With help from stattos beavering away in various dark, cobweb-ridden, subterranean data storage rooms around the globe, Planet Rugby takes a look at the best – and worst – of 2024 expressed in numerical form.
The year is coming to a close and what a great 12 months it has been, filled with Six Nations glory, Rugby Championship, Champions Cup, Super Rugby Pacific triumphs and much more.
2 – That represents the number of World Rugby Player of the Year awards in the possession of Springboks back-row Pieter-Steph du Toit after he was crowned the world’s best again this year. He first won the award in 2019 and joined Beauden Barrett as the only other player who has won two Player of the Year gongs, with two players in history having won three – All Blacks Richie McCaw and Dan Carter.
8 – The number of consecutive Tests in which Damian McKenzie started at fly-half for the All Blacks in 2024. Head coach Scott Robertson kicked off the year with McKenzie wearing the number 10 jersey against England and he retained his spot in the starting line-up until he was dropped for the second Bledisloe Cup clash against the Wallabies in Wellington.
Springboks’ record holder
131 – That is the number of Tests played by the Springboks most capped international, Eben Etzebeth. The behemoth second-row broke the previous record of 127 Test appearances when he took to the field against Argentina in a Rugby Championship Test in Nelspruit.
10 – That is how many Tests England‘s Women’s team, the Red Roses, played in 2024 and it also represents the number of victories they racked up during that period. A fantastic achievement!
14 – Is the number of tries scored at Test level by Red Roses and Harlequins full-back Ellie Kildunne in 2024. What made her achievement so remarkable is that she achieved it in just nine matches and her try-scoring exploits saw her being crowned as World Rugby’s Women’s Player of the Year.
21 – Is how many years the Blues had to wait before they won their first full Super Rugby title again. They last won the southern hemisphere competition in 2003 but their title drought ended when they beat the Chiefs in this year’s Super Rugby Pacific final at Eden Park.
6 – That is the number of Investec Champions Cup trophies Toulouse have won over the years which makes them the most successful club in the history of that tournament. They won their sixth title when they clinched a 31-22 triumph over Leinster in this year’s final.
3 – The number of times in as many years that Leinster have lost in Investec Champions Cup finals. This year’s defeat to Toulouse follows back-to-back losses against La Rochelle in the 2022 and 2023 finals.
85 – Is how many points Harlequins fly-half Marcus Smith scored during the 2023/24 Investec Champions Cup, which made him the tournament’s top points-scorer at an average of 12.14 per match.
50 – Indicates the number of players used by Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus during all their Tests this year. Although that is a large amount, it fell short of the record tally of 52 players used by former Boks coach Jake White in 2007.
12 – Represents how many players made their Test debuts for South Africa in 2024. They are: Jordan Hendrikse, Edwill van der Merwe, Ben-Jason Dixon, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Johan Grobbelaar, Phepsi Buthelezi, Morne van den Berg, Andre-Hugo Venter, Ruan Venter, Quan Horn and Cameron Hanekom.
69 – That is how many tries Australian speedster Madison Levi scored for her country during the 2023/24 Women’s World Rugby SVNS Series. Levi’s tally is a whopping 16 tries more than her closest rival, New Zealand’s Michaela Blyde, and is more than double the number scored by the leading try-scorer on the 2023/24 Men’s World Rugby SVNS Series, Ireland’s Terry Kennedy, who scored 32 five-pointers.
66,000 – That is how many spectators watched the opening day of the Olympic Games Women’s Sevens at the Stade de France in Paris, setting a new record for attendance at a women’s rugby event. It overtook the previous figure of 58,498 at Twickenham for England v France in 2023.
11 – That represents the number of Tests which Wales played in 2024 with them finishing on the losing side in all of those encounters. It means Wales ended the calendar year winless for the first time since 1937 and they are currently on a 12-match losing streak which stretches back to 2023.
Antoine Dupont’s impressive trophy haul
30 – Is how many individual awards France and Toulouse scrum-half Antoine Dupont has won during his career. This, after he won the Best Top 14 Player of the Season as well as the Best French International Player at the 20th Nuit du Rugby Awards evening in September.
38 – That is the current number of Test tries which Will Jordan has scored for the All Blacks in just 41 appearances. It means he is on course to overtake Doug Howlett’s all-time record of 49 tries for the men in black.
5 – The number of Tests which All Blacks assistant coach Leon MacDonald spent with the team before stepping down from his position. This, after MacDonald and All Blacks boss Robertson had differing views on approach, methodology and how the game should be played.
63 – France utility back Thomas Ramos’ number of points racked up during the Six Nations which made him the leading points-scorer in this year’s championship, averaging 12.6 per match.
9 – Is how many years South Africa had to wait before winning the HSBC SVNS Cape Town title. The Blitzboks last won their home tournament in 2015 but ended that drought when they beat France 26-14 in a pulsating final at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town early in December.
15 – That is how many years former England and Harlequins front-row Joe Marler’s career as a professional rugby player lasted until his retirement at the end of November. During that time, the 34-year-old made 286 appearances for Quins and won 95 Test caps.
