Six Nations 2025: The most accurate goal-kickers heading into the Championship

Jared Wright
Split image of England's Marcus Smith, Scotland's Finn Russell and France's Thomas Ramos.

We take a look at all the placekickers and how they have fared ahead of the Six Nations.

Ahead of the 2025 Six Nations, we dive into the stats of the kickers who are most likely to step up to the tee for their side during Rugby’s Greatest Championship.

A tournament famous for its clutch last-minute drop goals, conversions and penalties, the kickers are bound to play a massive role in deciding who will lift the title on Super Saturday.

While goal-kicking is becoming less important at club rugby level, it still remains a crucial part in deciding the fine margins of Test rugby, and this year’s Six Nations is bound to be no different.

With that in mind, we run through the likely place-kickers for each nation and assess their club form and how they fared during last year’s championship.

England

First choice: Marcus Smith

Last year, George Ford finished the Six Nations as the top scorer for England, racking up 48 points. However, since then Marcus Smith has jumped to the front of the queue and is England’s first choice number 10 heading into the tournament.

After missing crucial kicks at goal in the first Test match against the All Blacks, Smith has emphatically turned his fortunes around off the tee, crediting the upswing in learning how to control his breathing.

This has certainly paid dividends for Harlequins as he ranks as the most accurate placekicker in the Premiership this season, being successful with 27 of his 28 attempts at goal for a success rate of 96%. His kicking percentage in the Investec Champions Cup does drop to 75% having missed four of his 16 attempts but this season for his club, he is still boasting a respectable 88.6% off the tee. In the autumn for England, he maintained a high standard succeeding with 84.6% of his attempts.

Behind Marcus, England have solid placekickers in the form of Ford and Fin Smith.

Ford certainly had his hiccups off the tee in 2024 with England but prior to that he has been a safe and reliable option for the Red Rose throughout his career. Injuries have hampered his involvement for Sale this season meaning that his kicking statistics don’t paint an accurate picture. He did, however, kick at a 73.9% during the 2024 Six Nations.

As for Fin Smith, he boasts an adequate 80.95% success rate off the tee in the Premiership this season and ranks sixth overall for points scored, 78. That drops significantly to 66.67% in the Champions Cup after missing six of his 18 attempts.

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France

First choice: Thomas Ramos

Thomas Ramos finished the 2024 Six Nations as the championship’s top scorer with an impressive 63 points from the tee at 89.3% success rate. It was the second year in a row that he topped the point-scoring charts.

He missed just three of his 28 attempts in the Six Nations and it must be noted that he also takes the long-range shots at goal for France. Ramos is regarded as one of the most accurate placekickers in the world and his stats back that up; he has kicked at an 81.03% success rate in the Top 14 this season from 58 attempts with a slight increase to 82.35% in the Champions Cup. While those aren’t overly eye-catching numbers, his success rate with France jumped to an impressive 90% during the Autumn Nations Series last November.

In the event that Ramos does have an off day, France are not short on options in their squad with Romain Ntamack, Nolann Le Garrec, Maxime Lucu and Matthieu Jalibert being rather consistent off the tee too while we would not put it past Antoine Dupont to slot the odd conversion or penalty with ease either.

Racing 92 star Le Garrec is a prime example of Les Bleus’ depth from a placekicker point of view succeeding with 85.11% of his shots at goal in the Premiership. Bordeaux’s Maxime Lucu has lost ground to Le Garrec in the pecking order at scrum-half but does also offer an accurate boot having converted 87.5% of his 16 attempts in the Top 14.

Jalibert has been misfiring somewhat in the Top 14 having only succeeded with 68.57% of his 35 attempts while fellow fly-half Ntamack has knocked over 83.33% of his six shots at goal.

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Ireland

Front runner: Sam Prendergast

For a long time, Johnny Sexton was Ireland’s clear frontrunner for the number 10 jersey and the kicking duties but there is far less clarity heading into the 2025 tournament with Sam Prendergast and Jack Crowley battling it out for the jersey.

From a place-kicking point of view, Prendergast (88.24, 15/17) has the edge over Crowley (77.78, 18/22) in the Champions Cup but the pair are miles apart in the URC with the Munsterman missing 12 of his 17 attempts for a woeful 29% success rate while the Leinster youngster has a 90.91% success rate, missing just one of his 11 attempts.

While Crowley has struggled from the tee this season for Munster, he did not miss one of his seven kicks for Ireland in November and boasted a 74.1% success rate in the Six Nations steering his side to the title.

Meanwhile, Ciaran Frawley adds an extra layer of placekicking depth having succeeded with seven of his nine attempts in the URC. Finally, Conor Murray has been a handy emergency option for club and country in the past and is a long-range kicker too. However, he has not kicked often enough in games to provide fair data.

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Italy

First choice: Tommaso Allan

Italy’s go-to placekicker will be reliant on Gonzalo Quesada’s selection calls. If the former Argentina back does select Tommaso Allan in the full-back role as he did at the start of last year’s Six Nations, then he is likely to take on the duties.

Allan has kicked at a 77.14% success rate for Perpignan this season, sharing the kicking duties with Antoine Aucagne.

Paolo Garbisi has also taken on the duties for the Azzurri and matched Allan’s 75% success rate in the Six Nations last year. Garbisi is not the first-choice kicker for his club team Toulon with Baptiste Serin favoured while Dan Biggar is also on the payroll. This means that he has just 14 attempts this season and has been successful just 57% of the time in the Top 14.

Scrum-half is a hotly contested position in the Italy squad and they have another kicking option there with Martin Page-Relo who nailed three from three in the Six Nations last year. However, he has not kicked at all for Lyon in the Top 14 this season.

Scotland

First choice: Finn Russell

Finn Russell has become deadly accurate off the tee in recent seasons both for club and country. Last Six Nations, he boasted an impressive 95.7% success rate, converting 22 of his 23 attempts – the best success rate of any player to make more than five shots at goal.

For Bath this season, his Premiership success rate has dropped to 77.42% but in the Champions Cup he has succeeded with 92.31% of his 13 attempts, missing just once.

Behind Russell, Scotland do have several kicking options in the form of Blair Kinghorn, George Horne, Fergus Burke and Tom Jordan.

Jordan is perhaps the most reliable option with an 80% success rate in the URC and went three from six in the Champions Cup. Meanwhile, Kinghorn has been used sparingly for Toulouse with just 12 attempts on goal, missing five.

Horne, meanwhile, has knocked over 71% of his shots at for Glasgow in the URC while Burke has struggled to find his radar with Saracens converting just 64.71% of his attempts in the Premiership.

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Wales

First choice: Ben Thomas

With Sam Costelow sidelined through injury, Cardiff’s Ben Thomas is set to take the kicking duties for Wales this Six Nations.

In the URC, Thomas has kicked just once for his region and he converted it. When he featured for Wales last November, it was the likes of Gareth Anscombe and Costelow who mostly took on the kicking duties.

However, if we rewind back to July last year, Thomas succeeded with 85.71% of his attempts in the two Tests against Australia, missing just one of his seven attempts.

Wales do have more regular kicking option behind Thomas in the form of Dan Edwards who is set to make his Test debut in the Six Nations.

The Ospreys playmaker has kicked at 85.71% in the URC this season, succeeding with 17 of 21 attempts, and in the Challenge Cup he has knocked over 90.91% of his 11 shots at goal.

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