Warrington and Wigan meet in this season’s Super League Grand Final on Saturday.
Much will depend on the two teams’ respective star playmakers, Stefan Ratchford and Sam Tomkins. Here, Press Association Sport assesses the duo’s impact this season.
Tries
Their end product is what makes Tomkins and Ratchford’s numbers jump off the page, with the Wolves full-back among the season’s top 10 try-scorers while Tomkins also reached double figures.
Factor in assists and it is clear they feature among Super League’s elite attacking threats. Ratchford has added 19 try assists to his 15 finishes for a ‘try involvement’ total of 34, with Tomkins racking up 10 tries and 18 assists.
Man of Steel Ben Barba leads the league in try involvement on a staggering 52, after adding 24 assists to his 28 tries. Ratchford ranks fourth behind Barba’s Saints team-mate Mark Percival (37) and Castleford facilitator Paul McShane, who scored only eight tries but set up 27 from hooker.
Another Saints player, stand-off Jonny Lomax, follows on 33 with Tomkins sixth on 28.
Goal-kicking
From the tee is where Tomkins has the edge, with his 94 successful kicks at goal ranking second in the league behind Saints counterpart Danny Richardson (132).
Wolves have shared the duties around more, with wing Bryson Goodwin and reliable scrum-half Tyrone Roberts kicking 29 goals apiece and Ratchford 27 while Declan Patton and Harvey Livett have also managed double figures.
Tomkins and Ratchford are evenly matched with a 75 per cent accuracy rate, with the Wigan man sustaining it over almost three and a half times as many attempts and adding four drop goals for good measure.
Ball-carrying
Ratchford ranks fifth in the league in both carries and metres gained, two categories led by Wakefield three-quarter Bill Tupou.
He is one of only nine players to surpass 400 carries while the same is true of the 3,000-yard mark, with only Tupou breaking 4,000. Ratchford’s average gain of over eight metres also ranks highly.
Tomkins’ tallies are lower, having split his playing time between full-back and scrum-half, but he has contributed well with over 250 carries averaging more than five metres apiece.
