According to Guinness World Records, the fastest try in a full international rugby league match was scored by Serbian second row James Mirceski at the at the Makis Stadium in Belgrade, Serbia on November 9, 2019. Against Greece, in the third and final Group B match during the final phase of qualifying for the 2021 Rugby League World Cup, Mirceski crossed the whitewash just 7.9 seconds after referee had blown the opening whistle. In so doing, he beat the previous record set by former Australian centre Robert ‘Bozo’ Fulton, who touched down after 15 seconds against France in the group stages of the 1970 Rugby League World Cup at the Odsal Stadium, Doncaster on November 1, 1970.
Mirceski’s try was converted by full-back Milos Zogovic but, thereafter, Serbia failed to score again and were soundly hammered 82-6 by Greece. The White Eagles, who have endured their fair share of trouncings down the years, had also lost their previous Group B match 86-0 to Scotland. However, in their defence (no pun intended), they had actually been eliminated much earlier in the qualifying process and only reached the final stages after Russia withdrew, citing ‘domestic issues’.
As a footnote, Greece may have qualfied for the 2021 Rugby League World Cup but, as the lowest-ranked team in Group A, alongside England, France and Samoa, faced an uphill task to progress in the tournament. In fact, they were beaten 34-12 by France, 72-4 by Samoa and 94-4 by England, thereby finishing bottom of the group with zero points.
According to Guiness World Records, the highest score in a ‘full’ international rugby union match, as sanctioned by World Rugby, or the International Rugby Football Board (IRFB), as the governing body of rugby union was known at the time, is 164-13. On October 27, 1994, in a Pool 2 match during the Asia Rugby Championship, or the Asian Rugby Football Tournament, as it was known, at the Merdeka Stadium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Hong Kong ran in 26 tries, 17 of which were converted, against Singapore, who scored a solitary converted try and two penalties.
In so doing, Hong Kong eclipsed the previous scoring records for any qualifying tournament for the Rugby World Cup and for the Asia Rugby Championship. The former was set by Italy during their 108-4 hammering of the Czech Republic in Viadana on May 18, 1994 and the latter by South Korea during their 135-3 shellacking of Malaysia in Seoul on September 23, 1992.
Hong Kong full-back Ashley Billington crossed the try line 10 times, for a total of 50 points, thereby setting two new international records, while fly-half Jamie, who kicked all 17 conversions, set another. Ironically, though, the latter record lasted only until the 1995 Rugby World Cup, for which Hong Kong were trying, unsuccessfully, to qualify. On June 4, 1995, in a Pool C match at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein, South Africa, New Zealand routed Japan 145-16, with fly-half Simon Culhane, who was making his debut for the All Blacks, successfully converting all bar one of the 21 tries his team scored, including one of his own.
The first thing to say is that this is a surprisingly tricky question, the answer to which is far more obscure than you might imagine. In rugby union, kicking duties – which, of course, include penalties, conversions and drop goals – often, but not always, fall to the fly half. Indeed, it is no coincidence that the top ten highest points scorers in the history of Tier 1 international rugby union, which includes England, France, Italy, Ireland, Scotland Wales, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, all wore the No. 10 shirt.
Of the aforementioned tensome, Englishman Johnny Wilkinson, Argentine Diego Dominguez, who played most of his international career for Italy, and Irishman Ronan O’Gara all feature in the top ten for career drop goals, with 36, 20 and 15, respectively. However, while it might seem reasonable to use this trio as the basis for further investigation, it turns out that the record for the most drop goals in a rugby union international belongs to none of them, nor anyone else in either top ten.
The most drop goals kicked by an individual in a Tier 1 rugby union international is five, scored by South African fly half Jannie de Beer in the second half of a Rugby World Cup quarter-final match against England at Stade de France, Paris on October 24, 1999. However, according to Guinness World Records, the most drop goals kicked in any rugby union international was six, scored by Russian fly half Konstantin Rachkov against Spain in a European Nations Cup, a.k.a. Six Nations B, match in Inca, Mallorca on February 16, 2003. The European Nations Cup featured Tier 2 and Tier 3 rugby nations.
The Calcutta Cup is a sporting trophy awarded to the winner of the annual rugby union international fixture between England and Scotland which, nowadays, is played as part of the Six Nations Nations Championship. Indeed, the Calcutta Cup has the distinction of being the oldest sporting trophy of its kind, having been contested for the first time the better part of a century and a half ago.
The first Calcutta Cup match was played at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh, as part of the Home Nations series of international friendly matches between England, Ireland and Scotland, on March 10, 1879. England forward George Burton scored the only try of the match, which was successfully converted by three-quarters Lennard Stokes, while Scotland scored a drop goal, courtesy of scrum-half Ninian Finlay. However, at the time, matches were decided on goals scored, so the inugural Calcutta Cup matched ended in an uninspiring 1-1 draw.
Nowadays, the venue for the Calcutta Cup match alternates between Twickenham, London and Murrayfield, Edinburgh, but the origin of the trophy lies, unsurprisingly, in India. In January, 1873, during the days of the British Raj, the Calcutta (Rugby) Football Club was founded in the then capital city of India, Calcutta (now Kolkata), by former pupils of Rugby School and joined the Rugby Football Union (RFU) the following year.
However, in 1878, with the popularity of rugby on the wane, the club was disbanded and the balance of its funds, 270 silver rupees, were smelted and crafted into a trophy by local silversmiths. The original trophy, which still exists, but remains permanently at the World Rugby Museum at Twickenham, is 18″ high and decorated with three king cobras, which form the handles, and an Indian elephant. The trophy was presented to the RFU, which decided against awarding it to the winner of a knockout competition among English clubs, as was the original intention, and decreed that it should be awarded to the winners of the annual England-Scotland match instead.
According to the governing body of Rugby Union, World Rugby, Tier One consists of the teams that contest the Six Nations Championship, in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Rugby Championship, in the Southern Hemisphere. Collectively, those teams are England, France, Italy, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, from the former, and Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, from the latter.
Given the cut and thrust of modern professional Test rugby, it’s frankly hard to imagine that any match between two of those nations has ever finished 0-0, but is has, and did so for the last time at Murrayfield on January 18, 1964. On a murky, frosty day which, in fairness, was hardly conducive to free-flowing, ball-in-hand rugby, Scotland faced a touring New Zealand side that had already beaten Ireland, Wales and England and was closing in on a ‘Grand Slam’ against the four home nations.
According to British Pathé, the All Blacks pack, which included captain Wilson Whineray, was ‘about a stone a man heavier than Scotland’, but as Scottish flanker Jim Telfer later recalled, ‘We kept them on their toes and broke up play by wheeling the scrum a lot, which was legal, and constantly dribbling with our feet, which was the Scottish way.’
Telfer added, ‘Their [colossal, 17-stone] full-back Don Clarke was the best kicker in the world, so we tried to play in their half, because the balls back then were so heavy he needed to be quite close to score.’ The strategy worked, with Clarke missing four penalties and two attempts at drop goals.
The match was, no doubt, error-strewn, but no less exciting as a result. At the final whistle, many of the 70,000-strong crowd invaded the pitch in jubilant celebration. Aside from the scoreless draw, the All Blacks won 34 of their 36 matches on the tour, losing just once, 3-0 to Newport at Rodney Parade, in the third match the previous October.