List of rugby union Test caps leaders

This is a list of the all-time leaders for caps in men's rugby union Test matches, with a minimum of 90 confirmed Test caps. Unlike in cricket, where both countries must grant Test status for a match to be considered a Test, rugby union requires only one nation to recognise a match as a Test in order for it to be included in Test statistics for that nation. The British and Irish Lions and Pacific Islanders do not represent one specific nation, but are also considered Test teams because they are selected by a group of recognised national unions. Some nations have sometimes granted Test caps for matches against teams such as the invitational Barbarians side; these are included only if the player's nation actually granted a Test cap for a particular match.

Players who are still active at international level, or who have not yet announced international retirement, are in bold. Players who are still active at club level but have either retired from international rugby or have not been selected for their national team for a year or more are in italics.

Contents 1 List 2 Notes 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

List

Last updated: 23 October 2011.

Rank	Caps	Player	International team	Years	Primary position	Source(s)
1	139	George Gregan	Australia	1994–2007	Scrum-half	[1][2]
2	123	Brian O'Driscoll	Ireland (117) British and Irish Lions (6)	1999–	Centre	[3][4]
3	119	Jason Leonard	England (114) British and Irish Lions (5)	1990–2004	Prop	[5]
4	118	Fabien Pelous	France	1995–2007	Lock	[6]
=	118	Ronan O'Gara	Ireland (116) British and Irish Lions (2)	2000–	Fly-half	[7]
6	111	Philippe Sella	France	1982–1995	Centre	[8]
=	111	John Smit	South Africa	2000–2011	Hooker[9]	[10]
8	110	George Smith	Australia	2000–2009	Flanker	[11][12]
=	110	Victor Matfield	South Africa	2001–2011	Lock	[13]
=	110	Stephen Jones	Wales (104) British and Irish Lions (6)	1998–	Fly-half	[14]
11	109	Chris Paterson	Scotland	1999–2011	Utility back	[15]
12	107	John Hayes	Ireland (105) British and Irish Lions (2)	2000–2011	Prop	[16][17]
13	103	Gareth Thomas	Wales (100) British and Irish Lions (3)	1995–2007	Utility back	[18][19]
=	103	Richie McCaw	New Zealand	2001-	Flanker	[20]
=	103	Martyn Williams	Wales (99) British and Irish Lions (4)	1996–	Flanker	[21]
15	102	Stephen Larkham	Australia	1996–2007	Fly-half	[1][22]
=	102	Percy Montgomery	South Africa	1997–2008	Fullback	[23]
18	101	David Campese	Australia	1982–1996	Wing	[24]
=	101	Alessandro Troncon	Italy	1994–2007	Scrum-half	[1][25]
20	100	Mils Muliaina	New Zealand	2003-	Fullback	[26]
=	100	Nathan Sharpe	Australia	2002-	Lock	[27]
22	98	Raphaël Ibañez	France	1996–2007	Hooker	[28]
=	98	Peter Stringer	Ireland	2000–	Scrum-half	[29]
24	97	Jonny Wilkinson	England (91) British and Irish Lions (6)	1998-2011	Fly-half	[30]
25	96	Colin Charvis	Wales (94) British and Irish Lions (2)	1996–2007	Flanker	[31]
26	93	Serge Blanco	France	1980–1991	Fullback	[32]
27	92	Martin Johnson	England (84) British and Irish Lions (8)	1993–2003	Lock	[33][34]
=	92	Gareth Llewellyn	Wales	1989–2005	Lock	[35]
=	92	Malcolm O'Kelly	Ireland	1997–2009	Lock	[36]
=	92	Sean Fitzpatrick	New Zealand	1986–1997	Hooker	[36]
=	92	Keven Mealamu	New Zealand	2002-	Hooker	[37]
=	92	Matt Giteau	Australia	2002-2011	Fly-half	[38]
32	91	Neil Jenkins	Wales (87) British and Irish Lions (4)	1990–2003	Fly-half	[39]
=	91	Rory Underwood	England (85) British Lions (6)	1984–1996	Wing	[40]
=	91	Andrea Lo Cicero Vaina	Italy	2000-	Prop	[41]
36	90	Shane Williams	Wales (86) British and Irish Lions (4)	2000–2011	Wing	[42]

Notes

• Of the 36 players known to have earned 90 or more caps, only five — Philippe Sella, Serge Blanco, David Campese, Sean Fitzpatrick, and Rory Underwood —were primarily active in the sport's amateur era. (On August 26, 1995 the sport's governing body, the International Rugby Board, declared the game "open" to professionalism.^[43]) Only Blanco and Sella played Tests exclusively in the amateur era.

• Although the official site of the French Rugby Federation lists Olivier Magne with 90 caps, this is apparently in error. One of his Test appearances, a 1999 match against Wales, is counted twice in the list.^[44]

• Active players with 80-89 caps, reference, http://stats.scrum.com/statsguru/rugby/stats/index.html?class=1;template=results;type=player-
  • 88 caps
    • Marco Bortolami (Ita), 2001-
    • Mauro Bergamasco (Ita), 1998-
    • Paul O'Connell (Ire,82 /Lions,6), 2002-
  • 87 caps
    • Gethin Jenkins (Wal,80 / Lions,5), 2002-
  • 86 caps
    • Damien Traille (Fra), 2001-
  • 85 caps
    • Dan Carter (NZ), 2003-
    • Cristian Petre (Rom), 2001-
    • Mirco Bergamasco (Ita), 2002-
  • 84 caps
    • Sylvain Marconnet (Fra), 1998-
    • Donncha O'Callaghan (Ire,78 / Lions 4), 2003-
  • 83 caps
    • Salvatore Perugini (Ita), 2000-
    • Sergio Parisse (Ita), 2002-
    • Tony Woodcock (NZ), 2002-
  • 82 caps
    • Martin Castrogiovanni (Ita), 2002-
  • 80 caps
    • Stirling Mortlock (Aus), 2000-
    • Fabio Ongaro (Ita), 2000-

See also

• List of leading Rugby union Test try scorers
• List of leading Rugby union Test point scorers
• List of leading Rugby union drop goal scorers
• List of top English points scorers and try scorers

References

External links

• Scrum.com