There’s plenty of records that are chased after in rugby league with one that is relevant at the moment being former Leeds Rhinos’ man Danny McGuire’s all time Super League try scoring record, with former teammate Ryan Hall leading the chase followed shortly by ex Wigan Warriors and current Leigh Leopards winger Josh Charnley.
McGuire currently sits atop the table with 247 Super League tries whilst Hall notches 235 and this season’s second highest try scorer in Charnley is a further ten back on 225.
One thing about records is that so often they’re skewed towards the attacking aspect of the game whether it be most tries, most points, most metres and so on which can leave defensive players out of the record books.
That’s not the case in the NRL with one man having just broke a 14-year-old defensive record in incredible fashion.
Saturday morning saw the reigning two time champions Penrith Panthers host former Hull FC man Craig Fitzgibbon’s Cronulla Sharks and whilst the Sharks left Penrith as 28-0 losers, one man left with a record.
That was second-rower Cameron McInnes with the forward amassing an incredible 84 tackles, more than one a minute, and taking the NRL record for most tackles in a game.
The previous best effort was set in 2009 by Michael Luck however Luck’s match went to extra time meaning he made 74 in 90 minutes, compared to McInnes’ incredible rate of over one tackle a minute.
McInnes understandably had to slow down after getting through such a mammoth workload as it turns out he had 51 tackles by half-time which is an insane effort.
Whilst in the end all those tackles were without reward in terms of a win, McInnes was given a glowing review by his coach Fitzgibbon.
“That’s Cam, he turns up every day, he’s so consistent,” Cronulla coach Craig Fitzgibbon said to the Sydney Morning Herald.
“He’s always got bark off him. The analyst in the box was looking at markers, whether he was declining energy-wise.
“But he didn’t, he looked great. I thought it was a hell of a knock.”
The result put the Panthers back atop the table whilst Cronulla slipped to seventh place with their playoff chances still alive, but looking more and more dangerous with the chasing pack growing.
