NRL Round 15 advanced statistics – Inolvement Rate

Involvement Rate is an advanced statistic for rugby league that I created to identify players who have a high workload but don’t play a lot of minutes. Traditional rugby league statistics are counting stats and volume based, and the important work of middle and interchange forwards in the NRL goes largely unrecognised.

If you’re new to the site and want to understand how it works, I would recommend reading this post on Involvement Rate. To put it simply, it is a combination of Run % and Tackle % which shows the estimated percentage of plays that someone completed a run or tackle during their time on field.

Adjusting for minutes played and times helps identify those middle and interchange forwards who play with a high motor but don’t play huge minutes. Think Daniel Alvaro, Christian Welch, Blake Lawrie, Moeaki Fotuaika, Toby Rudolf and Francis Molo.

With that out of the way, here’s the all minutes leaders for Round 15:

Jai Whitbread from the Titans takes first place for Involvement Rate this week, and at 29.03% means he either completed a run or tackle on nearly three in every ten plays whilst he was on the field against the Raiders.

Eye Test^tm Hall of Famer Daniel Alvaro was second for the second straight week with an Involvement Rate of 25.90%. His loan at the Warriors has been extended for another week, so hopefully we see him feature once more before he heads back to the Eels. Alvaro’s Warrior’s teammate Lachlan Burr rounded out the top three for Involvement Rate of 25.43%

Next we’ll look at those players who spent 40 minutes or more on field

The Titans do it again, with Jarrod Wallace nailing down first spot with an Involvement Rate of 24.02%, meaning he completed a run or tackle on nearly a quarter of all plays whilst he was on the field.

To show just how little running with the ball modern hookers do, Danny Levi placed second this week with an Involvement Rate of 22.83%, after smashing the field with a Tackle % of 48%. His 42 Involvements included 40 tackles and two runs. This lack of running usually makes it hard for dummy halves to feature in the Involvement Rate leaders without a mammoth effort in defense, which Levi had this round.

Third place was another New Zealand Warrior, with rookie Jamayne Tanoua-Brown sporting an Involvement Rate of 22.28%.

Finally, we have the leaders for Involvement Rate the 2020 NRL season.

Thanks to playing a huge game at lock in place of Jai Arrow, Jarrod Wallace has reclaimed spot for Involvement Rate at 22.65% after Jazz Tevaga surged into first place last round. Tevaga is still in second and not far behind at 22.45%. Titans rookie Jaimin Jolliffe completes the top three with an Involvement Rate of 22.26%.

Lachlan Burr has made a late run into third place with an Involvement Rate of 21.07%, but it’s unlikely that Burr or any of the next half dozen players hovering around 21% can make a run at the top three. Moses Leota from the Panthers would be the most likely, with an Involvement Rate of 21.68% sitting just the closest to Jolliffe.