Louis Bielle-Biarrey: Records tumble around France star as Damian Penaud’s heels come into focus
Louis Bielle-Biarrey: Which records are next, and how quickly can he become the greatest?
France wing Louis Bielle-Biarrey is arguably the most in-form player in world rugby and is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
The 22-year-old has remarkably scored 55 tries in just 50 appearances for club and country in the past 17 months, making him the most prolific try scorer in elite-level rugby.
Despite having only been a member of the French national senior squad for a little over two years, Bielle-Biarrey is hot on the heels of Damian Penaud’s try-scoring record of 40. With 24 tries in 25 international matches, equating to a conversion ratio of 0.96, the Bordeaux-Begles wing should need only 15 more matches to break the record – assuming Penaud doesn’t add to the tally himself.
In terms of Six Nations statistics, Bielle-Biarrey still has some way to go to break the record he set last season for the number of tries in a single Six Nations campaign, when he ran in eight to eclipse Jacob Stockdale’s previous record. In doing so, he also equalled the all-time record for most tries in a single championship – joining England’s Cyril Lowe and Scotland’s Ian Smith, who scored eight tries in the 1914 and 1925 Five Nations respectively.
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While the French star chases various other records, his touchdown at the weekend in France’s impressive victory over Italy secured yet another notch in the history books, as he became the first player to ever score in eight consecutive rounds of the Six Nations. Having shared the existing record with England’s Tommy Freeman, Bielle-Biarrey has now stretched out ahead into a realm of his own.
The big target: becoming the top Tier One international try scorer of all time, is still quite some way off. Japan’s Daisuke Ohata is at the top with 69 tries, closely followed by Bryan Habana and David Campese, with 67 and 64 tries each.
It is worth noting, however, that Bielle-Biarrey has a higher try-scoring ratio than anyone on the top 58 Test try scorers list. At his current international scoring ratio, he will need to achieve only 72 caps to break the record. However, if going off his try scorer ratio of 1.1 from all competitions over the past 17 months, then he will need just 63 matches to break the deadlock.
Only Georgia’s Aka Tabutsadze, Portugal’s Rodrigo Marta and New Zealand’s Will Jordan look likely to threaten the top spot alongside Bielle-Biarrey.
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How fast is Louis Bielle-Biarrey?
French sprinting legend Christophe Lemaitre put the rugby superstar winger’s speed to the test recently, competing in a 50 metre foot race shared on CANAL+.
Bielle-Biarrey hit 38.5 kilometres per hour, which equates to a remarkable 10.69 metres per second, as he beat the French champion in front of his Bordeaux-Begles teammates to reinforce his spot as one of the fastest men in world rugby.
When asked what he thought about the young winger’s running technique, Lemaitre said: “He’s doing well. I gave him a little advice, it’s about adding a bit more rhythm at the start because he swings his legs too much. At the beginning, we need to create speed.
“For a contact sport like rugby, it’s true that it’s impressive that he’s able to generate speed in a very short space of time.”
