Leigh Leopards: The utterly remarkable stats behind historic St Helens victory

Leigh Leopards took yet another step forward in their quest for a best-ever Super League finish last night with a dominant 16-4 win over St Helens.

Adrian Lam’s side led 2-0 heading into the final quarter, before a Joe Ofahengaue brace sealed the deal to secure their first away win against the Saints in 43 years. 

But, while that stat alone is impressive, Leigh once again showcased their high-powered attack despite being limited to just two tries late in the day. The Leopards were once again able to get a tune out of their backline ball-in-hand, with Lachlan Lam and Gareth O’Brien pulling the strings, but blended that with some power and strike as well.

Without further ado, here is a full breakdown of the utterly remarkable attacking stats behind Leigh’s win over St Helens.

Meters for fun

This Leopards 2.0 side might have a new make up, but the tactics, identity and even key positions are almost exactly the same. For every Tom Amone, there’s a Joe Ofahengaue, for every John Asiata, there’s an Isaac Liu, for every Ricky Leutele, there’s a Tesi Niu and for every Josh Charnley, there’s a, well, Josh Charnley. 

That was on full display against the Saints too, with their key outside backs having an absolute field day. Full-back Bailey Hodgson, fresh from another strong display against Hull KR, led the way ball-in-hand with an eye-watering 205 metres from his 28 carries, but he was swiftly followed by Charnley’s 137 metres off his 22 carries.

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Elsewhere, Man of the Match Niu was third with 120 metres from his 16 carries, while Umyla Hanley also finished on 104 metres from his 19 carries.

In the pack, Ofahengaue topped the charts with 74 metres from 14 carries.

These numbers in isolation are impressive, but together they paint a picture of Leigh’s win. Combined, they made 640 metres for 99 carries, which was 54% of Leigh’s total metres across the night and just over 50% of their carries too.

Lam is once again building his side’s attack to target their difference makers in that backline, and once again, it’s clearly doing the business.

Defence wins games

While the focus of this Leigh side might be on their high-powered attack, they were also on their defensive A-game against the Saints, led by their pack.

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Owen Trout, Isaac Liu and Frankie Halton led the defensive efforts with 31 tackles apiece, but they were backed up by Edwin Ipape on 30, Jack Hughes on 28 and Matt Davis and Ofahengaue on 25.

Half-back O’Brien also got stuck into the efforts on this side of the ball, too, with 23 to his name.

Leigh are backing up their attacking exploits with some serious defensive steel, and that all-around work could leave teams shaking in their boots heading into the final rounds of the season. Could they be a dark horse for the title?

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