photo credit: Mark David Janzen / Aedelhard / World Rugby

Joe Taufete’e breaks Keith Wood’s try World Record

Joe Taufete’e has written his name in the record books, overtaking the long-standing try scoring record from a front-rower. In last night’s home test against Uruguay the USA Eagles scored his 16th, 17th, and 18th test match tries to overtake former Irish captain Keith Wood.

Wood’s final cap was against France at RWC 2003. It was a Quarter Final loss in Melbourne, Australia. He hung up his boots with 60 caps to his name and had overtaken the prior record number of tries by a front-rower the prior year.

So impressive was the mark by Wood that it has survived 16 years. No other hooker or proper before Wood was able to score as many test match tries. None, that is until now.

In October 2001 Wood scored his 12th test try to match that of New Zealand’s Sean Fitzpatrick. Both players were test captains at RWCs and are regarded as being among the greatest hookers of all-time.

Fitzpatrick retired in 1997 with 12 test tries from 92 caps. His final cap was earlier that year against Argentina in Hamilton. His mark of 12 tries was notably above that of other hookers both before and during his playing days.

The mark would be matched by Wood in 2001 and then beaten in 2002. Wood’s 13th test try came against France in the 2002 Six Nations. He would add two more, against Russia and Romania, to retire with 15 tries from 60 caps.

Wood’s World Record would last from 2002-2019. Joe Taufete’e would match it against Chile last month before officially overtaking it last night against Uruguay. The Californian would first break the world record of tries by a front-rower and would then break record specifically by a hooker.

Taufete’e 18 tries are not only more than any other player in his position in test rugby history but they have also come in record time. Taufete’e has 21 caps to his name, suggesting that not only will be mark he hard to beat but he could go on to score many further tries.

Of his career tries all but one came with him playing hooker. The exception was his one test start at prop which saw him scoring against Tonga in 2016. His career tries at international level are documented in the table below.

DATE FIXTURE VENUE RESULT TRIES
Feb 20 2016 USA vs Chile Fort Lauderdale Win 1
Feb 27 2016 Brazil vs USA São Paulo Loss 1
Nov 19 2016 Tonga vs USA San Sebastián (ESP) Loss 1
July 01 2017 USA vs Canada San Diego Win 2
Nov 18  2017 Germany vs USA Wiesbaden Win 1
Nov 25 2017 Georgia vs USA Tbilisi Win 2
June 09 2018 USA vs Russia Denver Win 2
June 16 2018 USA vs Scotland Houston Win 2
Nov 10 2018 Samoa vs USA San Sebastián (ESP) Win 1
Nov 24 2018 Ireland vs USA Dublin Loss 1
Feb 02 2019 Chile vs USA Maipú Win 1
Mar 02 2019 USA vs Uruguay Seattle Loss 3

 

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