The ten most prolific finishers in the history of English rugby’s top flight.
Christian Wade has made a blistering start to the Gallagher PREM season, scoring five tries in Newcastle Red Bulls’ first three games. The prolific wing is now within a whisker of becoming the top try scorer in the history of the competition, and could equal (and even surpass) the record if he touches down against Sale Sharks this weekend.
Below we list the leading ten try scorers in PREM Rugby history, to see what Wade still has to do to top the chart, and which current players might be next to join the all-time greats.
Top 10 PREM try scorers: In brief
- Chris Ashton (101)
- Christian Wade* (100)
- Tom Varndell (92)
- Mark Cueto (90)
- Danny Care (85)
- Jonny May (78)
- Steve Hanley (75)
- Mike Brown (72)
- Matt Banahan (71)
- Paul Sackey (69)
*Currently playing in the PREM.
1. Chris Ashton
(Dave Wainwright for Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images)
- Number of PREM tries: 101
- Clubs: Northampton Saints, Saracens, Sale Sharks, Harlequins, Worcester Warriors, Leicester Tigers
The first player to cross the 100-try mark remains the most prolific finisher in PREM Rugby history – for now. Either side of a year in Toulon, Chris Ashton scored for all six of his Premiership employers, even touching down in one of his four games for Worcester Warriors.
2. Christian Wade*
(Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
- Number of PREM tries: 100
- Clubs: Wasps, Gloucester, Newcastle Red Bulls
The second man to notch up a century of PREM tries has Ashton in his sights. An all-action start to the 2026-27 season has seen Christian Wade notch up five scores in just three matches, despite playing for a Newcastle Red Bulls side that’s still looking for its first win of the season. Just think how many he’d have scored if he hadn’t spent all those years away in France and the NFL…
3. Tom Varndell
(David Rogers/Getty Images)
- Number of PREM tries: 92
- Clubs: Leicester Tigers, Wasps, Bristol Bears
Prolific for Leicester, Wasps and Bristol, Tom Varndell held the all-time scoring record for five years until Ashton sailed past him with a 2022 hat-trick for Leicester. In 2005, Varndell became the first player to be capped by both England’s XVs and Sevens sides in the space of a week.
4. Mark Cueto
(David Rogers/Getty Images)
- Number of PREM tries: 90
- Clubs: Sale Sharks
No player has scored more tries for a single club than Mark Cueto, who spent his entire career with Sale Sharks. His record on the wing earned him 55 caps for England and a start on the British & Irish Lions 2005 tour to New Zealand, and he was the overall PREM record holder until Tom Varndell pipped him in 2017.
5. Danny Care
(David Rogers/Getty Images)
- Number of PREM tries: 85
- Clubs: Leeds Tykes, Harlequins
The only player in this top 10 not to ply his trade in the back three, scrum-half Danny Care notched up his 85 tries (a club record) over nearly two decades behind the Harlequins scrum – he’s also second on the all-time list for Premiership appearances. Care’s best return was 12 (second highest in the PREM that year) during Quins’ 2020-21 title winning season.
6. Jonny May
(Dan Istitene/Getty Images)
- Number of PREM tries: 78
- Clubs: Gloucester Rugby, Leicester Tigers
The sight of Jonny May speeding towards the try line was the stuff of nightmares for opposition defenders, and he’d surely be higher up this list if he hadn’t spent the last two years of his career in France. May’s 36 tries for England put him second on the all-time list – only Rory Underwood touched down more for his country.
7. Steve Hanley
(John Gichigi/Getty Images)
- Number of PREM tries: 75
- Clubs: Sale Sharks
It’s definitely a question of what might have been for Steve Hanley (who, like Cueto, spent his entire career at Sale) after a back injury ended his career at 29. His strike rate of 75 in 135 matches (that’s a try every 1.8 matches) is comfortably the best on this list.
8. Mike Brown
(Steve Bardens/Getty Images for Harlequins)
- Number of PREM tries: 72
- Clubs: Harlequins, Newcastle Falcons, Leicester Tigers
Only three players have made more PREM appearances than Mike Brown, and the long-serving England full-back ended his career with an impressive record of a try every four games. He left Harlequins second in the club’s all-time list (behind teammate Care), and continued to cross the whitewash for Newcastle and Leicester.
9. Matt Banahan
(Bob Bradford – CameraSport via Getty Images)
- Number of PREM tries: 71
- Clubs: Bath Rugby, Gloucester Rugby
The only Jersey-born player on the list spent his entire PREM career in the West Country, a powerful presence on the wing and in the centres for Bath and Gloucester. History could have been very different, though – the 6’7” (2.01m) Banahan started out as a back-row forward, and even turned out at lock before his move to Bath.
10. Paul Sackey
(Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)
- Number of PREM tries: 69
- Clubs: Bedford Blues, London Irish, Wasps, Harlequins
Another player whose PREM scoring exploits were curtailed by a trip abroad, Sackey spent three seasons in France with Toulon and Stade Français. He tended to score wherever he played, however, and touched down 11 times in 22 appearances for England.
Top 10 PREM try scorers: the facts
- Wade needs one more try to equal Ashton’s record, and two or more to claim the record outright. It’s seemingly only a matter of time before he’s crowned the PREM’s most lethal marksman of all time.
- Every player in the top 10 PREM try-scorers list has played for England. Danny Care made the most appearances (101), while Christian Wade and Steve Hanley have each won a single cap for their country.
- The next active players likely to force their way into the top 10 PREM try-scorers list are Ollie Hassell-Collins (63 tries, London Irish/Leicester Tigers), Tommy Freeman (60 tries, Northampton Saints) and Cadan Murley (56 tries, Harlequins).
- Sam Simmonds holds the record for the most tries scored in a regular season, touching down 20 times for Exeter Chiefs in 2020-21. Next best are Noah Calouri (Saracens) and Freeman, who each scored 18 in the 2025-26 season.