7 Mar 2024

Key Round Four Matchup: Lachlan Lam vs Brodie Croft

Tomorrow night's round four clash between the Rhinos and Leopards sees two of the competitions top half backs go head to head in Brodie Croft and Lachlan Lam.

Find out more about the duo and what to look out for here:

*All data is courtesy of OPTA.

Tale of the tape

Lachlan Lam

Age: 25

SL Debut: Leigh Leopards Vs Salford Red Devils, 17.02.2023

Leigh Record: 43 appearances, 1 drop goal

NRL Record: 31 appearances, 3 tries

Brodie Croft

Age: 26

SL Debut: Salford Red Devils vs Castleford Tigers, 11.02.2022

Leeds Record: 3 appearances

NRL Record: 65 appearances, 14 tries, 9 goals, 2 field goals

2024 stats review

Try contributions

Croft and Lam proved last year that they were extremely important in helping their teams score points, and both players will be crucial again to Leeds and Leigh's success in 2024.

Croft shared the weight with half back partner Marc Sneyd at Salford, but the former Melbourne and Brisbane player led the attack with 21 try assists and six extra involvements. Amongst his Salford team mates, he ranked in the top five for line breaks, tackle breaks and aided line break assists too.

Now in the blue and amber of Leeds, he has made an equally impressive start to his time at the Rhinos with three try assists and seven tackle breaks in three appearances. No Rhinos player has more assists inside the first three games than Croft and only Wigan's Jake Wardle and former team mate Sneyd come above the half back in the rest of the league.

Game-changer ?

Brodie Croft bringing plays like this to @leedsrhinos in 2024 ?#SuperLeague pic.twitter.com/7J88qyIq7t
— Betfred Super League (@SuperLeague) December 16, 2023

Lam's debut Super League season was one to remember as he also assisted 21 tries and he only finished behind Wigan's Harry Smith in additional try involvements. To add to his attacking threat, the former Sydney Rooster finished third last year in line breaks (14).

Describe Lachlan Lam's 2023 performances in one word ?@LeighLeopardsRL's half-back hero ?#SuperLeague pic.twitter.com/v1OGIkaTYg
— Betfred Super League (@SuperLeague) December 17, 2023

Croft's 2023 vs 2024

As it is hard to compare the duo so far in 2024 as Lam has played a full 80 minutes less than Croft, we took a dive into Croft's numbers to compare his 2023 season with Salford to how he has started life as a Rhino.

Looking at attacking metrics, Croft was one of the premier players in his position as he made the second most carries (525) behind Saints Jonny Lomax and ranked in the top five half backs in the league for metres made (2455), hitups (167) and offloads (16). This trend has continued again into 2024, with the half back ranking fourth in carries (46) and offloads (2), and he is currently third in metres (206) and hitups (17). An interesting note is how close his metres per carry is too, both of which are around four metres.

Another improvement so far is his tackle breaks, with five of his seven breaks coming last week against the Dragons.

Lam's start to 2024

Being a match down compared to other players in his position has put Lam below the statistics that the half back put up at this stage of the competition last season, but number won't define his season.

Despite playing 80 minutes less than some of his counterparts, Lam still sits in the top ten half backs for metres and is fifth in line engaged runs. Interestingly, he has the same number of run metres as new half back partner Matt Moylan (138) too.

Be at Leigh this Friday!

Tickets and travel are available to Rhinos fans now.

Advanced ticket prices are £27 for adults, whilst concession and junior price start from £15 and £5. Travel from AMT Headingley, departing at 5pm, is £18 per person.

Leigh Leopards offer a number of family ticket options for their fixtures. This is available from Leeds Rhinos and can be purchased by selecting the relevant family option, additional tickets can also be purchased on top of these. For more information on ticket bundle prices and more, click here.