Early baths fail to erase strong stats
FOLLOWING last week’s review of another successful ADM Premier League campaign for Widnes RUFC, Stats man Dave Tollitt make some sense of the numbers, and highlights some of the players who helped make the headlines which helped bring the League Title back to Heath Road for a second year in a row.
Although the season was curtailed because of the lockdown caused by the Coronavirus, the Wids managed to turn in another impressive season.
The team played a total of 21 matches broken down as follows;
ADM Premier League 16 matches (won 16)
MJ Worsley & Son Cup 2 matches (won 2)
John Burgess Lancashire Cup 1 match (won 1)
RFU Intermediate Cup 2 matches (won 1, lost 1)
They scored a total of 673 points with just 347 points conceded.
Altogether, the team scored a total of 95 tries, with some 59 of them coming from the backs and 36 from the forwards.
Andy Owens led the way with 16 tries from 21 appearances closely followed by Jamie Patient with 12 and Tom O’Neill who scored nine tries.
The performances and contributions of those players, in particular, would also be recognised by the fact that all three were selected to play for Lancashire Royals who beat the Anti-Assassins (a representative side from the Northern Counties) at Blackburn in late December – a tremendous achievement and richly deserved.
Owens was also on target with the boot with a further 67 conversions (74%) and 20 penalties (84%) to give the full back an impressive points tally of 274.
The club used just 27 players throughout the campaign with six – Sam Bryan, Arnie Haydock, Josh Kenyon, Andy Owens, Tom Spencer and Kevin Leadbetter (for a second season in a row) – being the only ever-presents in the side.
A further ten players made more than 17 appearances each to provide a strong and settled backbone, whilst others came into the squad and acquitted themselves well to provide further evidence and hope of an even brighter future.
Overall, the number of players turning out was far less than the previous year when 38 players pulled on a first team shirt, and much less than the 50+ players that were used when the team competed in the latter days of the RFU Leagues.
Obviously, there was much disappointment at one of the main statistics falling by the wayside; which was their first defeat in 44 competitive matches at the hands of Old Brodleians in the Intermediate Cup on 14th March.
However, the ‘red-and-blacks’ impressive run of unbeaten games in the ADM Premier Division has remained intact since they lost at home to Liverpool St Helens in September 2018, and who would back against them further improving on that run when battle recommences sometime soon in the near future?