Only one Dragons player – Romain Navarrete with 32 – made more than 30 tackles.
Quality over quantity with the ball
Wire had less of the ball, but they certainly looked more dangerous with it.
Despite making 28 fewer carries than their hosts – 173 compared to Catalans’ 201 – they were able to turn that into 1,297 metres gained at an average of 7.5m per carry.
By comparison, Catalans’ 1,271 metres came in at an average gain of 6.3m every time they took the ball in.
Warrington also broke the Dragons’ defensive line six times compared to just two from the hosts – another testament to the defensive effort we previously mentioned.
The game’s top three metre-makers all came from the Warrington side – Matt Dufty again led the way with 188 while Rodrick Tai and Josh Thewlis both clocked up 153 and averaged more than 10 metres per carry.
Backs take the load off their forwards
Having spent much of the first half inside their own half, it would surprise nobody to know the bulk of the ball-carrying work was done by the backs.
With the big men tied up in defence, it was important their speedier colleagues stepped up in possession and they certainly did.
Of their 173 carries, 111 came from the backs which works out at 64 per cent while the Catalans split was a little more even – their backs took in 56 per cent of their carries.
No Warrington forward made more than 10 carries while the only members of the Catalans pack not to reach that figure were Benjamin Garcia, Bayley Sironen and Paul Seguier – and the latter two went off injured.
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