We’re three weeks in to the 2024 Shute Shield season which is just enough time to start looking in to some key statistics across the competition to identify various outliers and look for trends across the board.

Perhaps the most pleasing, yet surprising stat so far, is that penalties haven’t increased significantly despite the legal tackle height being lowered to below the sternum.

Last season, there was an average of 10.1 penalties per match and so far, that number has only increased to 11.89 across the first three rounds.

A penalty or two more a game seems like a fair trade off for increasing player safety and opening up the match for more free flowing rugby.

Across the competition, Norths’ hooker-turned-part time flanker James Margan has scored the most five pointers, while Easts’ playmaker Jack Bowen has scored the most points.

Keep reading for a full breakdown on all the key stats from the opening rounds:

Top Tryscorers

James Margan (Norths) – 5

Ben Marr (Warringah) – 4

Moli Sooaemalelagi (Easts) – 4

Top Pointscorers

Jack Bowen (Easts) – 46

Coby Miln (Warringah) – 39

Jude Gibbs (Norths) – 34

Goalkicking (10 attempts or more)

Jack Bowen (Easts) – 86%

Nate de Thierry (Hunter) – 82%

Jude Gibbs (Norths) – 79%

Most Tackles

Gary Bautz (Norths) – 52

Donny Freeman (Hunter) – 44

Tom Smith (Norths) – 44

Most Carries 

Isi Naisarani (Sydney Uni) – 49

Issac Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens (Souths) – 45

Ben Marr (Warringah) – 42

Metres Gained

Ben Marr (Warringah) – 426.9

James Hendren (Randwick) – 395

Oscar Schmidt-Uili (Souths) – 369.7

Linebreaks 

Ben Woollett (Warringah) – 7