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1,844 caps: An all-time most test appearances XV
By Ian Cameron
Against France Welsh skipper Alun Wyn Jones drew level with the world record for most test appearances with Richie McCaw, where he played his 148th game - including nine British and Irish Lions test caps.
Barring some unseen incident or heretofore undisclosed injury, he will go on to set the record against Scotland on Six Nations Super Saturday.
In the professional era more Test matches are being played than ever before, and over the course of the last decade the record has changed hands several times. With that said, it could be some time before Jones' soon to be set record is broken.
The only currently active players near the cap summit are New Zealand's Sam Whitelock (118, New Zealand), who sits in joint 19th place, Romania's Florin Vlaicu (124) in joint 12th and Russia's Yuri Kushnarev in 25th with 115 caps. The latter two won't be adding any further caps in 2020, with Rugby Europe cancelling the remainder of the season in recent weeks.
Romania's Catalin Fercu also has 109 caps in 37th, but time is running out for the 34-year-old fullback.
George North, at just 28 could still be a shout with 95 caps to his name, although having begun his Test career at 18, the road years on the Welsh wing are considerably more than the average professional player of his age. Another fifty plus caps seems like a tall order for the hulking winger, who has shipped more than his fair share of body damage over the span of a storied career.
All Blacks scrumhalf Aaron Smith, still arguably the world's premier nine, currently has 94 caps to his name and could conceivably enjoy another four years of Test rugby, even in the shark pool that is New Zealand. A likely pension top-up in the form of an overseas contract could yet put pay to any aspirations Smith may have of summiting mount Test cap.
As it stands, with 1,844 caps between them, this is the most capped XV of all time.
ALL-TIME MOST TEST APPEARANCES XV
1: Gethin Jenkins (134, Wales and Lions)
2: Keven Mealamu (132, New Zealand)
3: Jason Leonard (119, England and Lions)
4: Alun Wyn Jones (148, Wales and Lions)
5: Victor Matfield (127, South Africa)
6: Alessandro Zanni (119, Italy)
7: Richie McCaw (148, New Zealand)
8: Sergio Parisse (142, Italy)
9: George Gregan (139, Australia)
10: Ronan O'Gara (130, Ireland and Lions)
11: Adam Ashley Cooper (121, Australia)
12: Florin Vlaicu (124, Romania)
13: Brian O'Driscoll (141, Ireland and Lions)
14: Bryan Habana (124, South Africa)
15: Yuri Kushnarev (115, Russia)
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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