By Charlie Elliott
After Damian Penaud’s heroics for Bordeaux Begles against Sharks over the weekend, having broken the Champions Cup record for tries in a single game with an immense six, we look back at five times where players have got five or more tries in a single game.
Hat-tricks have now become a somewhat regular occurrence, with Tom Seabrook and Cormac Izuchukwu achieving this accolade this weekend alone, but five or more remains an exceptional achievement for any player.
Henry Arundell (England 71-0 Chile, 2023 Rugby World Cup)
England winger Arundell starts off this list with a mega haul in the last World Cup in a hugely one-sided pool match, to say the least.
His speed was unstoppable in Lille and Chile had no answers to any of the England players, least of all Henry.
He has since waived his eligibility for the national team after moving to Racing 92 in the Top 14 straight after this tournament, but this performance will be remembered for years to come.
A huge miss for England and someone that Steve Borthwick could do with going into the Six Nations.
Damian Penaud (Bordeaux Begles 66-12 Sharks, 2024/25 Champions Cup)
The reason why this list exists is thanks to winger Penaud who showed no mercy to the Sharks and notched himself a mighty six tries over the weekend, a Champions Cup record.
Bordeaux’s South African opponents needed to avoid being defeated by less than 29 points to avoid dropping into the Challenge Cup, but it soon became apparent that Penaud had different ideas.
A hat-trick in both halves had some nice symmetry to it, with the France international capitalising on some weak defending to dot down with ease for the bulk of his scores.
You create your own luck, and Damian was exactly where he needed to be when he needed to be there.
Matt Cardey (Llanelli 93-14 Calvisano, 2001/02 Champins Cup)
Cardey will be devastated to learn that his jointly held record of five tries in a Champions Cup game was decimated over the weekend by Penaud, but will find solace in the fact that he has held the record for over 20 years.
Gloucester winger Tom Beim was the other who lost his record, with his tries having come against Roma in the 2000/2001 season.
It was so dominant from Llanelli that it raised questions about Italian teams in the competition.
His involvements came thanks to the Welsh side abandoning all use of their feet and continuously spreading the ball wide, which led to Cardey being set free time and time again.
Although he was playing full-back on this occasion, the positions he took up were much more comparable to an out-and-out winger, with actual winger Wayne Proctor also getting a hat trick in this particular game.
Marc Ellis (New Zealand 145-17 Japan, 1995 Rugby World Cup)
This loss for Japan was blamed for setting back the development of Japanese rugby by several years, Ellis and the All Blacks were that good.
One of the rare instances where such a high-scoring player wasn’t on the wing, Marc started at centre in this game.
It remains the record for the most tries scored in a World Cup game, as well as the highest-scoring match in the history of the competition.
Left completely on his own at times, it was the easiest game of rugby he will ever play, even when play got congested the former Otago utility back managed to weave away with ease.
It could have been even more for him, as there were a few more openings that could have easily been capitalised on, but Ellis can’t be criticised too much since he did break a record that still stands today.
Christian Wade (Worcester Warriors 35-54 Wasps, 2015 Premiership)
By a very strange coincidence, the record number of tries in a single Premiership game is jointly held by two games that happened on the same day, but 15 years apart.
Ryan Constable initially held the title for Saracens after they beat Bedford on the 16th of April, 2000.
But in his 100th Wasps appearance, winger Wade crossed the line six times to mark his name in the history books, with it also being only the second time a player has scored four in the first half in the Prem.
The electric winger was at his best and poor defending from both sides led to an end-to-end game which was one of the best seen in the competition.
READ MORE: Champions Cup Team of the Week – Toulouse stars shine and Damian Penaud runs riot