Stats all folks! The men who have proved best this season

IT’S been a torrid season for the Dragons which ended with them finishing 11th in the Guinness PRO12 table for just the second time in their history.

But, despite this lowly standing and the fact they only won four of their 22 league matches, one of their players has still managed to come top of the pile in the end-of-season stat attack.

Remarkably, young outside-half Angus O’Brien has finished as the leading points scorer in the competition.

The 22-year-old from Caerleon racked up 131 points, putting him three clear of his nearest rival, Cardiff Blues utility back Steve Shingler.

O’Brien’s achievement is all the more notable given that he only started 14 PRO12 matches this term, with five more appearances coming off the bench.

His points tally was made up of one try – against Edinburgh in November – 18 conversions, three drop goals and 27 penalties.

He follows in the footsteps of the likes of Dan Biggar and Dan Parks (both three times), Felipe Contepomi (twice), Gavin Henson, Neil Jenkins and, most recently, Rhys Patchell as previous leading scorers in the league.

Patchell made a bold attempt to defend his points prize, finishing third with 127, despite being restricted to 15 appearances for the Scarlets by injury.

What is noticeable is the winning tally of 131 is the lowest in the league’s history, with Contepomi holding the record with 287 for Leinster in 200506, while Jenkins piled up 273 for Celtic Warriors in the first season of a 12-team competition in 2003-04.

Each time Biggar has topped the list he has scored more than 200 points, while former Glasgow and Cardiff Blues marksman Parks is the competition’s all-time top scorer with a career tally of 1,582 points.

This season’s stats make revealing reading in a number of other categories.

In particular, they show what an outstanding campaign Scarlets winger Steff Evans has had.

On top of being the leading try scorer with 11 touchdowns, he has also made the most clean breaks (27) and is in the top five for defenders beaten (59) and metres gained.

His regional team-mate James Davies is another section topper, having won the joint most turnovers (27), along with Leinster flanker Dan Leavy.

The ultra-consistent Dan Evans is once again high up in the charts, with the Ospreys full-back coming second in metres gained, third in clean breaks and fourth on most carries.

And yet he still gets overlooked by Wales, even though they are short on cover at 15 with Leigh Halfpenny and Liam Williams away with the Lions.

Side-stepping Cardiff Blues centre Willis Halaholo beat the second most defenders (64), with only Ulster’s Charles Piutau, the PRO12 Player of the Season, topping him, while Dragons skipper Lewis Evans was high up in the tackle stats.

Finally, a mention for a couple of individuals outside of Wales who have had outstanding seasons.

Connacht full-back Tiernan O’Halloran finished well clear of the opposition in terms of both metres gained and most carries.

But perhaps most startling of all are the exploits of Edinburgh second row Ben Toolis.

The Brisbane-born lock won almost twice as many lineouts (140) as his nearest rival Macauley Cook and also made the second-most tackles (247), behind Ulster’s Kiwi flanker Sean Reidy.

No wonder he’s made Scotland’s tour squad for the summer trip to his native Australia.