The regular season of the Guinness PRO14 is now at an end and the Opta stats leaders have been confirmed.

While there was not a huge amount of movement in the overall leaderboard, a number of new faces put their hands up this past weekend.

Leinster’s back-row strength in depth is bordering on the ridiculous, a Toyota Cheetahs centre caught the eye and Ulster carried with vigour.

LEINSTER TALENT LINE

But we begin with the boys in blue, the defending champions Leinster.

Dan Leavy is out for the season, Josh van der Flier is returning from injury, Sean O’Brien and Jack Conan were rested and yet still their back-row put in the work.

Leinster might have ended up on the losing side against Ulster, but it was not down to any lack of effort.

Will Connors made 33 tackles, Caelan Doris made 28 and lock Josh Murphy 27 in a brilliant backs-to-the-wall effort that ultimately fell just short.

None of them have racked up enough Guinness PRO14 starts this year to be challenging at the top of the overall tackle count.

But the reward for top regular season tackler goes to Tienie Burger who made 277 overall, edging out Olly Robinson on 274 and Olly Cracknell on 259.

CARRYING THE LOAD

But while Leinster were tacking up the tackles, it stands to reason that their opponents racked up the carries.

Ulster’s Ian Nagle, against his parent club, made 24 carries, Clive Ross made 19 and young Marcus Rea – who rescued Ulster with a late score – managed 18.

None of them were ever going to catch Viliame Mata of Edinburgh, the Fijian No.8 way out in front.

The Olympic gold medallist trucked the ball up a whopping 290 times during the season for Edinburgh, who narrowly missed out on the play-offs and a Champions Cup spot.

While Ulster were the most consistent carriers this weekend, Leinster again caught the eye with their incisive running. Jimmy O’Brien and Noel Reid beat seven defenders each to lead the way in Round 21 but Johnny McNicholl of the Scarlets remains the stand-out this season.

The former Crusader, who crossed for another try this past weekend, managed 70 defenders beaten overall this season to lead the way.

DRIES MEANS BUSINESS

Toyota Cheetahs centre Dries Swanepoel signed for them last summer but had not appeared in the Guinness PRO14 until this calendar year.

But he has more than made up for lost time, and his outing against the Isuzu Southern Kings in the derby last weekend was quite magnificent.

He was the top metre-maker this weekend with 110m, managed a round-high three offloads, beat five defenders and also produced two clean breaks.

Shaun Venter got the headlines with a double and four clean breaks – the most in the league this weekend – but Swanepoel remains the centre of interest.

Swanepoel’s 110m were never going to catch the overall leader Dan Evans, the Ospreys full-back made 103m on Judgement Day to take his overall tally this season to 1299m.

Meanwhile Benetton’s Monty Ioane made 31 offloads overall this season to top the charts, while Venter’s 21 clean breaks were not quite enough to track down Sibhale Maxwane’s 34.

NICK THE QUICK

Finally, a special mention for Nick Williams who played the full 80 minutes for Cardiff Blues this weekend at Judgement Day and scooped the man of the match award despite finishing on the losing side against the Ospreys.

The No.8 made three turnovers, no player managed more in Round 21, but could not quite close the overall gap to his Blues teammate Robinson.

Robinson topped the turnover charts this regular season with 26, Williams was second with 23 while Marcel Coetzee of Ulster and Owen Watkin of the Ospreys managed 20 each.