The British & Irish Lions continued their winning start to life in Australia with a 21-10 success against New South Wales Waratahs on Saturday.

The stats gurus at Oval Insights have crunched the numbers and here are some of the key takeaways…

114 – Metres made by Ben Earl

Ben Earl put in a typically all-action display at No.8 and that is reflected in some of his statistics.

The England man led the way for metres made (114), as well as carries (22), while he was level with Alex Mitchell at the top of the list for defenders beaten (7).

Earl said afterwards that he knew he had to deliver a strong display due to the quality of the competition in the front row and he has now put his own hand up.

15 – Tackles by Josh van der Flier

Just as he did against Western Force last Saturday, the Irish flanker led the way for tackles made by those in red.

He almost had a try to his name too, only to spill the ball forward when tackled as he tried to cross in the corner having been set up by Blair Kinghorn.

Like Earl, van der Flier remains in the thick of Andy Farrell’s back-row selection dilemma.

5 – Scrum penalties won

Captain for the day Tadhg Beirne felt the Lions ‘took a step up in terms of our scrum and lineout’, which is backed up by the numbers.

The Lions won all 10 of their scrums and earned penalties from half of them, in addition to two free-kicks, as the pack turned the screw.

The tourists were also successful with all 17 of their own lineouts, as well as winning five of the home side’s nine.

21 – Turnovers conceded

Andy Farrell admitted the game brought ‘fantastic learnings’ for his side and earmarked the number of turnovers that went against them as one of the key work-ons.

He and his players will be working tirelessly on the training ground to bring this number down as the Tour goes on.