As round 11 of the Guinness Premiership approaches this weekend, marking the half way point in the season, Premier Rugby Chief Executive Mark McCafferty reviews the season so far and looks ahead at what promises to be another exciting four months.
"As we approach the half way stage of the season, it's a great time to take stock of the season so far and look ahead to an exciting few months to come," commented McCafferty. "The Guinness Premiership has been providing some hugely competitive matches with plenty of tries and attacking flair and some new names at the top of the table. The strength of the league is coming through in our clubs' performance against European competition. In both the cross border competitions we have performed very well, with three of the four EDF Energy Cup semi finalists and eight European quarter finalists, which is our best ever return at that stage of both competitions."
The figures to support McCafferty's view of increased attacking flair in the Guinness Premiership, centre around an increase in the points and tries scored per match.
The average number of points per Guinness Premiership match in the season to date is 41.2, versus 36.1 in the Magners League and 33.8 in the French Top 14.
This translates into a higher try count per match for the Guinness Premiership than both European rivals, with Guinness Premiership on average recording one try per match more than the Magners League and two tries per match more than the Top 14. The Guinness Premiership averages 4.4 tries per match with 3.4 in the Magners League and 2.4 in the Top 14.
45% of matches are finishing within seven points, with the average winning margin running at 11 points, just above the margin of 10.5 in the Magners League and 10.4 in the Top 14.
Despite Rugby World Cup, attendances remain healthy, averaging over 10,000 at 10,059, with Guinness Premiership round nine producing the biggest non-London Double Header crowd in the history of the Premiership, as 82,534 watched matches live that weekend.  A figure that was boosted by Leeds Carnegie's biggest home crowd of the season, when 11,116 fans flocked to Headingley Carnegie Stadium to watch the club's game against Sale Sharks in round 9.
As far as individual performances go, English qualified players dominate the key Opta stats.
Leading the 'metres made' category is Worcester Warriors' Thinus Delport with 768 metres. He is followed Leeds Carnegie's very own 23 year old winger Tom Biggs with 620 metres.
New England wing Lesley Vainikolo still leads the try scoring stats, with seven tries from his five Guinness Premiership matches, whilst Biggs is remains within his reach with 4 tries.
Premier Rugby Chief Executive Mark McCafferty said, "On the field, we have had ten thrilling rounds, with a clutch of young English players turning in some truly memorable performances to push themselves into reckoning for England places. For young players like Abendanon, Arscott, Banahan, Cipriani, Narraway, Robshaw and Varndell to be featuring so prominently at such a young age and in such a competitive league, is real cause for optimism for both club and country."
"After this weekend, we have another eleven rounds to go and we are confident that with the blend of talented young English players, our experienced current and former England players plus some top class foreign players at the peak of their careers, that we can produce another eleven rounds of committed, competitive, attacking rugby."

Opta Stats

Tries scored
1, Lesley Vainikolo, 7
2, Matthew Banahan, 6
2, Tom Varndell, 6
4, Leon Lloyd, 5
5, Tom Biggs 4

Metres made
1, Thinus Delport, 768
2, Tom Biggs, 620
3, Richard Haughton, 593
4, Rodd Penney, 518
5, Tom Arscott, 517

Clean breaks
1, Thinus Delport, 14
2, Rodd Penney, 13
3, Johne Murphy, 12
4, Nick Abendanon, 11
4, Matthew Banahan, 11
6, Danny Cipriani, 10
6, Tom Arscott, 10

Defenders beaten
1, Matthew Banahan, 23
1, Thinus Delport, 23
3, Sailosi Tagicakibau, 21
3, Riki Flutey, 21
3, Oriol Ripol Fortuny, 21
6, Anthony Allen, 18
7, David Strettle, 17

Tackles made
1, Chris Robshaw, 107
2, Luke Narraway, 106
3, Peter Buxton, 103