HULL KR away

Singleton 7 carries 35m 22 tackles

Ellis 9 caries 54m 29 tackles

Mago 8 for 67m 14 tackles

Byrne 3 for 31m 15 tackles


Smithies 9 for 68m 24 tackles
Isa 11 for 64m 19 tackles

Faz 17 for 126m 33 tackles
Bateman 8 for 42m 42 tackles

Poor numbers for everyone bar Farrell, for context Tommy gain 70m. I think HKR pack is pretty weak but they matched us IMO.

Big test against Leeds big pack who’ve handled us the last few years.

Full stats on SL website for anyone wanting them

Those pretty much back up what I thought whilst watching the game.

Mago looker hard to put down.

Singleton looked ineffective and, apart from one hot spell when he signed, has been another dud prop signing. I'll put my hard hat on for the usual replies.

Smithies deserves a shout-out for his stats off the bench. He's been decent in the trial games and did well again last night.

Early days really for everyone in the side. Against bigger packs and certainly when Havard is back, I wonder if we'll see Ellis at 13. He seems mobile and has a decent engine, so could probably do more mins.

Smithies with extra bulk is much more prepared for the middle. Ellis was solid, Mago will be an on the edge player where sometimes it will be game breaking and sometimes it’ll us but we’ve needed that for a while. Singleton has served his purpose and shouldn’t be near the team when Havard is back. Byrne took some decent drives too. On another note, I didn’t miss seeing a few Partington penalties given away.

Not much you can read into stats after just one game. I noticed Hull KR didn't have any forwards close to troubling the 100 metre mark, and sometimes there are games where for whatever reason neither team has any forward posting big numbers. I know Farrell made more than 100 but that's Farrell, he carries for 100m while sleeping. I doubt anyone is really up to full speed yet so we'll learn more after 4 or 5 games.

Classic Singleton

It was a tight game with both defences on top. I wouldn’t get too eat up about the numbers from last night. To add context to the numbers, Morgan Knowles was absolutely superb on Thursday for my money. It was a supreme performance from him but statistically it doesn’t look all that. He made 20 tackles and ran for 69 metres. It looks poor but it clearly wasn’t.

Not basing this on last night but Brad Singleton really has to step it up over the next few weeks/months. We can't be having front rowers in our team that don't help us get up the field.

It won't. He hasn't improved since he was 21.

I know I called him a dud signing earlier and I stand by that, but if he could discover his 2020 form he'd be a great 4th choice prop.

I checked earlier and he's with us until the end of 23, so it's pretty much up to Peet to get the best out of him. Tbf, there's a couple more in the same bracket and if Peet can get them firing we'll be heading in the right direction.

I don't think the numbers necessarily tell the story either NK. One example I would give would be Mago's run and offload. He ran straight into the teeth of the defence so only made small yardage himself but his offload allowed the support player to make many more. His stats will show maybe 5 metres or so for that but the benefit to the team was far greater than his metres in isolation would show.

I’m the worlds worst for looking at stats but the main stat from Friday was the scoreboard. We kept giving penalties away and that gave them repeat sets and limited how many times we then had the ball. I look at Byrne and 3 carries for 31 metres looks like he’s been taking it easy but I felt he carried the ball with real vigour when he did get the chance and the lad can’t do a great deal if we don’t have much of the ball when he’s on.

I’d have to watch it again because I was at the game and it’s not the best viewing ground but i wasn’t really worried about any of the middle forwards. There will be games where we dominate the ball more and the numbers will be better. We’ll probably lose some of those games as well.

I've just watched the recording
The stats don't really tell the true story though. Byrne played for 30 minutes (21 - 51 mins) and didn't come back for a 2nd spell. We scored three tries in that spell but played in the main without the ball due to conceding three penalties and making seven errors which meant we spent most of the time defending, hence the limited number of carries (it was actually four).

Just been looking at the team stats and the tackles, carries and overall metres made stood out.

Tackles

Wigan-327
HKR-281

Carries

Wigan-159
HKR-186

Metres

Wigan-1256
HKR-1171

It’s little wonder the forwards attacking stats aren’t jumping out when you’re having to make 46 more tackles and are 27 carries behind and that is all based around us giving away 10 penalties to their 5 and making 14 errors. It’s a credit to the lads when we did have the ball that we made more ground than them from far less possession (a couple of big breaks helped obviously).

I’ve seen a couple of comments around various boards saying Byrne’s stats were a disgrace but they really weren’t and the reasons are pointed out by Rogues above. I’m really excited about what he’ll bring this season.

Agree with this (and Rogues). It really wasn't a day where stats told the story and in all probability actually paint a false picture. Byrne's stats are a real case in point, not only for the reasons Rogues points out, but in that the metres made per carry showed how he was running the ball in. He really made good ground on every carry and they were not 'easy yards' either. I'd be willing to bet his post contact metres were excellent.

I think the thing to take our of Friday is that with good discipline, that victory (and therefore the stats we're commenting on) would have been far more comprehensive. That's where we need to focus our attention before next week. Judging by their game yesterday, Leeds will be a far tougher proposition and we can't afford to give them the easy possession that we gave Hull KR. If we do, you can guarantee they'll use it.