England fell to a 26-6 defeat at the hands of Australia in the first Ashes Test and the player stats are in with two St Helens men standing out, albeit for differing reasons.
Stats can only tell you so much as well, so they must be taken with a pinch of salt, but they can quantify things that the eye test will already tell you.
You don’t need stats to realise that Reece Walsh was by far the best player on the pitch and the biggest difference between England and Australia, however, the stats can show you just how dominant he was.
They show that the Australian full-back ran for 243 metres and made five tackle busts but they fail to mention his two defensive reads where he batted down passes and prevented at least one certain try.
Even so, we’ve looked at the stats put up by the England team with one St Helens man impressing and another potentially at risk of being dropped for the second Test.
A tale of two St Helens players
That pair are Morgan Knowles and Jack Welsby with Knowles topping the tackle count from loose forward, making an impressive 45 and missing just three.
That put his tackle completion rate at 91.84% with only Owen Trout (12/13) and Herbie Farnworth (16/16) rating higher. One thing the stats also show is how much England used Knowles as a ball-playing loose forward, something he can do but that seemed to come as a sacrifice for his nastiness that makes him so formidable.
Knowles passed 16 times on his 25 receipts of the ball with Shaun Wane deploying him as an extension of the spine but passes went to ground at times and it didn’t seem to work too well.
As for Jack Welsby, he was clearly suffering from being moved all over positionally at St Helens in recent weeks and that showed on Angus Crichton’s first try but it was more than that as the England full-back found himself stuffed.
He made just 67 metres on 13 carries, just over five metres per carry, which pales in comparison to Reece Walsh’s 243. Even removing Walsh’s kick return metres, the Australian full-back still made over 130 metres.
Obviously Walsh has speed that Welsby doesn’t have and Welsby is more of a ball player but it didn’t quite click which is what’s led to talk of AJ Brimson featuring in Test two.
Which other England players performed well?
Other England men to impress both on the eye test and statistically are Dom Young and Herbie Farnworth who made 129 and 128 metres respectively with Farnworth making a game-leading eight tackle breaks.
He also found two offloads and made 16 tackles in an all-round performance that highlighted his class.
Another NRL player who stood out was Kai Pearce-Paul with the former Wigan man making 35 tackles and 77 metres, the most of any England forward which highlights a major struggle that England had.
John Bateman, for all the stick he cops online, made 41 tackles as well at an efficienty of 91.11% with all of England’s second-rowers performing well statistically.
As for the team stats, what’s worrying is that Australia completed at just 69% compared to England’s 72% but the Aussies made an extra 14 metres per set, highlighting where they won the territory battle.
Stats used from NRL.com.
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