The Numbers Game: Jarrod Croker Has Scored 50 More Points Than Anyone Else In The NRL This Season

Our weekly trawl through the most surprising stats in the rugby and league pick ‘n’ mix.

32
Of the 40 Super Rugby semifinals played since 1996, 32 have been won by the home side. Bad news for the Chiefs – no New Zealand side has ever lost a home semi. But there’s still hope for the Highlanders, who have claimed two of the eight away semifinal wins in Super Rugby history – against the Stormers in 1999 and the Waratahs last year.

298
The all-time leading scorer in Super Rugby playoffs is Crusaders five-eighth Dan Carter. That’s over double the next highest on the list, Carter’s Crusaders forebear Andrew Mehrtens, with 119. Goes to show how consistently dominant have the Crusaders been in the competition.

69
Of the remaining sides in this year’s Super Rugby, the Chiefs’ Aaron Cruden is the leading scorer in playoffs with 69 points. The Highlanders’ Lima Sopoaga has scored 49.

5
Waisake Naholo has scored a try in every Super Rugby playoff he has played in – two in the qualifier and one in both the semi and final last year, as well as one in the quarter final last weekend.

19
The Hurricanes 41-0 defeat of the Sharks last week was only the 19th instance of a team being held scoreless in 21 years of Super Rugby, and the first time it has happened in a playoffs game.

193
Hurricane Beauden Barrett is on track to break a record he already holds – most individual points scored in a Super Rugby season. In 2014 he scored 209; so far this season he has 193.

41
The combined number of tries scored this season by the starting Sharks back three of Valentine Holmes, Sosaia Feki and Ben Barba eclipses the team total tries scored by the Knights (38), and is equal to that of the Dragons.

83
The Sharks unsurprisingly lead the NRL in total tries scored with 83, and also points scored (481).

198
Raiders centre Jarrod Croker lit up GIO Stadium for 18 points – a hat trick of tries and three conversions – against the Warriors last weekend to extend his season points tally to 198. The NRL’s next highest-scoring player, Sharks five-eighth James Maloney, has 148.