Three Irish players feature in Europe’s top 20 try-scorers

Will big George get to add to his impressive try-scoring total.

With the season heading into its final two months, we thought it was a good time to take stock and tot up the numbers. Ulster's Craig Gilroy scored his 11th club try of the season against Cardiff, last Friday, and is far and away the leading Irishman this season in terms of crossing the whitewash. When it comes to topping the scoring charts for Europe elite clubs, however, he still has a ways to go. Leading light at this stage is Welsh winger George North, who has 14 tries. If Test tries were taken into account, he would be on 18. The 22-year-old scored against Fiji, last November, and blitzed in a recent hat-trick against Italy.

Europe's top try-scorers

1st: George North (Northampton Saints) Joint 2nd: Christian Wade (Wasps), David Smith (Toulon), Tom Waldrom (Exeter Chiefs) Joint 5th: Juan Inhoff (Racing Métro), Chris Ashton (Saracens) Joint 7th: Craig Gilroy (Ulster), Alipate Ratini (Grenoble) Joint 9th: Rhys Webb (Ospreys), Tom Lewington (London Irish), Hallam Amos (Dragons), Samu Manoa (Northampton Saints) Joint 13th: Julien Arias (Stade Francais), Metuisela Talebula (Bordeaux), Chris Wyles (Saracens), Tom Arscott (Exeter Chiefs) Joint 17th: Simon Zebo (Munster), Darren Cave (Ulster), Delon Armitage (Toulon), Naipolioni Nalaga (Clermont)

Irish provinces' top try-scorers

Ulster: Craig Gilroy (11) Munster: Simon Zebo (8) Connacht: Matt Healy & Danie Poolman (7) Leinster: Darragh Fanning (6) Figures compiled from LNR, Guinness PRO12, Aviva Premiership and EPCRugby.