Goal kicking forwards in rugby

It is mostly the backs that take goal kicks in rugby, but what about goal-kicking forwards?

We put together the following article looking at some of these place-kicking players from the pack.

Some international examples, followed by a few club rugby players. Let us know who we missed out.

Brian Black (Great Britain)

The 1930 Great Britain side were popular tourists to New Zealand, despite them playing in dark blue and forcing the All Blacks to wear white! They won the first test but lost the next three as the All Blacks took the series 3-1. Their overall tour record was 15 wins and six defeats. A notable feature was the preponderance of goalkickers amongst the forwards. South African Rhodes Scholar and regular lock Brian Black (Blackheath and England) was top scorer for tour with 65 points. Other notable goalkickers were Swansea and Welsh hooker D. Parker (35) and Leicester and England flanker F.D. Prentice (49). Black was also a bobsledder, and he won gold medals in both the two-man and four-man bobsleigh events at the 1937 World Championships. Sadly, he lost his life in World War 2.

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James Murphy-O’Connor (Ireland)

James ‘Jim’ Murphy-O’Connor was an Irish rugby international credited with developing a revolutionary kicking technique in the late 1940s. Standing 6ft 6in, Murphy-O’Connor was the tallest player to have represented Ireland when he ran out at Twickenham in 1954. His career saw him represent the Combined Services, Bective Rangers, London Irish, Leinster and Ireland. Unusually for a forward, Murphy-O’Connor was the goal kicker of choice for club, province and country. This was mainly as a result of his success rate which was secured from a style of stroking the ball with the instep of his boot rather than the traditional toe cap “punt” that most kickers had used up to that time. More on him here: https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/forward-who-changed-rugby-s-style-of-goal-kicking-1.1919391

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Okey Geffin (South Africa)

For New Zealand audiences of a certain era, Geffin is perhaps most well known of rugby’s international goal kickers. He earned the name ‘Okey the Boot’ for the Springboks in their 4-0 series win over the All Blacks in 1949. The Traansvaal prop took over kicking duties during the first test and kicked five penalties to give them a comeback 15-11 victory. By the end of the series, he had kicked 32 of South Africa’s 47 points. Okey, then known as ‘Ox’, had been a British Prisoner of war during WW2, and he was Jewish and his mates protected him. Geffin’s handprints and boot prints are displayed in the New Zealand National Rugby Museum in tribute to his 1949 kicking record.

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John Eales (Australia)

What an occasion – the opening test of the brand-new Wellington Stadium in the year 2000! The All Blacks and Wallabies fought out a fitting thriller to mark the occasion and Eales stepped up on fulltime to kick perhaps the most famous kick of all time at the venue to date to win and retain the spoils:

Eales scored 173 points for Australia in 86 tests, which included 34 penalties and 31 conversions, and thus remains the highest points scoring forward in the history of international rugby. He also scored 402 points for the Queensland Reds.

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Sophie de Goede (Canada)

Canadian Women’s internation No. 8 and goal kicker, Sophie d Goede was a late bloomer to rugby, having come from a basketball background. Although both her parents captained the Canadian men’s and women’s rugby teams. A key player that took Canada to the semi-finals at the 2022 RWC and made 27 tackles in Canada’s 22-19 win over the Black Ferns May 2024. She then missed last Olympics due to a knee injury. In 32 internationals for Canada, De Goede has scored 2012 points, consisting of 63 conversions, 12 penalties and 10 tries.

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Donald Riesterer (University)

Donald Riesterer played provincial rugby for four provinces. He spent two seasons playing for University and for the Wellington representative team in 1956 and 1957. Riesterer was a loose forward who regularly kicked goals. Joining University in 1956, Ron Jarden was the incumbent goal-kicker, but Riesterer took over the goal-kicking owing to injury to Jarden in the third match of the season against Oriental and kicked the winning penalty in a 15-14 victory. The following week he kicked 8 from 10 in a comeback 35-20 win over Marist and continued kicking from there on. That season he scored over 100 points for the season combined for his club and in a handful of games for the Centurions and Wellington B. In 1957, Riesterer played for Wellington in an 11-12 loss to Waikato in Hamilton, before playing and kicking the goals in two consecutive Ranfurly Shield defences against Bush (won 22-11) and Poverty Bay (won 15-3). He was later Mayor of Opotiki between 1989-2001.

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Jim Kinvig (Onslow)

Kinvig was a goal-kicking prop and lock in and around the Onslow team that won the 1955 Jubilee Cup and shared it in 1962 with Marist. In 1955 it was Kinvig that nailed a sideline conversion in a title-winning 15-14 win over rivals Petone. Following this first Cup win, Onslow gained a reputation as a leading team that often blew hot and cold, but with the booming boot of Kinvig they often pulled through tight matches and they were never far off the pace. In the final match of 1962 against Marist Kinvig kicked the important points as Onslow won 14-0. He played 22 games for Wellington in 1952 and against between 1957-62, and 43 first-class games for Wellington various other teams scoring 75 points. He retired at the end of 1963.

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Matt Jacobs (Wainuiomata)

Openside flanker Matt Jacobs earned a reputation as a player with a dangerous boot when he nailed a 50-metre penalty on home soil at William Jones Park in 2016 to propel his team into the Jubilee Cup semi-finals for the third time in six seasons. Jacobs had previously shanked a longer kick but called for the kicking tee and prevailed when the next opportunity arose. He honed his skills over several seasons playing mostly for the Premier Reserves. Since 2016, he has been a regular on Wainuiomata’s teamsheets when fit, while remaining an occasional, back-up kicker. In 2018 he scored 21 points against Johnsonville.

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Lauina Fa’atau (Ories)

Last on our list, but not least, is Oriental-Rongotai’s popular goal-kicking loosehead prop Lauina Fa’atau who has regularly stepped up to take conversions and penalties from tricky angles and long distances that would make many regular kickers blush. He has played mostly for the Premier Reserves team but also a handful of matches for their Premiers. One famous game he played in was in 2018 when he slotted a sideline conversion and long-range penalty but missed by a whisker with another touchline kick at the death as Petone held on and won 24-22. Fa’atau had been the recipient of Ories’ Club Captain’s Player of the Year award in 2016

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