Yesterday, Josh Charnley’s brace of tries against Toulouse took him to 201 Super League tries becoming only the third player to surpass the 200 mark.
The first player to do it was Danny McGuire, his 200th Super League touchdown came in 2012 when he toppled Keith Senior’s record of 199 Super League tries as Leeds defeated Wakefield 42-20 in the play-offs on their way to a sixth Grand Final triumph.
Nine years later McGuire’s former teammate Ryan Hall would become the second man to achieve the feat. Having spent time in the NRL with Sydney Roosters following a trophy-laden spell at Leeds, Hall returned to Super League with Hull KR and stamped his mark on the competition with plenty of tries including his 200th in Super League which ironically came against his former club Leeds.
Yesterday, Charnley’s 200th came on the back of a lovely assist from Stefan Ratchford and the former Wigan wing would go on to score his 201st later in the game as the Wolves won 38-12 in France against newly promoted Toulouse.
Ironically, the game would also see Toulouse’s Maxime Stefani score his 1st ever Super League try, so we saw two landmarks of very different sorts.
Charnley will no doubt be aiming for the number one spot now which is held by McGuire and his tally of 247. Ryan Hall also sits in front of him with 212 tries. Both Hall and Charnley are prolific and superb wingers so it’ll be interesting to see who gets closer to the record over the next couple of seasons.
Charnley does have a particularly impressive strike rate and is four years younger than Hall, so time is indeed on his side. If he can continue the form he’s started 2022 in or replicates the scoring exploits of his time with Wigan scoring 162 tries in 171 appearances, he may very well top McGuire’s efforts.
That’s certainly his aim with Charnley taking to Twitter after yesterday’s game to celebrate the landmark and state that he’s going to pursue top spot.
He said: “201, 3rd all time top try scorer. Coming for top spot!!”
201, 3rd all time top try scorer. Coming for top spot!! pic.twitter.com/wFHcksJ5yD
— Joshua Charnley (@Joshuacharnley) February 27, 2022
