Morgan Knowles vs Joe Westerman: Who is the best 13 in the league by the numbers?

Yesterday, Lee Radford made a bold claim stating that he believes Joe Westerman is Super League’s best loose-forward.

Westerman was superb in Castleford’s 40-16 win over Leeds tying together the Tigers’ attack masterfully as they pulled Leeds apart especially in the first 40.

It was a performance that highlighted why Radford brought Westerman back to Cas having worked together at Hull FC in the past and had Radford singing his praises after the game.

“I was really impressed with Joe Westy,” Radford said, “I thought he’s the best 13 in the comp and that’s no disrespect to Morgan Knowles but I thought he was right at the top of his game and he’s continued that form. He genuinely cares, he loves Castleford, he wanted to come back and try and do something. I think your Sculthorpes and Farrells, I think he’s playing that role fantastically well.”

His comments ignite a debate over whether Westerman truly is the best 13 in the league. Since the retirement of Sean O’Loughlin there has a belief that Morgan Knowles has taken on the mantle as the league’s premier 13 and he has justified this with four consecutive Dream Team appearances and a call up into the England squad where he had made the 13 position his own.

But Westerman certainly has experience and has also been called up to England squads over the last 12 months on the back of some superb performances for Wakefield and now Castleford.

But how do they compare statistically?

So far this season Westerman has made more carries in Super League registering 109 in the opening six rounds which leaves him second in the rankings. From these 109 carries he averages 7.26 metres which is certainly a solid total and has seen him run for a total of 791 metres.

As for Knowles, he averages more metres per carry at 8.29 but has made less than half the number of carries with just 49 to his name in six appearances. In total he’s run for 406 metres making one clean break compared to Westerman’s two.

The pair are closely matched in terms of tackle busts with 10 to Knowles and 11 by Westerman however there is a disparity where offloads are concerned with Westerman registering 12 whilst Knowles has yet to produce one so far this season but this may speak more to the style of play adopted by the two sides rather than ability.

Turning to defence, Westerman has 220 tackles compared to Knowles’ 184 but Knowles has made more marker tackles with 41 whilst Westerman just has 33. However, Knowles has missed more tackles with 13 compared to Westerman’s record of eight and Knowles has made more errors with four to Westerman’s three.

So perhaps Radford had a point when he named Westerman the best 13 in the competition or maybe there’s more to the role than numbers?