Brendan Gallagher continues his enthralling series by looking at the most important dropped goals
TOP 20 …DROP GOALS NEXT WEEK Rugby-playing doctors
1. Jonny Wilkinson (Australia v England, 2003 World Cup Final)
There are all sorts of reasons for eulogising this dropped goal, ranging from England's clinically worked zigzag play after Lewis Moody's lineout win to Martin Johnson instinctively deciding England needed to make another couple of yards when Matt Dawson first started looking for Jonny Wilkinson. With barley 90 seconds of extra time left on the clock and the scores level at 17-17 everybody started working in sync again for England who had gone badly off the boil after reaching half-time 17-5 up with the game almost won.
But what is extra special about this historic kick is that Wilkinson unhesitatingly stepped up to the plate.
Remember he had already tried two dropped kicks in the game and come up well short, his confidence might have been shot. Like everybody else he was blowing hard and there was every excuse for hiding a little and letting somebody else take on the responsibility for winning the game.
Mike Catt had come on as a 79th minute replacement for Mike Tindall, Wilkinson could have let the much more experienced Cattie shoulder the burden and, in fact, as the play developed, my mind went back to Wembley 1999 and the Wales match when, even after Scott Gibbs had skipped over for his memorable try, England had a chance to salvage a Grand Slam with a final dropgoal attempt. On that occasion Catt stepped into the breach, demanded the ball and missed the attempt which even as a rookie 19-year-old Jonny was better qualified to take.
Not this time. From the moment the zigzag call went up Wilkinson knew that at some stage in the next 30-40 seconds he was going to have a kick to win the World Cup. Everybody knew it and that's what made Ian Robertson's radio commentary so memorable. This was it, this was the World Cup coming down to one single play… and Jonny delivered, right-footed!
2. Joel Stransky (South Africa v New Zealand, 1995 World Cup Final)
Outside of South Africa this gets overlooked a little, probably because there were so many Mandela-inspired Rainbow nation story lines surrounding the Boks success, not to mention the ‘Suzie the mystery waitress scandal' and all the politics going on in the background as rugby hurtled towards professionalism.
There was just too much to focus on. But this was a beaut.
The big picture is that this right footed drop-goal delivered the World Cup for South Africa with all its ramifications, the smaller picture is that it was always going to need a late dropped goal in extra time to win that particular tight tense game of rugby.
It was perhaps the obvious move but, coming straight from a scrum, South Africa didn't make it easy for Stransky.
He was 35 yards out and quite a way right of the post, this was a tricky kick even with the pressure off. Given what was actually at stake his beautifully struck nudge was nigh on miraculous. The only reason I don't give it equal billing with Jonny's effort is that with five minutes remaining the game was still very much felt in the balance.
There was surely another drama to follow…. but in the end New Zealand could not raise a final head of steam.
3. Stephen Larkham (Australia v South Africa 1999 World Cup SF)
A strangely overlooked cracker by a brilliant fly-half whose reputation was forged totally on his sensational running and passing.
Larkham kicked only two drop-goals in his life but this incredible 48 yard effort in extra time – with the score locked at 21-21 – finally gave theAussies the momentum to get over the line against the Boks. As the ball sailed through the posts, Larkham can't stop laughing and nor could his colleagues. He had no idea he could do that.
4 Dan Carter (New Zealand v Australia, 2015 World Cup Final)
As befits the all-time record points scorer in Test rugby (1,598), Carter had every weapon in his armoury including the DG when necessary and he unleashed a cracker at a crucial moment in his last ever international.
It was the 69th minutes and the obdurate Aussies had fought back to 21-17 and were defending hard against an ABs attack that was petering out when Aaron Smith threw a tired pass to DC who was standing in midfield about 42 metres out in front of the posts. The Aussie defence were there in numbers and fanning out to Carter's right expecting a pass or a break so, without a moment's hesitation, he stepped off his right foot and smacked home a sweetly struck left footer. I doubt if even two seconds earlier he was seriously thinking of a dropped goal.
5. Jerry Guscott (Lions v South Africa 1997)
As a dropped goal per se not the most difficult or spectacular kick but the consequences were massive, namely a series win over reigning world champions South Africa. Rarely has a team been so pummelled and frankly outplayed for so long in a match and yet not only survives but somehow bounced back to win.
That was down to phenomenal defence – a fired up Boks would have scored seven or eight tries against any other team that day – and the world class kicking of Neil Jenkins. At the death, 15-15 and it was Keith Wood, on one leg having ripped a calf muscle, who somehow broke up the left touchline to force a lineout.
Jeremy Davidson leaped high, the Lions pack mauled forward and then Gregor Townsend of all people trucked it up to within a fewyards of the line before Matt Dawson spotted Guscott in space and the great man popped it over from maybe 12 yards. The rest was hysteria.
6. Nick Evans (Harlequins v Stade de France 2008)
I rate this DG extremely highly because it was the first multi phase effort right at the death I can recall and came in an era when those long passages of play and ball retention were rare. Nor was it the inch by inch attrition you associate with some late dropped goals in this passage of play lasting 4 mins and 32 seconds and ending in the fourth minute of added time. Quins initially went looking for a try and the play was fast, open and furious with a handling error a real possibility. And then when Evans decided a DG was the way forward, he twice bailed out at the last second judging the moment wasn't right. It was muddy and dank and he needed to get as close as possible to up the percentages and it is just as well he did because as he admitted afterwards his tired match-winning kick resembled a dead duck as it died dramatically in flight.
7. Ronan O'Gara (Ireland v Wales 2009)
Another classic kick which saw Ireland home in an incredibly tense Grand Slam decider in Cardiff. As the Ireland team got reminded on a regular basis, they hadn't won a Grand Slam since 1948 and Wales away was a very tough finale. Denying Ireland a Slam was something worth fighting for. ROG nudged it over with just over two minutes remaining after his pack has set him up in textbook fashion but there was no celebration at the time. He ran straight back head down. This game wasn't done and he was right. With 37 seconds left Ireland conceded a penalty 48 yards out and Stephen Jones stepped forward. He seemed to make excellent contact and Adam Jones standing behind him started celebrating but it fell just short and O'Gara touched down, game over. His drop-goal had after all been the difference.
8. Johnny Sexton (Ireland v France 2018)
Forty-one phase marathon. Ireland had been in possession for nearly four minutes chasing an unlikely win with the attack originally starting at a lineout on their own 22. This was a slow burn, making a yard here and a yard there until they reached the halfway line when Sexton risked a cross field kick to Keith Earls where it looked like Ireland might cough up possession until Rob Kearney arrived to clear out. On Ireland went but for a while without Sexton who was on the deck trying to stretch off a cramp. Eventually he recovered and Ireland were still in possession but running on empty. The Ireland fly-half, some 45 metres out, instantly recognised that it was now or never. Back into the pocket he called for the ball from Conor Murray and went for broke. The raised fist went up early doors. He knew.
9. Rob Andrew (England v Australia, 1995 World Cup QF)
Before Jonny, England had Rob Andrew – his mentor at Newcastle – as their DG king with an impressive 23 in his Test career. None though were more crucial and sweetly struck than this 83rd minute match winner in Cape Town against the reigning world champions who had pipped England to the title four years earlier. It was 22-22 deep in added time – nobody but the ref knew in those days when the match would end –when Martin Bayfield won a lineout five yards into the Aussie half. The England forwards rumbled it forward expertly, but Andrew was still only just in front of the ten yard line and on quite an angle when he put his head down and made glorious connection with his right foot. A cracker.
10. Jannie De Beer (SA v England, 1999 World Cup QF, fifth kick!)
As an exhibition pure and simple of the art of dropped kicking nothing will match Jannie De Beer's five successful kicks at the Stade de France. Folk lore has it that Brendan Venter – banned and ineligible after some nasties against Uruguay – was partly involved having spent his spare time studying England's Pool games closely and concluding that for whatever reason they weren't asking Neil Back to fly off the back of scrums and lineouts to target fly-halves. He was going straight into covering mode. Venter knew what a phenomenal DG merchant De Beer was when given the opportunity from their Free State days and a plan was hatched. The first three pots were all beautifully struck 40 yard efforts, the fourth came from short range and the tumultuous fifth, a towering effort from 45 yards, clinched a famous and clinical win.
11. Bob Hiller (England v Ireland 1970)
Two screamers from about 45 yards out hit from an acute angle from virtually the same spot out on the left touchline salvaged a 9-3 win for an England team under the pump and staring at defeat. The second was the best as Hiller recalls: “For Quins I used to try about ten dropp-ed goals a match and drive them all quietly mad and we had a winger John Cox –my best man –who must have scored 30 tries from my missed dropped goals over the seasons. As soon as he saw me lining up for yet another DG he took off because he knew the mishits would head for the corner flag and those that fall short can cause confusion. Despite all the misses I did occasionally land a good one, especially from the position wide on the left. The first one of these two I didn't hit very well and it just managed to creep over but the second was probably the best I ever hit, it came straight out of the middle and went for miles. You hit two or three of those in your career if you are lucky.
12. JPR Williams (Lions v New Zealand (971, 4th Test)
Not a noted kicker, JPR kicked only one dropped goal in his life but it was an absolute screamer from about 48 yards on a clingy muddy surface to put the Lions 14-11 ahead in a match they needed to draw or better to win the series. A late New Zealand penalty saw the Test finish 14-14. Before the game everybody sensed it would be a tight Test and come down to the wire and after the final training session on the Friday JPR, to their surprise, asked Barry John and Bob Hiller to help him with his dropped goal technique.
They stayed behind for half an hour, not with a huge amount of success in JPR's quarter. Come the game though, with the adrenalin pumping he went into action. David Duckham, trying to keep an attack alive on the left touchline threw the ball infield where John Dawes gathered and passed to his full-back who was much nearer the halfway line than the ten yard line when he caught it and set himself for a mighty kick.
13. Ronan O'Gara (Munster v Northampton 2011)
Saints were threatening a deserved win on the night at fortress Thomond in this Heineken Cup first round match when the men in red launched a wide ranging 40-phase attack before, with a certain sense of inevitability, O'Gara applied the coup de grace. A remarkable effort although Saints fans will go to their graves believing there was a knock on midway through the sequence.
14. Frans Steyn (Racing Metro v Clermont, 2010)
A contender for the longest dropped goal ever with no obvious help from the elements. The strapping Bok received the ball well behind his own ten yard line, looked up, took a couple of paces forward and launched an absolute howitzer. He was, and is, a phenomenal kicker but this was extra special with the ball sailing high between the posts. Another 15 yards and it would still easily have sailed over.
15. Zinzan Brooke (New Zealand v England, World Cup SF 1995)
Outrageous stuff from Zinny. NZ were destroying England with 20 points in the first 20 minutes and were already, seemingly, in party mode. Will Carling failed to find touch and when Brooke fielded the ball five metres inside his half you sensed something was on, a 35 yard reverse pass perhaps which was another Zinny speciality. Instead he ran a few metres forward and launched a massive drop-goal attempt which never looked like missing. Brooke practiced his kicking all the time and landed another couple of DGs in his Test career.
16. David Bishop (Pontypool v Bridgend, Welsh Cup SF 1983)
Going into injury time and Pooler were home and hosed so it was party time. John Perkins won a lineout at the front 25 yards out and fed Bishop at scrumhalf who without a second thought smashed it right footed through the uprights at an acute angle from the five yard line to general astonishment, although I also saw him do it against Newbridge on another occasion.
17. Gerry Brand (South Africa v England 1932)
On a stormy day South Africa full-back Gerry Brand lined up for a speculative kick which has been estimated at between 80 and 85 yards taking into account the angle. Now Brand was well used to kicking large distances back home on the veldt and he made a really strong connection to send the ball high but the key factor was that the ball got caught in the wind and got blown down the ground towards Twickenham's old north stand. Alas no footage to verify the reports.
18. Wilf Wooller (Cambridge v Oxford, 1935)
The strapping Wales and Cambridge University centre was built like a lock and had a kick like a mule and a particular party piece was to pot dropped goals from half way with those heavy old leather monstrosities from the era. His most notable came in Cambridge's memorable 29-4 win over Oxford in the 1935 Varsity match when he was on target from just inside his own half.
19. Diego Dominguez (Italy v Scotland)
The little master enjoyed a good dropped goal – he potted 20 en route to 1,010 Test points – and there were three to savour in Italy's first ever Six Nations game, that memorable home win against Scotland. All three were dead certs from the moment he made contact but his third was the one that really convinced Italy it was going to be their day.
20. Mark Ring (Cardiff v London Welsh 1989)
Ringo was a gloriously extrovert one-off and having missed with three previous conversions decided to attempt a back heeled drop-kick for the fourth. Alas it hit the crossbar. For his little bit of showmanship he was required to write a letter of apology to London Welsh and reportedly banned from place kicking duties for a season.
