Magic Weekend 2022: The GPS stat leaders from Super League at Newcastle’s St James Park | Rugby League News

Who covered the most distance? Who played with the highest levels of intensity? What was the highest speed a player reached over the weekend? Sky Sports looks at the GPS statistics and reveals all

St Helens’ Jack Welsby rated highly in all three GPS statistic categories

We look at which players hit the heights and what insights were gleaned from the GPS statistics recorded during both days of this year’s Betfred Super League Magic Weekend at Newcastle’s St James’ Park…

Distance: Halves top the charts again

As with Magic Weekend last year when Sky Sports first started showing GPS statistics, it was the half-backs who were among those to have covered the most distance.

Leeds Rhinos stand-in half-back Corey Johnson led the way with 8,680 metres and just behind him was St Helens’ Jack Welsby (8,671m).

Welsby covered over 10 kilometres in last year’s golden point defeat to Catalans Dragons at St James’ Park and was again near the top of the charts after being moved back into the halves for the 20-18 win over Wigan Warriors.

Toulouse’s half-back pairing of Corey Norman (8,596m) and Tony Gigot (8,400m) ranked highly too from their crucial 38-26 win over Wakefield Trinity.

Non-half-back stand-outs were Wakefield winger Kyle Evans, fourth on 8,527m, and Welsby’s team-mate in the second row, Joe Batcher (8,262m).

Stefan Ratchford covered 8,338m too after shifting from the halves to full-back early on in Warrington Wolves’ 36-10 win over Catalans due to the shoulder injury suffered by Gareth Widdop.

Workrate: Impact off the interchange bench

Three of the top four players in terms of intensity in Newcastle over the weekend came off the interchange bench, with Catalans forward Corentin Le Cam putting in a big shift in his spells by racking up 104.5 metres per minute in the defeat to Warrington.

Toulouse’s Lucas Albert (100.9m/min) and Hull FC’s Jacob Hookem (100.6m/min) both made big impacts for their teams off the bench too, while Leeds Rhinos hooker Jarrod O’Connor was the highest ranked of the starters with 101.5m/min.

Given the distance they covered, it is perhaps no surprise to see Johnson (99.1m/min) and Welsby (99m/min) both among the players with the highest workrate, while Jake Wingfield, James Roby and Morgan Knowles rated highly for St Helens too.

Speed: Handley hits the heights

Once again, the highest speeds across the weekend were set by outside backs and while Harry Newman topped the charts last year at Magic, his Leeds team-mate Ash Handley led the way this year with a top speed of 36 kilometres per hour.

Warrington wingers Josh Thewlis and Matty Ashton both clocked 33.8kph, while stand-in halves Greg Eden – also 33.8kph – and Johnson (33.5kph) were among the top 10.

Another Wolves man in George Williams registered the same speed as Johnson, as did Welsby, which put him in the top 10 for all three categories along with the Rhinos player.