Part three of The Rugby Paper’s Top 20 best tries of all time sees Brendan Gallagher count down from 10 to 6.
6 John Kirwan – New Zealand v Italy 1987
Nobody knew if RWC1987 was going to be a success, New Zealand had fallen out of love with their All Blacks after the rebel tour of South Africa in 1986 and Eden Park was half empty for this opener. And then JK ran 90 yards and beat over half of the Italian team with an incredible high-speed slaloming run to light the place up and ignite the tournament. Afterwards he attributed it to training runs he had done in his local park, down a steep hill where they had recently planted hundreds of young trees. He learned, out of necessity, to sidestep and swerve at high speed.
7 Alexander Obolensky – England v New Zealand 1936
His first try was a cracker – check it out – but it’s his second that went down in history. Witnessed by 73,000 at Twickenham and replayed constantly ever since. It was the footwork of a ballerina that made the score, that and his blazing pace. England and Obolensky seemed to be going nowhere as he embarked on a speculative break before he threw the defence completely with a deft inside shuffle. Looking up ‘Obo’ then homed in on the left corner flag like a laser. It was an angle which, even to this day, you rarely, see used. Innovative as well as brilliant.
8 Andy Hancock – England v Scotland 1965
The most dramatic of Boy’s Own scores and possibly one of the longest ever individual Test tries. England were trailing 3-0 on a quagmire of a pitch when Mike Weston found left wing Hancock with a speculative pass. It was do or die. Hancock first dismissed a couple of straggling Scotland forwards with an outside swerve, then cut in to dismiss Stuart Wilson before he gathered himself for the lung-bursting final sprint, just holding off chasing centre Iain Laugland. Injury plagued Hancock and he only played one more Test.
9 Sean O’Brien – Lions v NZ 2017
An absolute masterpiece with more than a hint of the Barbarians classic in ‘73 in the way Liam Williams initially turned defence into attack after taking Anthony Watson’s pass. A nice unseen block from Ben Te’o, good hands from Jonathan Davies, clever in and out swerve from Elliot Daly, ditto Davies who had supported well and then finally big Sean O’Brien came steaming in for a glorious try. Wasn’t part of a Test-winning performance but it did serve notice the 2017 Lions were going to contest the series.
10 Richard Sharp – England v Scotland, 1963
An aesthetically beautiful try scored in the era when defences used to stand back rather than hover on the offside line. Early in the second half England had a scrum 40 yards out close to the right touchline. Sharp, the Cornishman who played for Wasps, took it at pace and sold one sumptuous dummy to break the first line. Then he seduced Scotland with another and, finally, with a man outside him, he couldn’t help himself and sold a third irresistible dummy to stroll over. It was like watching a conjuring trick.
