The Springboks are an iconic presence on the landscape of both international rugby and life in South Africa.
There are hundreds of legendary Springboks stretching back over 100 years, but when it comes to try-scoring the records are dominated by modern stars.
None of the current group of players make the list with the leading tryscorer in the squad for the November internationals being Makazole Mapimpi who has 17 five-pointers to his name.
Most Springbok tries
Here we look at the six men who have scored the most tries for the Springboks in Test rugby.
6 Percy Montgomery – 25 tries in 102 Tests
Percy Montgomery came into a Springbok team in the midst of a revolution. After winning the World Cup in 1995, South African rugby were faced with the challenge of rapid professionalization and finding their place in the global game.
One of the players who would help influence the new way of playing would be Montgomery. He holds the distinction of scoring the most tries for a regular goalkicker. Not a single person above him on the try-scoring stakes has a kicked point to their name.
Montgomery scored on his Test debut against the British Lions in Pretoria and went on to notch eight five-pointers in 1997, playing his first six internationals at centre before shifting to fullback.
5 Breyton Paulse – 26 tries in 64 Tests
An electrifying yet diminutive winger Breyton Paulse proved that rugby is a game for people of all shapes and sizes.
Paulse scored a hat-trick on Test debut as South Africa hammered Italy 74-3 at Boet Erasmus. He was one of three debutants to get on the score sheet that day.
He missed out on winning a Rugby World Cup but Paulse did win the Tri-Nations with the Boks in 2004, scoring in the 40-26 win over the All Blacks at Ellis Park.
4 Jean de Villiers – 27 tries in 109 Tests
The intercept king, Jean de Villiers gave the Springboks something very different at the inside centre role.
The eventual Springbok skipper, made a habit of poaching tries out of thin air.
De Villiers scored in all but one of the Springboks 2004 Tri-Nations matches as the Green and Gold lifted the trophy for the second time. Injury robbed him of the opportunity to turn out at the 2007 World Cup and put a premature end to a glittering career.
3 Jaque Fourie – 32 tries in 72 Tests
Jaque Fourie made a try-scoring debut in 2003 at the World Cup when the Springboks beat Uruguay in a pool match 72-6 in Perth.
Four years later Fourie scored four tries on the way to the final of the World Cup in 2007, and he played at the Stade de France as the Springboks beat England 15-6 in Paris to win the Webb Ellis trophy for the second time.
He was known for his power and pace and will go down in history as one of the great Springbok 13s.
2 Joost van der Westhuizen – 38 tries in 89 Tests
Regarded by many as the greatest scrumhalf of all time, van der Westhuizen made an art of attacking space around the breakdown or scrum.
He tragically succumbed to motor neurone disease in 2011 just eight years after playing his final Test match.
Van der Westhuizen has two international hat-tricks to his name with the first coming against Wales in Cardiff in 1996 and the second against Uruguay at the 2003 World Cup. He was the try-scoring record holder for South Africa until being surpassed by Bryan Habana.
1 Bryan Habana – 67 tries in 129 tests – The most Springbok tries
Nobody has been able to maintain the levels that Bryan Habana achieved during his career and he stands out well above any other Springbok when it comes to crossing the whitewash.
He scored his first try when he came off the bench to debut against England at Twickenham in 2004 as the Boks went down 32-16. He is one of seven Springboks to score four tries or more in a Test.
Habana surpassed van der Westhuizen as South Africa’s all-time leading try-scorer at the 2011 World Cup and went on to nearly double his mark.
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