Makazole Mapimpi moved into third place in the list of Springbok try-scorers with his five-pointer against Italy at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Gqeberha last Saturday.
Mapimpi broke out of a tie with Jaque Fourie to stand third on his own.
His 33 tries have come in just 47 Tests, giving him by far the best ‘tries per Test’ ratio for any player to have scored 20 or more tries.
Up next for Mapimpi is Joost van der Westhuizen who scored 38 times in his 89 Tests.
However, time is not on Mapimpi’s side as he’ll turn 35 on 26 July 2025.
Bryan Habana is South Africa’s all-time leading Test try-scorer with 67. It’s a record that’s unlikely to ever be broken with the modern day shift to selecting bigger squads and managing player workloads.
Meanwhile, hooker Malcolm Marx remains the Springboks’ all-time leading Test try-scorer for a forward with an impressive 22 tries in 78 Tests.
His ratio of 0.28 tries per Test is better than both Jean de Villiers and Percy Montgomery.
Springboks with 20 or more Test tries:
| Player | Tries | Tests | Tries/Test |
| Bryan Habana | 67 | 124 | 0.54 |
| Joost van der Westhuizen | 38 | 89 | 0.43 |
| Makazole Mapimpi | 33 | 47 | 0.70 |
| Jaque Fourie | 32 | 72 | 0.44 |
| Jean de Villiers | 27 | 109 | 0.25 |
| Breyton Paulse | 26 | 64 | 0.41 |
| Percy Montgomery | 25 | 102 | 0.25 |
| JP Pietersen | 24 | 70 | 0.34 |
| Malcolm Marx | 22 | 78 | 0.28 |
| Pieter Rossouw | 21 | 43 | 0.49 |
| James Small | 20 | 47 | 0.43 |
Are you surprised at any of the try-scoring stats above?
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