My ranking of English rugby’s 15 greatest tryscorers

With one round of the regular season to go, followed by the play-offs, the Premiership record of 21 tries held by Sam Simmonds is under threat from Saracens’ exhilarating wing Noah Caluori, who has 18 to date, and Northampton Saints’ Tommy Freeman on 16.

While we wait to see if Simmonds’ five-year-old mark is going to be beaten, here’s a list of my favourite try-scoring specialists in England’s top division, down the years.

15. Tommy Freeman (Northampton Saints)

Another of the Prem’s current crop of talent, the 25-year-old Freeman has played in the centres for England this season, but the 2025 British & Irish Lions used him purely as a wing, recognising his all-court gifts and attacker’s instinct for beating an opponent one on one. Freeman has racked up an impressive 53 tries in the Premiership since his first against Bath in February 2021, including 16 – with power to add – this season.

14. Louis Rees-Zammit (Gloucester and Bristol Bears)

With seven tries in the first half of the current season, including two for Wales, it looked like the 25-year-old flyer was back to the form that grabbed global attention before he left Gloucester in 2024 for a crack at the NFL. “Rees Lightning” still has time to become a scoring great, and he makes my list for the sheer crackling thrill you feel when all-out pace outflanks mean-eyed defence.

13. Matt Banahan (Bath and Gloucester)

You can run round opponents or simply over the top of them, and “Banners” was in the latter bracket, shifting his 6ft 7ins heft to 71 Premiership tries after a youthful conversion from the second row.

12. Sinoti Sinoti (Newcastle Falcons)

Pitched up at Newcastle Falcons in 2013 after trekking round Toulon, Castres, Hawke’s Bay, Aironi, Zebre and Wellington, and immediately wowed the Toon with his explosive pace and sheer ebullience. Resembling a hooker in a wing’s jersey, with a Jason Robinson-like sidestep, check out his try against Exeter in January 2018.

Sinoti Sinoti has just sent the Exeter Chiefs for a hot dog

What a try from Newcastle's big Samoan pic.twitter.com/MvvEL4R42u

— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) January 7, 2018

Said commentator Martin Gillingham: “Sinoti is so elusive, sometimes I’m not sure he knows himself which direction he’s moving in!” Leicester’s Alesana Tuilagi and David Lemi of Bristol, Wasps and Worcester were other wonderfully rampant Samoans.

11. Mike Brown (Harlequins, Newcastle Falcons and Leicester Tigers)

The spiky full-back accumulated 72 Premiership tries with a formidable work-rate and two qualities linked to his 16 years with Harlequins: longevity and a team style of expansive play. Carried on scoring in his late-career stints at Newcastle and Leicester.

10. Jeremy Guscott (Bath)

To score 67 league tries as a centre was an incredible feat by Guscott, another of rugby’s gliders whose shift of pace and sense of finding space flummoxed many a hapless defender. Other prolific scorers at Bath included Adedayo Adebayo, with 57 in the league, and Iain Balshaw on 52.

9. Danny Care (Leeds Tykes and Harlequins)

With his 85 career Premiership tries, the nippy Care is the solitary scrum-half among mostly wings in the upper reaches of the league’s all-time chart, thanks to clever ploys from line-outs, and sniffing around red-zone rucks for quick breaks past off-guard defences or any chance to use his deft footballer’s feet.

8. Paul Sackey (Bedford, London Irish, Wasps and Harlequins)

Sprinted and sashayed to 69 Premiership tries, and it could have been much more as he also spent three years at French clubs Toulon and Stade Francais. Buying and selling top-of-the-range cars was one sideline in an equally fast-moving off-field life for Sackey, and more recently – who knew? – he has been commercial director at York City FC.

7. Mark Cueto (Sale Sharks)

I once nicknamed him the “Goalline Goldmine” but thankfully the cheery Sale wing’s talent for scoring outshone mine for catchy phrases. The scuttling Cueto plundered 90 Premiership tries plus 20 for England, although not the one he should have been given in the 2007 World Cup final. Club-mate Steve Hanley was another prolific finisher, with 75 Premiership tries.

6. Sam Simmonds (Exeter Chiefs)

Dateline: Brentford Community Stadium, 18 May 2021. And a feeling of inevitability that Tuesday evening in West London as we watched Simmonds barrel over the line once, twice, three times against London Irish to break the Premiership’s try-scoring record of 17 held by Dominic Chapman and Christian Wade.

Profiting from Exeter’s trademark pick and goes, and pre-latched drives, the Chiefs No 8 eventually clocked 21 tries for the league season, including one in the play-off final. Thoughts of Simmonds prompt an honourable mention for another Exeter back-rower: Thomas “Toot Toot” Waldrom.

Four appearances
Five tries

Congratulations Jonny May! Your #AvivaPrem Player of the Month for October pic.twitter.com/UBKL1OX6qg

— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) November 15, 2017

5. Jonny May (Gloucester and Leicester Tigers)

Utterly dedicated to his fitness, the leggy May galloped to 78 Premiership tries across two spells with Gloucester, and three seasons in between at Leicester Tigers, where he snapped up nine scores in his first eight appearances. With 36 tries for England, May is behind only Rory Underwood on their country’s all-time list.

4. Neil Back (Nottingham and Leicester Tigers)

An incredible 77 tries in the Premiership and its predecessor, the Courage League, for the flanker whose regular scoring at Welford Road famously saw the local bookies take a caning before they belatedly adjusted his odds. And the tries weren’t all from rolling mauls, as “Backy” possessed great foot speed and a workaholic’s eye for a support line.

3. Tom Varndell (Leicester Tigers, Wasps and Bristol Bears)

A 6ft 3in glider who was said to have run 100 metres in 10.82 seconds in his socks at school, and was inspired by watching Jerry Guscott in his youth. Varndell began with a bang at Leicester Tigers, scoring 16 tries in his first 17 starts, he bagged a try on debut for England against Samoa in 2005, and he finished his Premiership career behind only Ashton and Wade, on 92 tries.

Sometimes you've just got to sit back and admire…

Chris Ashton has saved his best celebration for try No.101 #GallagherPrem | #LEIvEXE pic.twitter.com/mmPF7iBV3l

— PREM Rugby (@premrugby) April 16, 2023

2. Christian Wade (Wasps and Newcastle Red Bulls)

Two tries for the Prem’s bottom club Newcastle Red Bulls this season have inched Wade onto 95 for his career in the league, and maybe if he was playing for a better team, the 35-year-old would be closer to catching Ashton. Never mind – let us just remember and revel in the days when Wade was at his peak for Wasps, with scintillating speed off the mark, and bobs and weaves, before his dabble with American football.

1. Chris Ashton (Northampton Saints, Saracens, Sale Sharks, Harlequins, Worcester Warriors and Leicester Tigers)

As soon as he turned up at Northampton Saints from Wigan rugby league in 2007, you knew this man lived for scoring tries. Ashton’s tracking of the ball, he once told me, came from “playing full-back in league, and watching Shaun Edwards from a young age, seeing him score so many tries by just pouring through and always being the man inside”. Ashton’s 16 tries for Northampton topped the Premiership chart in 2009-10, and he is the league’s all-time record holder with 101 from his time with Saints, Saracens, Sale Sharks, Harlequins, Worcester Warriors and Leicester Tigers. Even in retirement, a gloriously competitive spirit means ‘Ashy’ is virtually begging Christian Wade not to overtake his record.