List of rugby union test caps leaders

This is a list of the leaders for caps in 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.

List

Last updated: 7 October 2018

Rank	Caps	Player	International team	First/Latest appearance	Primary position	Ref
1	148	Richie McCaw	New Zealand	2001–2015	Flanker	[1]
2	141	Brian O'Driscoll	Ireland (133) British and Irish Lions (8)	1999–2014	Centre	[2][3]
3	139	George Gregan	Australia	1994–2007	Scrum-half	[4][5]
4	134	Gethin Jenkins	Wales (129) British and Irish Lions (5)	2002–	Prop	[6]
=	134	Sergio Parisse	Italy	2002–	Number 8	[7]
6	132	Keven Mealamu	New Zealand	2002–2015	Hooker	[8]
7	130	Ronan O'Gara	Ireland (128) British and Irish Lions (2)	2000–2013	Fly-half	[9]
8	129	Stephen Moore	Australia	2005–2017	Hooker
9	127	Victor Matfield	South Africa	2001–2015	Lock	[10]
10	126	Alun Wyn Jones	Wales (117) British and Irish Lions (9)	2006–	Lock	[11]
11	124	Bryan Habana	South Africa	2004–2016	Wing	[12]
12	119	Martin Castrogiovanni	Italy	2002–2016	Prop	[13]
=	119	Jason Leonard	England (114) British and Irish Lions (5)	1990–2004	Prop	[14]
14	118	Fabien Pelous	France	1995–2007	Lock	[15]
=	118	Tony Woodcock	New Zealand	2002–2015	Prop	[16]
16	116	Adam Ashley-Cooper	Australia	2005–2016	Centre / Wing	[17]
=	116	Nathan Sharpe	Australia	2002–2012	Lock	[18]
18	115	Paul O'Connell	Ireland (108) British and Irish Lions (7)	2002–2015	Lock	[19]
19	114	Kieran Read	New Zealand	2008–	Number 8
20	113	Merab Kvirikashvili	Georgia	2003–	Fullback
21	112	Marco Bortolami	Italy	2001–2015	Lock	[20]
=	112	Dan Carter	New Zealand	2003–2015	Fly-half	[21]
=	112	Davit Kacharava	Georgia	2006–	Centre
24	111	Rory Best	Ireland	2005–	Hooker	[22]
=	111	Ross Ford	Scotland (110) British and Irish Lions (1)	2004–	Hooker	[23]
=	111	Philippe Sella	France	1982–1995	Centre	[24]
=	111	John Smit	South Africa	2000–2011	Hooker[25]	[26]
=	111	George Smith	Australia	2000–2013	Flanker	[27][28]
=	111	Florin Vlaicu	Romania	2006–	Centre
30	110	Stephen Jones	Wales (104) British and Irish Lions (6)	1998–2011	Fly-half	[29]
31	109	Jean de Villiers	South Africa	2004–2015	Centre	[30]
=	109	Chris Paterson	Scotland	1999–2011	Full-back	[31]
33	107	John Hayes	Ireland (105) British and Irish Lions (2)	2000–2011	Prop	[32][33]
=	107	Tendai Mtawarira	South Africa	2008–	Prop
35	106	Mauro Bergamasco	Italy	1998–2015	Flanker	[34]
=	106	Alessandro Zanni	Italy	2005–	Flanker	[35]
37	105	Sean Lamont	Scotland	2004–2016	Wing	[36]
=	105	Sam Whitelock	New Zealand	2010–	Lock
39	104	Martyn Williams	Wales (100) British and Irish Lions (4)	1996–2012	Flanker	[37]
40	103	Cătălin Fercu	Romania	2005–	Fullback
=	103	Owen Franks	New Zealand	2009–	Prop
=	103	Matt Giteau	Australia	2002–2016	Fly-half	[38]
=	103	Andrea Lo Cicero Vaina	Italy	2000–2013	Prop	[39]
=	103	Ma'a Nonu	New Zealand	2003–2015	Centre	[40]
=	103	Gareth Thomas	Wales (100) British and Irish Lions (3)	1995–2007	Utility back	[41][42]
46	102	Stephen Larkham	Australia	1996–2007	Fly-half	[4][43]
=	102	Percy Montgomery	South Africa	1997–2008	Fullback	[44]
48	101	David Campese	Australia	1982–1996	Wing	[45]
=	101	Alessandro Troncon	Italy	1994–2007	Scrum-half	[4][46]
=	101	Gonçalo Uva	Portugal	2004–	Lock
=	101	Vasco Uva	Portugal	2003–2016	Flanker	[47]
52	100	Giorgi Chkhaidze	Georgia	2002–	Number 8
=	100	Jamie Heaslip	Ireland (95) British and Irish Lions (5)	2006–2017	Number 8
=	100	Adam Jones	Wales (95) British and Irish Lions (5)	2002–2014	Prop	[48]
=	100	Mils Muliaina	New Zealand	2003–2011	Fullback	[49]
56	99	Sekope Kepu	Australia	2008–	Prop
=	99	Yuri Kushnarev	Russia	2005–	Fullback
=	99	Mike Phillips	Wales (94) British and Irish Lions (5)	2003–2015	Scrum-half	[50]
59	98	Raphaël Ibañez	France	1996–2007	Hooker	[51]
=	98	Donncha O'Callaghan	Ireland (94) British and Irish Lions (4)	2003–2013	Lock	[52]
=	98	Hitoshi Ono	Japan	2004-2016	Lock	[53]
=	98	Peter Stringer	Ireland	2000–2011	Scrum-half	[54]
63	97	Valentin Calafeteanu	Romania	2004–	Scrum-half
=	97	Victor Gresev	Russia	2006–	Flanker
=	97	Jamie Roberts	Wales (94) British and Irish Lions (3)	2008–	Centre
=	97	Jonny Wilkinson	England (91) British and Irish Lions (6)	1998–2011	Fly-half	[55]
67	96	Colin Charvis	Wales (94) British and Irish Lions (2)	1996–2007	Flanker	[56]
=	96	Will Genia	Australia	2009–	Scrum-half
=	96	Leonardo Ghiraldini	Italy	2006–	Hooker
70	95	Andrea Masi	Italy	1999–2015	Centre	[57]
71	94	Conrad Smith	New Zealand	2004–2015	Centre	[58]
72	93	Serge Blanco	France	1980–1991	Fullback	[59]
=	93	Dylan Hartley	England	2008–	Hooker
74	92	Sean Fitzpatrick	New Zealand	1986–1997	Hooker
=	92	Martin Johnson	England (84) British and Irish Lions (8)	1993–2003	Lock	[60][61]
=	92	Gareth Llewellyn	Wales	1989–2005	Lock	[62]
=	92	Malcolm O'Kelly	Ireland	1997–2009	Lock	[63]
=	92	Cristian Petre	Romania	2001–2012	Lock	[64]
79	91	Neil Jenkins	Wales (87) British and Irish Lions (4)	1990–2003	Fly-half	[65]
=	91	Rory Underwood	England (85) British and Irish Lions (6)	1984–1996	Wing	[66]
=	91	Shane Williams	Wales (87) British and Irish Lions (4)	2000–2011	Wing	[40]
82	90	Rob Simmons	Australia	2010-	Lock

Notes:

• Of the players known to have earned 90 or more caps, only five (Philippe Sella, David Campese, Serge Blanco, Sean Fitzpatrick, and Rory Underwood) were primarily active in the sport's amateur era. (On 26 August 1995 the sport's governing body, the International Rugby Board, declared the game "open" to professionalism.^[67]) 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.^[68]

See also

• List of leading rugby union test try scorers
• List of leading rugby union test point scorers
• List of leading international rugby union drop goal scorers
• List of top English points scorers and try scorers

References

External links

• Scrum.com