Rugby
Top 10 Rugby World Cup Try Scorers
The Rugby World Cup is the pinnacle of the sport. South Africa is the most successful nation, with four wins, but who are the top 10 Rugby World Cup try scorers? Find out here!
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The Rugby World Cup (RWC) is where superstars are born and veteran careers end. South Africa is the most successful country, winning four William Webb Ellis trophies. The Springboks won the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France, defending the title they clinched in Japan in 2019.
Rugby Union is an intriguing sport played by players of all shapes and sizes. The game revolves around the forwards who contest the set pieces, the kick-offs, restarts, and twenty-two drop-outs. But most importantly, the scrums and lineouts. The game is won and lost in the set-piece battle and the breakdown.
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However, like all sports, flair players are needed. Scoring points, especially tries, are often the deciding factor in the result. Tries are worth the most points but the hardest to score. This is where the backline players come in. Every tournament around the world has a list of top 10 try-scorers. They are made up (mostly) of backs, especially the outside backs, the wings, and fullbacks.
Although times have changed, and forwards are scoring tries through driving mauls from the lineout, the backs still finish most attacks. SportsBoom has compiled a list of the top 10 Rugby World Cup try scorers.
Who are the 10 Greatest Rugby World Cup Try Scorers in History?
Rugby World Cup television highlights always show replays of famous tries. John Kirwin, David Campese, and Jonah Lomu lit up the early tournaments. Shane Williams, Bryan Habana, Adam Ashley-Cooper, and Vincent Clerc ran in five-pointers at will. Julian Savea, Josh Adams, and Will Jordan led the try-scoring charts at the 2015, 2019 and 2023 editions.
Nobody will forget Marc Ellis scoring six tries when New Zealand trounced Japan 145-17 in Bloemfontein in 1995. Chris Latham, Josh Lewsey, and Henry Arundell came close to equalling Ellis’s RWC record, but they all crossed five times. New Zealand players have topped the try-scoring charts at six of the ten World Cups (twice shared by All Blacks players).
List of 10 All-Time Rugby World Cup Try Scorers
| Rank | Player | Country | Tries | World Cups |
| =1 | Jonah Lomu | New Zealand | 15 | 1995,1999 |
| =1 | Bryan Habana | South Africa | 15 | 2007, 2011, 2015 |
| 3 | Drew Mitchell | Australia | 14 | 2007, 2011, 2015 |
| 4 | Doug Howlett | New Zealand | 13 | 2003, 2007 |
| 5 | Adam Ashley-Cooper | Australia | 12 | 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019 |
| =6 | Vincent Clerc | France | 11 | 2007, 2011 |
| =6 | Chris Latham | Australia | 11 | 1999, 2003, 2007 |
| =6 | Joe Rokocoko | New Zealand | 11 | 2003, 2007 |
| =6 | Rory Underwood | England | 11 | 1987, 1991, 1995 |
| =10 | Shane Williams | Wales | 10 | 2003, 2007, 2011 |
| =10 | David Campese | Australia | 10 | 1987, 1991, 1995 |
| =10 | Brian Lima | Samoa | 10 | 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007 |
Bryan Habana (2015), Lomu (1999), Savea (2015), and Jordan (2023) scored eight tries topping the RWC try-scoring charts. Lomu (1999), Doug Howlett and Mils Muliaina (2003), and Adams (2019) topped various tournaments with seven scores. In the 1987 RWC, Craig Green and Kirwan notched six tries each for the Kiwis.
Four years later, David Campese top-scored with six tries as Australia won their first RWC. In 2011, Chris Ashton (England) and Vincent Clerc (France) led the try-scoring charts with six scores each in New Zealand.
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=10. Brian Lima | 5x RWC: 10 Tries
Brian Lima is known as “The Chiropractor” for his hard hits and tough tackling. He was the to play in five Rugby World Cups and the youngest player at the 1991 event. Lima scored ten tries across five tournaments, but he is famous for his bone-crunching spear tackle on South African flyhalf Derick Hougaard at the 2003 RWC in Australia.
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=10. David Campese | 1991 RWC Winner: 10 Tries
David Campese pioneered the ‘goose step’ as he rounded defenders. “Campo” - as he is fondly known - top-scored in the Wallabies 1991 RWC triumph in England. He was named Player of the Tournament after dotting down six times.
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=10. Shane Williams | 3x RWC: 10 Tries
Shane Willimas began his career as a scrumhalf at the 2003 RWC. However, he moved to the wing, where his quick feet and short stature saw him move to the wing. Williams never looked back. He is Wales’s all-time leading try scorer (60) and fourth in the world behind Daisuke Ohata (69), Habana (67), and Campese (64).
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=6. Rory Underwood | 1991 RWC Runner-up: 11 Tries
Rory Underwood is England’s top try scorer. He scored 50 tries in 91 Test matches, 49 in 85 Tests for the Red Roses, and one in six for the British & Irish Lions.
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=6. Joe Rokocoko | 2x RWC: 11 Tries
Touted as the next Jonah Lomu, Joe Rokocoko scored 46 Test tries in 68 games for New Zealand, including four hat-tricks. He was named International Rugby Board (IRB) Young Player of the Year in 2003.
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=6. Chris Latham | 1999 RWC Winner: 11 Tries
Chris Latham is Australia’s second-highest Test try-scorer behind Campese, with 40 tries. He was part of the 1999 RWC-winning Wallabies team and a runner-up against England four years later down under.
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=6. Vincent Clerc | 2011 RWC Runner-up: 11 Tries
The flying Frenchman scored hat-tricks at the 2007 and 2011 World Cups. Clerc scored his first treble versus Namibia in 2007 before bagging a brace against Ireland five days later. He scored his second hat-trick four years later against Canada as he shared the top-scoring honours with Ashton.
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5. Adam Ashley-Cooper | 2015 RWC Runner-up: 12 Tries
Adam Ashley-Cooper is nicknamed ‘Mr Versatile,’ for his ability to play every backline position in international rugby. Cooper is the third-most capped Aussie player (121 Tests). He played four tournaments, the second-most on the top 10 World Cup try scorers list.
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4. Doug Howlett | 2x RWC: 13 Tries
Doug Howlett is the seventh-highest try-scorer in rugby union history. He scored 42 times for the All Blacks in 62 matches. Had Howlett played another RWC, he would certainly been the highest scorer in competition history.
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3. Drew Mitchell | 2015 RWC Runner-up: 14 Tries
Drew Mitchell scored 34 tries in 71 Tests for Australia. He is the country’s top RWC try-scorer. Mitchell scored seven tries in the 2015 World Cup in England, one behind Habana, as the Wallabies finished runners-up after losing the final to the All Blacks.
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=1. Bryan Habana | 2007 RWC Winner: 15 Tries
Bryan Habana is the second-highest Test try-scorer of all time (67) but the highest Tier 1 nation scorer. He scored 15 tries in 18 RWC matches, winning the 2007 tournament in France. He finished as the 2015 RWC top scorer. South Africa won the Bronze Medal match to finish third.
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=1. Jonah Lomu | 1995 RWC Runner-up: 15 Tries
Jonah Lomu changed rugby forever. The 19-year-old’s impact as the youngest player at the 1995 RWC in South Africa is unquantifiable. Lomu took the tournament by storm. His most famous moment is running over Mike Catt as New Zealand thrashed England at Newlands in the semifinal. Lomu scored four tries, running through, around, and over Englishmen in the most memorable performance in tournament history.
Lomu played two RWC tournaments, sharing top-scoring honours with Ellis in 1995 and finishing outright top scorer with eight tries in 1999. He scored in five of the six RWC Tests, but New Zealand famously lost to France in one of the greatest-ever rugby matches. Lomu could not score against the Springboks in the Bronze Medal match, and the Kiwis lost. He scored 15 tries in only eleven RWC games, seven matches fewer than Habana. Lomu is the greatest finisher in Rugby World Cup history.
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.