The Rugby World Cup try record for one tournament is eight, shared by Jonah Lomu, Bryan Habana, Julian Savea and Will Jordan. Schalk Burger thinks the player who beats them could be a hooker.
“The scoring record in one specific World Cup is under threat from hookers,” the former Springboks flanker said on The Verdict.
Could a front-row forward really score nine at the 2027 World Cup? Tell us in the comments.
Why does Burger think so?
He gave two reasons, the maul and the draw.
He was talking over footage of the Springboks’ maul tries in the 66–7 win over Italy, two of them scored by Malcolm Marx. Those tries took Marx to 31 in Tests, the most by any front-row forward in the game’s history.
The second reason is the size of the next tournament. The 2027 World Cup in Australia has 24 teams for the first time, up from 20. Burger imagined the Springboks’ maul against one of the newcomers. “You can score six in a game,” he said.
Who holds the Rugby World Cup try record now?
Four players, and every one of them is a wing.
| Player | Team | Tournament | Tries |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jonah Lomu | New Zealand | 1999 | 8 |
| Bryan Habana | South Africa | 2007 | 8 |
| Julian Savea | New Zealand | 2015 | 8 |
| Will Jordan | New Zealand | 2023 | 8 |
Lomu and Habana also share the career record, with 15 World Cup tries each.
Is nine tries realistic for a hooker?
It is more realistic than it used to be. Hookers finish most maul tries because they throw in and then join the back of the drive. Ireland’s Keith Wood scored four in one match against the USA in 1999, long before the maul was the weapon it is now.
The 2027 format cuts both ways. Six pools of four mean each team plays three pool matches, one fewer than in 2023, and then a new round of 16. A finalist still plays seven games. With 24 teams, more of the early ones are mismatches, and those are the matches where the five-metre lineouts pile up.
Rotation works against it. Top coaches rest their first-choice hooker against the weakest pool opponents, and those are exactly the games where the maul tries come. Marx shares the Springboks No 2 jersey, and the tries are shared with it.
Asked how many Test tries Marx will finish with, Burger guessed high: “50 is probably a number.”
Our view
A hooker will not break this record by accident. It needs a coach willing to start his best No 2 against the weakest side in the pool and leave him on. If one does, six in a game stops sounding like a joke, and nine in a tournament is within reach. We think the record survives 2027, and that a hooker finishes in the top three.
What happens next
The 2027 Rugby World Cup runs from 1 October to 13 November in Australia. Jean de Villiers expects the lawmakers to look at the maul again once it is over.
Quotes from The Verdict, Boks Unpacked X The Verdict, published 10 November 2026, from 42:42. Watch the episode.
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