Following the penultimate weekend of the Six Nations, Planet Rugby once again delves into individual statistics and who topped the respective categories.

Round Four saw Ireland continue their charge to a Grand Slam despite some injury setbacks defeating Scotland 22-7 at Murrayfield. France thrashed England at Twickenham, posting a record 53-10 victory in Le Crunch. While Wales finally got off the mark in the Championship, defeating Italy 29-17 in Rome.

With the help of Opta stats, we look at the seven individual stat leaders ahead of Super Saturday.

Top try scorers

Huw Jones edged ahead of the pack in Round Three of the Six Nations and retained the lead scoring Scotland’s only try against Ireland.

The Scotland centre opened his account in the Calcutta Cup clash against England on the opening weekend before grabbing a brace against France. He combined with Sione Tuipulotu once again to dot down against the Irish.

Of Jones’ four tries in the Championship, only one hasn’t been assisted by his centre partner, with Finn Russell sending him through a gap for his first try against France.

Six players are hot on Jones’ heels scoring three tries in the competition. France’s Damian Penaud, Charles Ollivon, Thomas Ramos and Thibuad Flament have all picked up three tries apiece. Ireland’s Mack Hansen and James Lowe match those tallies.

Meanwhile, Penaud’s double against England means that he has scored more tries in the Six Nations than any other Frenchman, beating Vincent Clerc’s record of 11. He now needs three more to overtake Philippe Sella and Serge Blanco’s records of 14 in the Championship.

Fast fact: Russell and Lowe have the joint-most try involvements in the Championship. Russell has assisted four and scored one for five involvements, while Lowe scored three and assisted two.

Top points scorers

France’s marksman Thomas Ramos has topped the scoring charts from the start of the Championship.

Barring a ludicrous tally from the likes of Tommy Allan, Johnny Sexton or Owen Farrell on Super Saturday, Ramos will finish the Six Nations as he started it – at the top of the points-scoring list.

The French full-back scored 14 points against both Italy and Ireland in the opening two rounds, taking his tally to 28; he then added 17 in Round Three against Scotland.

However, his best performance came at Twickenham with a personal haul of 23 points, including a try, six conversions and two penalties in a magnificent man-of-the-match display.

Ramos heads into Super Saturday with the chance to create a bit of history for himself. He has scored 68 points in the last four games and needs 22 more to break Jonny Wilkinson’s record for the most points in a single Six Nations. Wilkinson scored 89 points in England’s title-winning campaign in 2001.

Fast fact: France averaged 4.2 points per entry in England’s 22 and spent just 51 seconds in that quarter of the pitch.

Top tacklers

Scotland’s Matt Fagerson has reclaimed the top spot on the tackling charts after conceding his place to Flament in Round Three.

The Scotsman made 14 tackles, without missing, in his 66-minute shift against Ireland at the weekend, taking his Championship tally to 70. He is now three tackles ahead of Flament.

There is still a notable gap between the pair, with Gael Fickou and Maro Itoje tied in third with 58 tackles, while Lewis Ludlam and Josh van der Flier are two back from them.

Fagerson and Flament will need massive tallies in the final round if they want to beat Jonny Gray’s all-time record of 100 tackles in a single Six Nations tournament. The Scotland lock set that mark in 2018 with Michele Lamaro (2022) and Tom Curry (2019), two players who have come closest since making 86 tackles apiece.

Fast fact: Italy’s Danilo Fischetti has made eight dominant tackles in the Championship, the most by one player, with Ludlam (7) and Itoje (6) in second and third.

Top carriers

The top carrier tag has been exchanged for the fourth time in a row, with Freddie Steward taking the lead.

The England full-back was among the few shining lights in the Red Rose’s record defeat. He made 17 carries on the day, gaining 163 running metres and scored a try. He added to his 36 carries in the first three rounds and now leads the competition with 53 in total.

Italy’s Sebastian Negri and Scotland’s Russell are just behind the Englishman with 52 carries each. Russell’s teammate Pierre Schoeman has the most carries by a front-rower with 47, the same amount as Ireland full-back Hugo Keenan who rounds out the top five.

Fast fact: Italy made 11 line breaks against Wales, the most by any team in the Six Nations this year, beating Scotland’s 10 against Wales in Round Two.

Most defenders beaten

After posting a mammoth 11 defenders beaten against in Round One, it would always be a challenge for anyone to catch Duhan van der Merwe.

However, Penaud is having a good go at it, and ahead of the final round, he trials the Scotland international by just four.

Had it not been for an injury, Ange Capuozzo (20) may have been in the running, but Van der Merwe still leads the stat with 27 defenders beaten in the opening four rounds.

Ireland managed to keep the powerful winger off the scoresheet, but he did prove to be a handful beating six defenders – only Steward (7) managed to beat more in Round Four.

Fast fact: Van der Merwe needs to beat five defenders in Round Five to beat his own record of 31 in a single Six Nations tournament in 2021.

Running metres

Ireland’s Hugo Keenan moved to the top of the running metres chart in Round Two of the Six Nations and has not relinquished the top spot since.

The Irish full-back gained 82 metres against Scotland, which was far from the best tally posted at the weekend. That tag goes to Steward, who made 163 metres against France.

Lowe had the next-best tally of 150, elevating him to second place overall in the stat on 489 metres, just 10 behind Keenan.

Fast fact: Jack Conan impressed off the bench when replacing Caelan Doris, racking up 106 metres from his 15 carries.

Lineout wins

Italy‘s Federico Ruzza has claimed a remarkable 32 lineouts this Six Nations, 14 more than the next-best tally from Ollie Chessum.

The Azzurri second has been pivotal to the Italians’ success at the set-piece, winning 54% of their lineout this campaign.

Meanwhile, James Ryan has claimed the most lineout steals (4) in the tournament. He managed to pick three of those four up against Scotland at the weekend. No other player has managed more than two across the entire Championship.

Fast fact: Ireland flanker Josh van der Flier found a teammate with six of his nine lineout throws against Scotland.

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The article Six Nations: The seven individual stat leaders after four rounds, including most defenders beaten, metres made and tackles appeared first on Planetrugby.com.