Most Points in Rugby Union History
Bryan Habana, David Campese, Doug Howlett, and Brian O’Driscoll scored tries for fun, but who are the top 10 points-scorers in rugby union history? Find out here!
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The top points-scorers in rugby union are always the kickers. Twenty-three of the top twenty-five points-scorers in Test match rugby are flyhalves and fullbacks. The other two players, ranked twenty and twenty-first on the list, played scrumhalf and centre. Although the sport can be complicated, rugby’s points-scoring system is not.
There are five ways to score points in a rugby match: tries, conversions, penalty tries, penalties, and drop goals. A try is worth five points, a conversion, two. Penalties and drop goals are worth three points each. A penalty try is an automatic seven points. Bryan Habana and Jonah Lomu are the Rugby World Cup (RWC) top try scorers. The legendary wingers scored fifteen tries each at the RWC.
However, Daisuke Ohata is the top Test try-scorer of all time. The Japanese utility back scored 69 tries, two more than Habana. Jonny Wilkinson has scored the most points at RWC tournaments. The England flyhalf scored 277 points at the RWC. SportsBoom compiled a list of the top 10 points-scorers in rugby union Test matches.
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Who are the Top 10 Points-Scorers in Rugby Union
The top 10 points-scorers in international rugby union are a who’s-who of great players. Despite all ten being excellent goal-kickers, many of them make the list because of the number Test matches they accrued during their long careers. Many players outside the ten highest scorers averaged more points per game than those with more points. Their careers were either shorter or they did not play as many Tests.
Dan Carter is widely regarded (including by this writer) as the greatest-ever player. He is a two-time Rugby World Cup champion, the 2005 British & Irish Lions series winner, and won nine Rugby Championships. He scored more than two hundred points more than second-placed Owen Farrell, who played six more Tests.
The majestic first five-eighth is the leading try-scorer (29), ten ahead of Johnny Sexton, who played twelve more Tests than the New Zealand legend. Carter is also the leading points-scorer in The Rugby Championship. He scored 554 points, 164 more than Morné Steyn (390).
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The list comprises of two New Zealand, English, Irish, and Welsh players, and an Australian. One Italian international also played for Argentina. All six British Isles players played for their home union and the British & Irish Lions. Only seven players have reached one thousand international points. The rest of the top 10 all scored more than nine hundred.
Top 10 List of Points-Scorers in Rugby Union History
| Rank | Player | Country/Teams | Tests | Points | Career |
| 1 | Dan Carter | New Zealand | 112 | 1598 | 2003-2015 |
| 2 | Owen Farrell | England / British & Irish Lions | 118 | 1271 | 2012-2023 |
| 3 | Jonny Wilkinson | England / British & Irish Lions | 97 | 1246 | 1998-2011 |
| 4 | Johnny Sexton | Ireland / British & Irish Lions | 124 | 1113 | 2009-2023 |
| 5 | Neil Jenkins | Wales / British & Irish Lions | 87 | 1090 | 1990-2003 |
| 6 | Ronan O’Gara | Ireland / British & Irish Lions | 130 | 1083 | 2000-2013 |
| 7 | Diego Dominguez | Argentina / Italy | 76 | 1010 | 1989-2003 |
| 8 | Stephen Jones | Wales / British & Irish Lions | 110 | 970 | 1998-2011 |
| 9 | Andrew Merhtens | New Zealand | 70 | 967 | 1995-2004 |
| 10 | Michael Lynagh | Australia | 72 | 911 | 1984-1995 |
Carter has the record the most conversions (293) and the most penalties (281) in international rugby. Farrell is second on the charts, with conversions (201) and penalties (268). He has also kicked the all-time most conversions at Rugby World Cups (58). Wilkinson leads the charts with thirty-six drop goals, sixteen ahead of Diego Dominguez. Six other players on the list kicked more drop goals than Carter (8), but that is because of New Zealand’s dominance.
The All Blacks often thrashed the opposition. The Kiwis have won the second-most World Cups and the most Rugby Championships titles. the most There was no need to kick drop kicks because the games were never tight, and the Kiwis scored tries where other teams would kick at goal or take drop kicks. The closest any player came to Wilkinson is Hugo Porta, who ranks twenty-third for most points in international rugby.
Porta kicked an astonishing twenty-eight drop kicks in only sixty-six Tests. Wilkinson played ninety-seven Test matches. Carter averaged the most points per game (14.27). More than any kicker with five hundred or more points in international rugby. The former Crusaders standoff was one score away from being the only player to reach one thousand, six hundred points. Fellow New Zealand flyhalf, Andrew Merhtens, has the second-highest points-per-game average. He averaged 13.81 points over seventy Test matches.
Carter is one of only two players to be named the International Rugby Board (IRB) Men’s Player of the Year three times (2005, 2012 & 2015). He was not only a kicking ace, but he also scored many superb tries. Such was Carter’s brilliance, the second Test match between New Zealand and the British & Irish Lions in 2005 is named after him because of his virtuoso display.
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The All Blacks walloped the Lions 48-18 at the Cake Tin in Wellington. The first-five finished the match with thirty-three points. Ieuan Evans, the great Wales and Lions winger, in an interview with AllBlacks.com described Carter’s display as “one of the greatest all-round performances anyone’s ever seen.” The pivot’s second half tally of twenty-two points was four more than the previous individual New Zealand total in a Lions Test.
The then 23-year-old had only played a handful of matches at flyhalf, but he scored two sublime tries, and set up Tana Umaga’s try. Carter played a one-two with the Umaga before racing sixty metres down the field, beating three players before offloading to Umaga. He kicked five penalties and added four conversions.
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The Guardian rugby journalist Robert Kitson described Carter’s display as “the definitive flyhalf display of the modern era” and “forever feature in the pantheon of great individual performances.”
Wilkinson played opposite Carter, but was substituted in the second half for Stephen Jones, who is eighth on the top 10 list of highest points-scorers. Speaking to Sky Sports in 2020, Carter said that the second Lions Test was the closest he got in his career to playing the “perfect game.”
“You’re always striving for the perfect game,” he said. “For me, that was probably the closest I got in my 112 Test matches for the All Blacks. You’ll never say that you’ve played the perfect game…but that was as close as I got.”
Australia (377) was statistically Carter’s favourite team to play, the most points scored versus one team in twenty-seven Tests. He scored the most tries against Wales (five in nine Tests). Moreover, he holds the records for most points against England (178), France (163), and South Africa (255).
Kaylan Geekie is a sports fanatic. He attended Durban High School before moving to Scotland, where he lived for 15 years. During his time in the United Kingdom, Kaylan graduated with a first-class BA Honours Degree in Sports Journalism at the University of the West of Scotland. Kaylan worked for nine years as the Match-Day Editor of SuperXV.com, reporting on Super Rugby, The Rugby Championship, the 2015 Men's Rugby World Cup and the 2017 British & Irish Lions series for the website.