With limited preparation, the Dragons women's team came up against an experienced and well-oiled Brisbane side on Sunday. Here is a run down of the by the numbers.
The breakdown
The star power was on display for the Dragons despite the scoreboard eventually getting away from them. But there were still plenty of positives to come out of Sunday's game in both defence and attack.
Attack – The Dragons had 53 per cent possession and ran for 1,112 metres compared to the Broncos with 1,062. The Dragons also had more tackles breaks (33) than Brisbane (26) and produced more offloads (Dragons six, Broncos four).
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Defence – The Dragons also statistically won the defensive battle, with a higher tackle efficiency (86.3 per cent) to the Broncos (84.9 per cent) and conceded less post-contact metres.
Discipline – The Dragons completed only four of their final 10 sets giving the Broncos an opportunity to run away with the result, which the defending premiers made no mistake of doing.
Errors gave the Dragons little chance of getting back into the contest with 11 mistakes compared to the Broncos with seven. The Dragons also gave away eight penalties and received only three from the Broncos in return.
Star performance
Botille Vette-Walsh
Despite playing hooker in the recent Women's State of Origin for New South Wales, Vette-Walsh lined up at fullback and played a starring role for the Dragons.
Vette-Welsh topped the Dragons' numbers in almost every department, running for the most metres (176), most post-contact metres (57), and busting the most tackles (nine).
The New Zealand native also finished the game with a 100 per cent tackle efficiency and 67 kick return metres from four kick defuses.
If Women's Premiership fantasy were a thing, Vette-Welsh would have topped that count easily with 54 fantasy points (in only 60 minutes).
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Important numbers
Completion rate
Despite getting more chances with the ball, the Dragons weren't able to make the most of it. The Dragons finished with a mediocre 69 per cent completion rate (22/32) while the Broncos performed much better with 79 per cent (23/29).
Disallowed tries
With the scores locked at 4-all at half-time and eventually only losing by 10 points, the two disallowed tries to the Dragons came back to hurt. The Dragons need to improve their execution in their do-or-die Round 2 match in New Zealand.
