As Rugby Sevens takes centre stage for the week that is the 2024 Olympic Games, some of the sport’s most incredible athletes will be on display for the world to see.
Combining endurance, power, pace and a bucket load of skills, sevens players are among the best athletes in the sport. Needing to be able to spring 100 meters immediately after making a tackle, the demands placed on the players is sometimes lost in the sideshows that surround the matches.
Whilst the current generation of sevens athletes including XV-a-side stars Antoine Dupont and Hugo Keenan strut their stuff, we decided to take a look back at the top ten sevens players of all time.
10. Seabelo Senatla – South Africa
South African Rugby’s top try scorer on the sevens circuit, Senatla, took over the series for five years between 2013-18. Scoring 230 tries in such a short period of time, it is fair to wonder whether he may have been the record holder by now had he remained in the game. Alas, his departure to the XV, a side game, has seen him win a BKT URC title with the DHL Stormers during a season in which he scored nine tries. Currently, the 31-year-old is on the comeback trail, having suffered a serious injury at the beginning of the 2023/24 season.
9. Collins Injera – Kenya
Third on the all time try scoring list and tenth on the points scoring list, Kenya’s superstar Collins Injera had a meteoric rise to the top. Starting his career with the Kenyan 7s team in 2006, he would play for sixteen years with 08/09 being his best season as he topped the try scoring charts with forty two. Alongside his brother Humphrey, Injera catapulted Kenyan Rugby from pretenders to contenders.
8. William Ryder – Fiji
Serevi 2.0 is how Ryder was pitched before he even set foot on the world stage for Fiji. Whilst there was always going to only ever be one Serevi, Ryder was a truly incredible talent in his own right. Renowned for his famed ‘goose step’, Ryder had an ability unlike just about anyone else to leave a defender completely flat-footed and clutching at air.
7. Perry Baker – USA
Arguably the greatest USA player across both 7s and XVs, speed merchant Baker sits second on the all-time try-scoring list behind Norton. Currently embroiled in his third Olympics, Baker transcended the sport in the 16/17 and 17/18 seasons when he was named World Rugby Sevens Player Of The Year.
6. Dan Norton – England
England’s ‘Billy Whizz’ had an outrageously productive career and remains the top try scorer in sevens history with 358 tries. Recorded to have run forty meters in 4.78 seconds, Norton was one of the very quickest players to have ever featured on the sevens circuit.
5. Junior Tomasi Cama – New Zealand
Following in his father’s footsteps as a truly magical player on the 7s series. Dominating for a full decade at the top level, the 2012 IRB International Sevens Player of the Year topped the points scoring charts in the 07/08 and 11/12 seasons. Three years after being named the best 7s player in the world, Cama retired from the playing ranks and immediately took up a role in the All Blacks 7s management team. At the time of writing, Cama is one of only two players to score more than 2000 points on the sevens series.
4. Cecil Afrika – South Africa
Blitzbokke star Afrika took the sport by storm a year after making his debut in the 2009/10 season. Scoring the most points (381) and tries (40) in the 2010-11 season, Afrika would unsurprisingly be named the IRB International Sevens Player of the Year that season. The creative playmaker would remain a key member of the South African set-up until 2020 when he called time on his sevens career to head to the USA’s Major League Rugby competition.
3. Ben Gollings – England
England’s 7s greatest-ever player and the sport’s overall record points scorer, Gollings, was a feature in the white jersey for over a decade. Gollings became the first sevens player to score over 2,000 points in his career during 2009 and would go on to finish his career with 2,652 points to secure a record that looks unlikely to be toppled for quite some time.
2. DJ Forbes – New Zealand
Sevens rugby’s version of Richie McCaw, iconic All Blacks 7s skipper, would begin his career in 2006. Two years later, he was named IRB International Sevens Player of the Year. Throughout his career, he was featured at 89 World Series tournament appearances and played in a record 512 World Series games, scoring 153 tries.
1. Waisale Serevi – Fiji
Our clear-cut number one for this list, the iconic Waisale Serevi, was a wizard on the pitch. Whether it was slipping through tackles, pulling off the most outlandish chip and chase or taking on opponents behind his goalposts, Serevi did it all. Making his debut in 1989, Serevi would go on to feature at four Rugby World Cup Sevens (1993, 1997, 2001, 2005), winning the tournament in 97 and 05 whilst scoring 297 points, including 21 tries. In addition to his 7s career, Serevi played for Fiji in three XV’s Rugby World Cup tournaments in 91,99 and 03.
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