SUPER RUGBY: Lions star makes quickest tries list
SPOTLIGHT: With live rugby put on hold, Super Rugby gives a rundown of the fast starters over the last five years.
Since the beginning of the 2016 campaign, there have been a total of 22 tries scored within the opening 60 seconds of Super Rugby games, but just three of those have occurred within the opening 30 seconds.
Jaguares’ flyer Emiliano Boffelli wasted no time in his offence against the Waratahs in March of 2018, capitalising on poor kick-off defence from the New South Wales squad to cross the tryline down the left edge after just 14 seconds and on the first phase of the game. It was the catalyst for an onslaught which saw the Argentinian outfit lead 33-7 at the half and go on to win comfortably despite some late consolation efforts from the visitors.
The Lions’ Hacjivah Dayimani and Sunwolves’ Shota Emi are the only two other players to have struck within the opening half-minute of a Super Rugby game in the last five seasons.
Indeed, Jaguares (x3) and Sunwolves (x2) players feature multiple times each in the top ten fastest tries of the last half-decade – a feat that no other team can boast in that time. They have endured contrasting fortunes when they’ve done so, however.
The Jaguares have won all three of their Super Rugby games when they’ve scored within the opening 44 seconds of a game, while the Sunwolves’ two quickest efforts have been the marker for defeat on each occasion.
It should be no surprise to see that the overall success of the Crusaders across the recent history of Super Rugby sees them as the team ranked first in terms of total tries scored within the opening five minutes of games across the last half-decade.
The Christchurch side have scored 20 tries within that period, which is just two more than next-best Jaguares (18). The Waratahs are the only Australian team to have scored more than 10 tries during this period, while the Sunwolves again figure among the top half of teams with a tally of 10 tries in the opening five minutes since they joined the competition.
Seta Tamanivalu (playing for both the Chiefs and Crusaders across this period) has scored more tries within the opening five minutes of games than any other player since the beginning of the 2016 competition (5).
Jaguares’ stalwart Pablo Matera (4) is the only other player to have scored more than three tries within this period, while his team-mate Emiliano Boffelli has also bagged three such tries for his own account. No Australian or Japanese player has managed to score more than two tries within this period, thus making the Australian conference the only one without a representative on this table.
Source: SuperRugby