Peter Jackson sees the man overlooked by England lead the way when it comes to try time
ENGLAND chose seven different combinations last season from a squadron of eight wings, starting against Argentina with Jack Nowell and Joe Cokanasiga, finishing in Dublin with Anthony Watson and Henry Arundell.
Along the way they also picked Jonny May, Tom Freeman, Max Malins and Ollie Hassell-Collins, changing their starting pair so often that five started on the right (Nowell, Cokanaigna, Freeman, Malins, Watson) and five on the left (Cokanasigna, May, Hassell-Collins, Watson and Arundel).
Amid all the comings-and-goings at Test level, the one they didn't get round to picking went about his often spectacular business of doing what wings are supposed to do. Cadan Murley of Harlequins stands at the top of a very large heap as Europe's top try-scorer during a season of shrinking fixtures.
Despite his club's anti-climactic failure to make the play-offs as well as the four fewer matches caused by the implosion of Wasps and Worcester, Murley then had to wait another month to find out whether his total of 18 in 22 games would survive the final weeks of the Top 14 season.
And all those traditionalists who believe wings ought to inhabit the highest of perches will be relieved to learn that Murley managed to keep any one of almost half a dozen hookers beating him to it.
Four muscled their way into striking distance in what became a close-run thing. Tom Stewart, Ulster's uncapped hooker, finished one try behind, Leinster's Grand Slammer Dan Sheehan four behind along with Bristol's Harry Thacker and Johnny Matthews of Glasgow one further back.
In contrast to the crowded finish at the top of the try tree, Thomas Ramos turned the goalkicking marathon into a long procession. Despite a fiveweek ban in mid-season following his dismissal at Sale before Christmas, he finished so far ahead that only Antoine Hastoy and Finn Russell kept to within a hundred points.
Ramos went into last night's Top 14 final against La Rochelle with a season's haul of 143 goals from 27 matches, a prodigious total made all the more so by the fact that only Russell (120), Hastoy (117) and Owen Farrell (105) reached three figures.
Most tries (all matches) The Top 50:
18 Cadan Murley (Harlequins, 23 matches)
17 Ethan Dumortier (Lyon & France, 27 matches) Tom Stewart (Ulster, 19 matches)
16 Darcy Graham (Edinburgh & Scotland, 14 matches) Jiuta Wainiqolo (Toulon & Fiji, 27 matches)
15 Max Malins (Saracens & England, 22 matches) Damian Penaud (Clermont & France, 24 matches)
14 Emilien Gailleton (Pau, 18 matches) Mateo Carreras (Newcastle Falcons, 19 matches) Dan Sheehan (Leinster & Ireland, 24 matches) Gavin Coombes (Munster, 22 matches) Harry Thacker (Bristol B, 23 matches)
13 Alvereti Raka (Clermont, 28 matches)
Johnny Matthews (Glasgow Warriors, 19 matches)
12 Tom Freeman (Northampton Saints, 19 matches) Steff Evans (Scarlets, 23 matches) Tom Dunn (Bath, 23 matches) Emmanuel Meafou (Toulouse, 28 matches)
11 Simone Gesi (Zebre & Italy, 14 matches) Josh Adams (Cardiff & Wales, 19 matches) Caolin Blade (Connacht, 19 matches) Rio Dyer (Dragons & Wales, 22 matches)
10 Rob Russell (Leinster, 13 matches) Sebastien Cancelliere (Glasgow Warriors, 16 matches) Josh van der Flier (Leinster & Ireland, 19 matches) Sean Maitland (Saracens, 19 matches) Tom Roebuck (Sale Sharks, 20 matches) Mack Hansen (Connacht & Ireland, 22 matches) Alex Dombrandt (Harlequins & England, 22 matches) Ollie Hassell-Collins (London Irish & England, 23 matches) Julien Montoya (Leicester & Argentina, 23 matches) Duncan Paia'aua (Toulon, 22 matches) Gael Fickou (Racing & France, 24 matches) Thomas Ramos (Toulouse & France, 27 matches) Mathias Lebel (Toulouse, 27 matches) Ulupano Seuteni (La Rochell & Samoa, 28 matches)
9 Josh Bassett (Wasps & Harlequins) Pierre Bourgarit (La Rochelle) Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors & Scotland)
Ryan Conbeer (Scarlets) Santiago Cordero (Bordeaux & Argentina) Baptiste Couilloud (Lyon & France) Elliot Daly (Saracens) Thomas Darman (Montpellier) Huw Jones (Glasgow Warriors & Scotland) Joe Marchant (Harlequins & England) Byron McGuigan (Sale Sharks) Harry Randall (Bristol Bears) Garry Ringrose (Leinster & Ireland) Karl Steyn (Glasgow Warriors & Scotland) Josua (repeat Josua) Tuisova (Lyon & Fiji) Ollie Woodburn (Bath) Tom Young (Cardiff)
Most points (all matches) The Top 40
*405 Thomas Ramos (Toulouse & France) *319 Antoine Hastoy (La Rochelle) 314 Finn Russell (Racing & Scotland) 262 Owen Farrell (Saracens & England)
258 Joris Segonds (Stade Francais) 235 Louis Carbonel (Montpellier)
218 Paddy Jackson (London Irish)
Leo Berdeu (Lyon) 204 Zack Henry (Pau) 200 Benjamin Urdapilleta (Castres)
198 Rob du Preez (Sale Sharks)
193 Anthony Belleau (Toulon) 191 Tristan Tedder (Perpignan)
182 Camille Lopez (Bayonne) 179 Ross Byrne (Leinster & Ireland) 171 Mathieu Jalibert (Bordeaux & France) 161 Sam Costelow (Scarlets & Wales) 159 John Cooney (Ulster) 158 Jack Simmonds (Exeter Chiefs)
154 Emiliano Boffelli (Edinburgh & Argentina)
144 George Horne (Glasgow Warriors & Scotland) Handre Pollard (Leicester Tigers) Fin Smith (Northampton Saints)
137 AJ MacGinty (Bristol Bears & USA) 136 Marcus Smith (Harlequins & England)
133 Gaetan Germain (Bayonne)
132 Dan Biggar (Northampton, Toulon & Wales)
130 Jules Plisson (Clermont) 129 Melvyn Jaminet (Toulouse) 125 Brett Connon (Newcastle Falcons) 122 Antoine Gibert (Racing 92)
121 Tomas Albornoz (Benetton) Jack Carty (Connacht) Jacob Umaga (Wasps & Benetton)
119 Jarrod Evans (Cardiff) 117 Tomasso Allan (Harlequins & Italy)
Nicolas Sanchez (Brive)
112 Rhys Priestland (Cardiff & Wales) 103 Andy Goode (Saracens) 101 Maxime Lucu (Bordeaux & France) * Excludes last night's (Sat's) Top 14 final.
Most points in one match:
91 Zebre 34, Connacht 57 (United Rugby Championship) 90 Bath 61, Saracens 29 (Gallagher Premiership) 90 Bulls 78, Zebre 12 (United Rugby Championship) 88 Leinster 54, Sharks 34 (United Rugby Championship) 85 Exeter Chiefs 43, Harlequins 42 (Gallagher Premiership) 85 Sharks 50, Munster 35 (United Rugby Championship) 81 Brive 38, Racing 43 (Top 14)
Most tries in one match:
5 Johnny Matthews (Glasgow Warriors v Dragons) 4 Dan Sheehan (Leinster v Benetton)
Most tries in Tests:
8 Damian Penaud (France) 5 Duhan van der Merwe (Scotland) 4 Darcy Graham (Scotland) Mack Hansen (Ireland) Pierre Bruno (Italy) Rio Dyer (Wales) Jac Morgan (Wales) Kurt-Lee Arendse (South Africa
