The Intrust Super Premiership NSW got out to a flying start on the weekend, with the Panthers, Roos, Bears, Mounties, Warriors and Jets all experiencing first-up victories. While it's early days, some of the key stats from the six games might help us establish who will figure well in season 2017.
Unsurprisingly, the Wyong Roos led the competition in most run metres (1,776 metres) this week, as they annihilated the Wests Tigers at Morry Breen Oval. They tied with the similarly-dominant Warriors on both weight of possession (58%) and tries scored (nine), with conversions the only difference between the sides' attack (the Roos kicked three conversions to the Warriors' eight). Fresh off selection as the 2016 Lock of the Year, Wyong's Zane Tetevano was by far the biggest metre-eater of the round - he made 261 metres, which was 68 more than the next best in the competition (Alex Twal, 193 metres).
As rain swept across the Sydney metropolitan area over the weekend, five of the six matches were affected - and the result was errors galore for some sides. The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs were the worst offenders in this regard - they made 20 errors to give themselves little chance against Mounties - while the Wentworthville Magpies v North Sydney Bears was a relatively high-quality affair as both sides made just six errors apiece. In the area of missed tackles, Canterbury-Bankstown (40), Illawarra (41) and Blacktown (42) all clearly have some work to do and these stats were reflected in the teams' respective results.
A positive for the Bulldogs was their fullback Brad Abbey, who made more line-breaks (three) than anyone else in the competition this week. As a team the Warriors and Sea Eagles were equally the best in this category (seven line-breaks each), despite also conceding five and four respectively. Blacktown also had the poorest discipline in Round 1 with 14 penalties conceded, while their opponents Newtown (10) and Illawarra (11) weren't much more popular with the referee.
View the full stats reports from each of the games below - and stay tuned for the Round 1 Team of the Week, to be released on NSWRL.com.au later today.
