The Dragons gave away the equal most seven-tackle sets from kicks in 2019 and paid a hefty price.
Of the 31 seven-tackle sets they conceded overall, 25 were from balls booted dead or caught in-goal on the full by the opposition.
Brisbane, who were level with the Red V in this metric, leaked the most tries from seven-tackle sets in total with eight from 40.
But the Dragons (seven conceded tries from seven-tackle sets) had the worst strike rate against them, the opposition scoring 23% of the time when they restarted play from the 20-metre line.
Halves Ben Hunt (9) and Corey Norman (7) were ranked sixth and equal eighth respectively for gifting seven-tackle sets from kicks.
Hunt kicked seven balls dead and had two caught in-goal, while Norman nudged six dead with one caught in-goal.
Departed pivot Gareth Widdop, who was injured most of the year, contributed five seven-tackle sets (four dead, one caught in-goal).
In fairness to Hunt, he also sat seventh for forced dropouts with 16, helping the Dragons (36) to rank eighth in this area. Norman forced eight dropouts and Widdop six.
Given they averaged a conceded try every 9.3 play-the-balls inside their defensive 20-metre zone, the Dragons could ill-afford to give the opposition a leg-up into attacking range so often.
It's an area they must improve on in 2020 if they are to bounce back from a disastrous 15th-place finish.
