Following yesterday’s clash with Catalans Dragons in Perpignan, we take a look at some of the stats, facts and figures behind the game.
Player in Focus
It was a tough evening in the South of France for the Red Devils, but Daniel Murray continued to impress with another strong display as he furthers his position in the first team.
Murray was the Red Devils top tackler in tough conditions racking up an impressive 48 tackles throughout the eighty minutes. In fact, of his tackle attempts the forward missed just one and was one of the big performers for Ian Watson’s side.
It was just in defence that Murray was making an impression, but the 22-year-old amounted 81 metres from ten carries – the second highest of any of the Red Devil forwards. Murray also forced a tackle bust and earned two quick play-the-balls.
Youngsters impressing
In his post-match press conference Ian Watson eluded to some youngsters playing more minutes than they possibly would had the Red Devils not been struggling with injuries, but it certainly doesn’t seem to be doing them any harm in terms of the statistics.
In addition to Daniel Murray, Ryan Lannon and Josh Wood also had impressive showings at the Stade Gilbert Brutus.
Lannon was the biggest metre-eater in terms of the Salford pack piling up 103 metres from 11 carries – this was bested by only Derrell Olpherts. The back-rower also made 23 tackles, forced three tackle busts, earned three quick-play-the-balls and made two successful offloads.
Josh Wood – who has named as Man of the Match last weekend against Castleford – backed up with another terrific performance. The hooker crossed for his first try of the 2018 Betfred Super League in the second half after bouncing off two attempted tackles.
Wood – as always – worked tirelessly in defence with 30 tackles whilst scoring a try and earning one try-assist.
Overall stats
There was a big gap between the sides in terms of time with ball in hand. The Dragons had possession for over ten more minutes than the Red Devils which would eventually take its toll. This amounted to 16 more sets with the ball of which Catalans completed 34, Salford completed 16.
On the opposite end this meant Salford had to do a lot more work in defence and in fact made a total of 375 tackles, 128 more than the hosts. Both teams had a 91% tackle rate.
The penalty count was relatively low with the Red Devils conceding four in comparison to the French sides three. However, Catalans did make more offloads, more breaks and less errors which helped them take control of the game.
Ready for the Rhinos!
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