Ranking the five best support players in Super League history

We all love a good team try but they’re only possible because of brilliant support play. Super League has been blessed with some top-notch support players who have turned poaching tries into an art form. So, today we’re ranking the five best in Super League history.

5. Richie Myler

Whilst at Warrington, Myler scored 81 tries in just 140 games which is a remarkable return of over one every other game. In fact, he produced similar records at Catalans and Salford. Initially at Leeds he struggled to produce the same level of support play but since moving to fullback, Myler has again been prolific largely down to his ability to support the breaks he usually engineers.

4. Rob Burrow

One of the few players to notch 100 Super League tries, Burrow was often on the shoulder of big forwards on their way to the tryline and his brilliant pace often enabled him to finish off those opportunities. He exploited the space created by Leeds’ signature offloads masterfully and was always there to back-up breaks from dominant centre Keith Senior.

3. James Roby

As all good hookers should, Roby always pushes down the middle channel waiting for the ball to find him again and that ability has seen him conjure up over 100 tries for St Helens. In the earlier part of his career, such an attribute was even more pronounced thanks to his speed and strength which allowed him to ease past attempted cover tackles after receiving the ball.

2. Brent Webb

Support play was at the heart of Leeds’ attack during their glory days and Brent Webb simply added to that when he arrived in 2007. Despite all the prolific scorers in that Leeds side, his first season saw him finish as the club’s top try scorer thanks to the number of breaks he backed up. He even did so on the biggest stage of them all when he finished off a superb passing play at Old Trafford to open the scoring in the 2007 decider.

1. Danny McGuire

Who else was it going to be? With 247 Super League tries to his name, he’s the league’s top scorer and plenty of them came because of his magnificent support play. He always seemed to know where the ball was going to end up and put himself there and scored. His most prolific season came in 2004 when he racked up 39 tries largely down to his ability to finish off the creative, offloading rugby Leeds conjured up all season. But it also benefited him at Old Trafford allowing him to score eight tries in nine Grand Final appearances.