Top try scorers in Wellington club rugby of the last 20 years

Club Rugby turns 20 in 2024. From its beginnings as a e–newsletter in the early 2000s, this website started in 2005.

There are some well-known names are on Wellington club rugby’s top try scoring list from the past 20 years.

This website’s player database started with the website in 2005, so we have complete scoring records of all players who have played in the Premier Swindale Shield, Jubilee Cup and Hardham Cup competitions.

Based on this, see the table below for the leading try-scorers from the start of 2005 through to present (accurate as of end of round 5 of the 2024 Swindale Shield).

Qualification to make this table is 50 or more Premier tries.

50 OR MORE TRIES in Wellington club rugby 2005 to present

Key:

Players in bold are still active players/eligible for selection (in the Premier grade).

Players in italics are those players whose careers were already underway prior to 2005 and there are no or incomplete records collated of their total tries scored.

A further explanation about the ‘matches’ played column at the bottom of the table.

Between 40-49 tries in Wellington club rugby 2005 to present

Key:

Players in bold are still active players/eligible for selection (in the Premier grade).

Players in italics are those players whose careers were already underway prior to 2005 and there are no or incomplete records collated of their total tries scored.

A further explanation about the ‘matches’ played column at the bottom of the table.

Other players to note not listed in the table below include Evan Belford (Poneke, 36 tries in 57 matches), Kyle Preston (Tawa/OBU, 37 tries in 91 games), Telea Seumanutafa (Norths/Tawa, 38 tries in 73 games), Mitchell Markov (Rimutaka/UH Rams 38 tries in 82 games), James O’Reilly (HOBM, 38 tries in 92 games), Mike Buckley (MSP, 32 tries in 49 games), Paddy Hughes (Wellington, 28 tries in 68 games), Pena Va’a (Ories, 39 tries in 55 games), Buxton Popoalii (29 tries in 23 games).

Shahn Eru                 Wainuiomata                             40                              93

*Notes on the matches played column: An important point about the Matches Played column is that our website didn’t start to record reserves until 2016. From 2005-15 we just denoted the ‘Starting XV’ each week, (as originally, we were a PDF newsletter and there was only space for that) so this means that players on the list below whose careers started earlier than 2016 and who played some matches off the bench their additional ‘Matches Played’ won’t be counted. In these instances their tries still show and can be counted.

Notes on players in italics: Players whose careers started prior to 2005 and whose careers overlap into the first few years of our database can’t be counted in full here, because we don’t have their overall records. One or more of these players could well have scored a lot more tries than the leaders here. It is now our intention to go back further and collate the 1990s and earlier and update these tables accordingly.