Mitch Pearce and James Maloney should be the NSW State of Origin halves – if statistics are anything to go by.
An analysis of the first nine rounds of the NRL show that the Sydney Roosters pair have outplayed Canterbury’s Trent Hodkinson and Josh Reynolds in all of the major attacking stats.
Friday night’s blockbuster between the Roosters and Bulldogs at ANZ Stadium has been billed as a showdown between the two sets of halves which will decide who Blues coach Laurie Daley will pick as his playmakers for Origin I.
However according to Fox Sports Stats, Pearce and Maloney have been superior this year and lead the Blues incumbents in terms of line breaks, line break assists, try assists, kick metres and forced drop outs.
Even when taking into account that Reynolds has spent four games on the sidelines due to injury and suspension, the Roosters duo still lead the way.
Daley has confirmed he is toying with the idea of picking Hodkinson and Pearce, however if he decides to stick with club combinations, as he has done in his first two years in the job, the Roosters halves have the wood over the rivals this season.
Canterbury’s halves have yet to come up with a line break this year, while Maloney and Pearce have split the defensive line twice and once respectively.
The Roosters pair has also come up with more line break assists – 15 between them compared to 10 for Reynolds and Hodkinson.
Pearce and Maloney have been prolific in setting up teammates and are credited with 13 and 7 try assists respectively, while the Bulldogs No.6 and No.7 have five each.
In terms of average kicking metres, Pearce (323m) and Maloney (203m) have been superior to Hodkinson (273m) and Reynolds (128m).
Maloney has also been particularly good in applying pressure with the boot, forcing eight drop outs. Pearce and Reynolds have done so three times each and Hodkinson only once.
Maloney (33 from 38) even has the edge over Hodkinson (21 from 32) in terms of goalkicking, which has been mentioned by some pundits as a key reason to keep the Dogs halfback in the NSW team.
The Canterbury duo do have it over the rivals in terms of key defensive areas and mistakes.
Pearce is error prone – making 13 this year, with Maloney and Hodkinson on 9 and Reynolds 6. However it should be taken into account Reynolds has missed just less than half the season.
Maloney has missed an average 3.9 tackles a game, more than Reynolds (3.4) and Hodkinson (1.3).
Roosters coach Trent Robinson said his halves had performed under pressure this year and he would like to see them return to the representative arena.
“I think they played really well last week and they played well under pressure in the last couple of week under that pressure,” Robinson said.
Robinson came to the defence of his five-eighth’s tackling standards, describing him as a good defender despite sometimes falling off.
“To be honest Jimmy has always missed tackles, his whole career he’s missed tackles,” Robinson said.
“He’s had one really poor defensive game (this year), which we’ve talked about, which is Brisbane. There were some crucial tackles there.
“Jimmy can miss some tackles but he doesn’t often miss crucial tackles.
“His defence has really improved over the last couple of weeks and he’s made some big plays. He’s a very good defender. Sometimes he can miss a tackle but his defence is outstanding and there is a difference.
“We love having Jimmy in our defensive line. He’s got a great defensive eyes and reads the play very well and pressures when needed.”
The numbers don’t lie – a statistical comparison of key statistics of the NSW halves candidates
Trent Hodkinson
* Games: 9
* Tries: 0
* Goals: 21/32
* Linebreaks 0
* LB assists: 6
* Try assists: 5
* Errors: 9
* Penalties: 5
* Avg kick metres: 273
* Forced drop outs: 1
* Avg missed tackles: 1.3
Josh Reynolds
* Games: 5
* Tries: 0
* Linebreaks: 0
* LB assists: 4
* Try assists: 5
* Errors: 6
* Penalties: 4
* Avg kick metres: 128
* Forced drop outs: 3
* Avg missed tackles: 3.4
Mitch Pearce
* Games: 9
* Tries: 1
* Linebreaks: 1
* LB assists: 7
* Try assists: 13
* Errors: 13
* Penalties: 8
* Avg kick metres: 323
* Forced drop outs: 3
* Avg missed tackles: 2.2
James Maloney
* Games: 9
* Tries: 2
* Goals: 33/38
* Linebreaks: 2
* LB assists: 8
* Try assists: 7
* Errors: 9
* Penalties: 7
* Avg kick metres: 203
* Forced drop outs: 8
* Avg missed tackles: 3.9
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