Stats show Goode and Gibson should be on the plane

I HAVE both a love and a healthy scepticism regarding statistics generally but the end of season Opta stats are always worth five minutes of your time.

Compiled over 22 Premiership games the margin for error and nonsense random stats is reduced and at the very least relevant trends can be viewed.

For example, three of the top five tacklers for the season are from Sale – Jono Ross (336), Ross Harrison (301) and Ben Curry (260). That tells me that apart from putting their bodies on the line Sale are spending much too much time defending!

Jamie Gibson (251) also features high on that list and is fourth on the lineouts won list (91) and tops the turnovers list (19). That tells me he should be with England in South Africa this summer although his second place in penalties conceded (27) is perhaps a clue as to why Eddie Jones remains unconvinced.

Alex Goode, below, features all over the place not least in the metres made which he tops with a massive 1,808 ahead of Olly Woodburn and Telusa Veainu.

What is interesting is that no other Saracens player is in the top 25 or within 1,200m of the talented full-back. What does that tell us?

Missed tackles? An unfair category in my opinion because those who play more and never stop chasing stand the risk of missing more tackles than others, but again there are interesting trends to observe.

Sam James in my estimation should be an England centre by now, but he tops the missed tackles list with 41 and that is an area he needs to work on and ditto Quins prodigy Marcus Smith, who enjoyed a fine season in adversity but won’t be happy with his total of 38.