Record man Sam Simmonds did it the hard way – how the stats measure up

During the last season before the RFU plucked up the courage to organise League rugby, Dean Richards scored 20 tries for Leicester over the course of a 40-match campaign.

Yet not even the then Hinckley policeman at his rampaging best ever tore up the record book quite like an ex-footballer from Torquay. It puts Sam Simmonds' feat into an historical perspective.

Over the course of scoring 22 tries for Exeter, 21 in the Premiership plus one against Glasgow in the Champions Cup, Simmonds did so without any soft touches, well certainly none as relatively soft as Richards encountered 34 seasons earlier.

Leicester's fixtures in 1986-87 included Loughborough Students at home in late March which provided England's No.8 with his second try hat-trick of the season. He had similarly filled his boots when Oxford University visited Welford Road the previous autumn.

Even at that time when traditional fixtures had to be honoured and mis-matches abounded, forwards claiming 20 or more touchdowns in a single season were few and far between.

Alan Phillips, currently managing the Lions, claimed 23 as Cardiff 's hooker in 1983-84. Chris ‘Rambo' Huish, Pontypool's tearaway flanker, went one better that same season.

Six years later another Leicester back row forward, Simon Povoas, raised the total to 25. Peter Walton, a towering figure for Gosforth before and after their conversion into the Newcastle Falcons under Sir John Hall, matched the total in 1991-92.

He did so from all games that season, the majority of which would have been non-League friendlies which is not intended to detract from Walton's achievement. He would readily admit that Simmonds has raised the strike rate for No.8's to hitherto unscaled heights.

Simmonds not only beat the record but raised it by almost 25 per cent.

Dominic Chapman's 17 from the wing for Richmond had stood as a Premiership record since 1998.

Neil Back equalled it the following season and during the 20 years thereafter nobody came closer to breaking it than Simmonds' predecessor at the Chiefs, Thomas Waldrom. The New Zealander had to settle for a share, as did Christian Wade four seasons ago before leaving Wasps to try his luck in American football.

Such players have had their wings clipped since the comparatively carefree days of a time when the game was just that and not a profession. Several names leap out from the record book of the Eighties for the sheer number of tries in a single season. Brendan

Hanavan, for example, scored 49 for Fylde in 1986-87, including two hat-tricks, four against Nuneaton, five against Hartlepool Rovers and six against Colne & Nelson.

Alan Morley of Bristol and England scored 43 in 1983-84 en route to compiling a world record of 479. Mark Titley's 42 for Bridgend in the same season remains an untouchable number for the club.

South Wales Police wing Mark Brinkworth matched Titley try for try that season. Alun Edmunds racked up 41 for Neath in 1989-90 as Glynn Melville did for Otley the following season which only goes to show how the game has changed almost beyond recognition.