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Top 10 International Points Scorers (Tier 1)

Ireland's Ronan O'Gara lines up a kick (Photo by Niall Carson - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)

10) Michael Lynagh – 911 points

Michael Lynagh kicking
Michael Lynagh playing for Australia (Photo by Ross Kinnaird/EMPICS via Getty Images)
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Nowadays known as the dad of Louis Lynagh, the silver-haired parent used to be known as one of the greatest players on the planet.

Michael Lynagh was known for his phenomenal tactical play as well as his incredible kicking talents. It was these abilities that helped his national side Australia clinch the 1991 world cup.

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Queensland was where he spent a large part of his career. It was only once retiring from international rugby in 1995 that Lynagh travelled to the Northern Hemisphere to have stints with both Benetton Treviso and Saracens.

9) Andrew Mehrtens – 967 points

Prior to the great Daniel Carter, Andrew Mehrtens was argued by some to be the greatest fly-half ever produced by New Zealand. He had incredible skill, vision, pinpoint accurate kicking, and appeared to make those long accurate passes look easy.

Mehrtens had plenty of stiff competition, not least from the likes of Carlos Spencer in his prime, and later from Dan Carter. Despite the incredibly talented players vying for his position, he held on with a steel grip and achieved almost a millennium of points for his country.

A fan favourite, Mehrtens played for some fantastic teams over the years. Predominantly at The Crusaders, he also had a spell over at the colourful English side Harlequins, before heading over the English Channel to France. It was here he would turn out for big hitters Toulon and Racing Metro 92, before finally finishing off his long and successful career in the French second division with Beziers.

8) Stephen Jones – 970 points

CARDIFF, WALES – NOVEMBER 28: Wales fly half Stephen Jones kicks a penalty during the Invesco Perpetual match between Wales and Australia at Millennium Stadium on November 28, 2009 in Cardiff, Wales. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
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After years of benefiting from the boot of Neil Jenkins, Welsh fans were stuck wondering what their beloved side was going to do once he retired. They needed not worry though as the incredibly talented Stephen Jones was next along the pipeline to orchestrate Wales into one of its finest-ever eras.

Jones spent the majority of his career playing for the Llanelli Scarlets, which is where he honed the skills we saw on the international stage.

Despite having many world-class fly halves to compete with, the former captain largely kept hold of his international starting jersey and went on to achieve over 100 caps.

7) Diego Dominguez – 970 points

ROME – FEBRUARY 15: Diego Dominguez (left) and Alessandro Troncon (right) of Italy celebrate victory after the RBS Six Nations match between Italy and Wales held on February 15, 2003 at the Stadio Flaminio, in Rome, Italy. Italy won the match 30-22. (Photo by Phil Cole/Getty Images)

Italy have always struggled to find a suitable fly-half to fill the role that Diego Dominquez left. Arguably Italy’s greatest-ever fly-half, and one of their greatest-ever players, Dominquez was ruthless from the boot achieving an average of 13.29 points per game.

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It was not Italy that Dominguez started his international time with though, he was born in Córdoba, Argentina. It was here that the little magician learned his trade, and in 1989 he made his Argentinian debut in games against Chile and Paraguay.

After moving around, Dominquez settled in the Italian city of Milan, the country his grandmother was from. It was through this connection that he was able to turn out for the Azzuri. As a result, he helped bring Italy from world rugby minnows to a Tier 1 nation and into the Six Nations.

6) Johnny Sexton – 1011 points

Sexton <a href=
Ireland France” width=”1024″ height=”576″ /> (Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Having come through as Ronan O’Gara’s understudy, there was plenty to be excited about when it came to the young Johnny Sexton. The first part of his international career saw a feisty battle between the two players, both playing for rival Irish teams and both fighting for the same shirt in the national side.

Eventually the younger Sexton won the starting birth over the aging O’Gara, leading to well over a decade of unmatched dominance from the Leinster playmaker. Having won the World Rugby Player of the Year in 2018, Sexton has gone on to establish himself as one of Ireland’s finest-ever players.

Despite being 38 when the 2023 world cup comes around, there will be very few who would bet against the Dublin man overtaking his former rival.

5) Ronan O’Gara – 1083 points

Ireland’s Ronan O’Gara lines up a kick (Photo by Niall Carson – PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)

One of the feistiest, most intelligent, and most talented fly-halves of all time, O’Gara is a true leader on and off the field.

O’Gara spent his entire professional career playing for Munster, teaming up in a lethal half-back partnership with scrum-half, Peter Stringer.

Despite an initial tug of the Irish number ten shirt between himself and David Humphries, O’Gara went on to win 128 international caps and appear on three British and Irish Lions tours.

Fly-half is probably the most complicated and intense position on the field, but O’Gara was able to read the game like so few others. It was this incredible game management that kept him without serious opposition for the shirt for so many years.

4) Neil Jenkins – 1090 points

28 Jun 1997: Neil Jenkins of the British Lions attempts a conversion during the second test match against South Africa at Kings Park in Durban, South Africa. The British Lions won 15-18 and secured the series win. Mandatory Credit: Alex Livesey /Allsport

Jenkins had one of the most accurate boots in world rugby during his playing days, notching over 1000 points for Wales.

Despite his obvious talents from the boot, it was not an easy start to international life for the legendary fly-half. Wales have always had the luxury of world-class number tens in their side, so Jenkins had a lot to live up to.

In previous years the Welsh were fortunate enough to experience players such as Barry John, Phil Bennett, and Cliff Morgan in the heydays of the men in red. So, when Jenkins stepped up it was noted that he was missing certain aspects of his game.

With this, under the tutelage of Graham Henry, Jenkins went on to develop his tackling, passing, and running skills to become one of the finest ever fly-halves in world rugby.

3) Owen Farrell – 1114 points

(Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

Criminally underrated, Owen Farrell has established himself as one of the greatest players to have ever pulled on the white jersey of England.

Primarily deployed as a fly-half for club side Saracens, England has used Farrell more recently as a playmaking inside-centre. The idea is that this allows for more attacking-minded players like George Ford and Marcus Smith to benefit from Farrell’s tactical nouse on their outside.

The son of rugby league legend Andy Farrell, Owen is known for his pinpoint accurate kicking displays from the tee and his thorough knowledge of the game.

2) Jonny Wilkinson – 1246 points

(Photo by Steve Cuff/EMPICS via Getty Images)

Known for his dedicated work rate, leadership skills, and incredible kicking abilities, Wilkinson personified the position of fly-half.

Due to his exploits in the 2003 Rugby World Cup, Wilkinson inspired a whole generation of young English rugby players.

Retiring in 2014 Wilkinson ended his career with an English Premiership Rugby title, a Top 14 title, two Heineken Champions Cups, a Rugby World Cup, and multiple Six Nations Championships, all alongside a plethora of individual honours.

1) Dan Carter – 1598 points

Carter signs for the Blues
(Photo by Richard Heathcote – World Rugby via Getty Images)

The perfect 10. Dan Carter finally retired in 2020 after a career that saw him become arguably the greatest fly-half of all time.

He was known for his incredible game management, kicking skills, smooth handling, and running ability.

Carter played the majority of his club career for the Crusaders, but he had stints over in France and Japan during the latter stages of his playing days.

The three-time World Rugby Player of the Year holds the record for the most international points scored of all time, as well as multiple other personal and team accolades.

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H
Hellhound 9 minutes ago
Springboks' No.1 status in world rankings coming under increased threat

I disagree. A fair system would include points for EVERY MATCH you play, top guns or dregs. The WC should not influence the points table. No tournament should. It should be simple. This much for a home or away win. The problem with that is that Top Tier nations can point stay by arranging a lot of games against those nations to bring up their points tally, which wouldn't work. At least not on the points table. It would however give Tier 2 nations more game time against the Top Tier nations, which in itself is a good thing. However, that being said, it would dilute the quality of teams as they don't face tough enough opposition to handle the real tough teams, so come WC time, they would suffer for those consequences. There is no points system that currently can be used that would be fair to all, so the best is to try and be as fair as possible. We may not like the current system, but it's the best we have. Some suggested the Soccer system, but it won't work in rugby. No one has come up with a better points system and if they did, WR isn't sharing that. They would rather keep an eye on Dr Rassie with pen in hand ready to declare everything he does as illegal and against the spirit of the game. The SA men are too big, we can't stop them. Maybe we should ban the big men from SA as illegal but keep the big men of other countries? Oh wait, now the SA backs are too fast and slippery. That isn't good for WR so let's declare fast SA backs as illegal too. Yeah, that's how it works in WR isn't it? WR and all other countries hate the Boks. Never give them the respect they deserve, then are shocked completely finding out that no South African care what the world of rugby or its fans or other nations think about us. We don't care about the points system. It's as rotten as World Rugby and it's socialistic communistic rule of laws. The Boks will keep leading the brand of rugby. Keep innovating. Keep pushing boundaries. Keep the game interesting. We respect the AB's because they respect us. They may not like us, but the respect has always been crystal clear. Over 100 years of the biggest rivalry in rugby’s history can't be thrown away just like that. No points system can do that. Between WC's, we care about the AB's, the rest is just preparation for the next WC.

90 Go to comments
J
Jfp123 12 minutes ago
New Zealanders may not understand, but in France Test rugby is the 'B movie'

It would be interesting to see how the financial deal and viewing figures for these last 3 matches compare with those for previous tours by leading NH nations. I imagine that broadcasting rights are negotiated a fair way in advance, so did the broadcasters realise France would send a B team when they signed on the dotted line? And to what extent were viewing figures affected? I’d have thought die hard fans would tune in anyway, and more casual fans wouldn’t know much about French players, except perhaps Dupont, and wouldn’t care who played on the French side - wouldn’t it be which ABs played that would matter to them? Although the big ‘disrespect’ furore might have had an effect, but whether to increase or decrease viewing figures I couldn’t say.

It’s not only the French national team that sends out B teams, many of their clubs do too, both in away matches in the Top14 and in Champions Cup. But these B teams often play in front of sell out crowds, and the value of the broadcasting rights for the Top 14 have gone up and up.

Of course, home advantage is real, and matches against the Saffas and ABs where they play best is I guess at the current time the hardest test of all. However, it doesn’t look like we’ll actually see France A in NZ or SA for the foreseeable future - the Top14 really is a fabulous competition, almost year round brilliant rugby, with big stars from around the world, madly enthusiastic fans, and a big money earner, I can’t see the French making major alterations (I’m not French, but I’m a big fan too and the only alteration I’d make is a limit on individual playing time for player welfare).

Considering their home record against NZ and away against Ireland, I think that’s enough to acknowledge that the top French players have a very high degree of skill, but if SH fans don’t see things that way, that’s up to them. My point was, if NZ fans don’t think much of them, why are they so bothered they’re not there. Anyway come 2027, France A will travel to the SH, if not NZ or SA, and we’ll see what happens!

100 Go to comments
S
Soliloquin 32 minutes ago
All Blacks squeeze past France to sweep July series in Hamilton

Big question!

I think they would get outsmarted by the A team, outpacked forward and depending on the form of the A team, the score would be more or less 15-20 points a higher or lower victory.

The only issue is that France has a lot of 13s, and they were all in NZ.

This weekend’s team was gassed out, so it’s also very much linked to fitness level.

Just like the ABs were tired at the end of November, while the French were rusty after just one game against Japan.

I fear they will get smashed in Paris without Dupont (confirmed to be still out) by the Springboks as it will be their first game of the international season (a nonsense to me - the biggest game will be the first)


The squad for this France A would be:

Gros-Mauvaka-Tatafu

Flament-Meafou

Cros-Ollivon-Alldritt

Dupont-Ntamack

Moefana-?(all 13s were in NZ) Costes ?

Bielle-Biarrey-Penaud

Ramos


(But if you can take players from the NZ, then Guillard and Barassi or Fickou could be in)


Against the C team:

Erdocio-Bourgarit-Slimani

Auradou-Halagahu

Fischer-Guillard-Brennan

Le Garrec-Hastoy

Fickou-Depoortere

Attissogbe-Villière

Barré


And a B team would be:

Baille-Marchand-Atonio

Cazeaux-Vergé

Jegou-Jelonch-Gazzotti

Lucu-Jalibert

Danty-Frisch

Lebel-Dréan

Buros


———

France A-France C at full fitness: 38-12

France A-France B: 28-17

France B-France C: 32-20


It seems a bit like Toulouse is kind of France A at full power last year, UBB is France B at full power last year and Racing92 is France C at full power this year.

111 Go to comments
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