Bryan Habana backs Rieko Ioane to break RWC record

Editor

Springbok great Bryan Habana has predicted that All Blacks speedster Rieko Ioane will break his Rugby World Cup try-scoring record.

Habana dotted down eight times in the Boks’ triumphant 2007 World Cup campaign in France, equalling the record set by late New Zealand legend Jonah Lomu in the 1999 global showpiece.

All Blacks wing Julian Savea matched that tally at the 2015 World Cup, but he has since lost his place in the side to Ioane with the 21-year-old scoring a scintillating 22 tries in 24 matches in his budding All Blacks career.

And with this incomparable strike rate, Habana believes Ioane is primed to better the current record of eight tries in a single World Cup tournament.

“To be brutally honest, I think it is written on the wall for Rieko to break the Rugby World Cup record of the most tries in one competition.

“He has a phenomenal strike rate… and has every opportunity to beat the record, and records are there to be broken,” Habana said.

Habana quit professional rugby in April, calling time on an illustrious career in which he scored 67 tries in 124 Tests.