"Absolute legend" - Wayne Barnes smashes record during 2023 Rugby World Cup

In front of 80,000 fans at Stade de France and hundreds of millions more via broadcast and social media, the world of rugby united to crown the champions, concluding a remarkable Rugby World Cup.

Bettingexpert.com have tracked all the records broken in France during the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

Siya Kolisi (South Africa) became only the second player ever (and the first ever South African) to win the RWC twice as a captain – Kolisi was the captain in 2019 when South Africa won and he was the captain again in 2023 – the only player to ever win twice as a captain is Richie McCaw (New Zealand) who was the winning captain in 2011 and 2015.

Beauden Barrett (New Zealand) became the first player to ever score tries in two separate Rugby World Cup finals after scoring one in 2023 (and previously scoring one try in 2015)

Sam Whitelock (New Zealand) broke his third place tie with Sonny Bill Williams (New Zealand) for the most winning appearances (18) and he moved past Kevin Meleamu (19 winning appearances, New Zealand) and Richie McCaw (20 winning appearances, New Zealand) – since New Zealand made it to the finals, Whitelock is now the player with the most winning appearances with 23, 3 winning appearances ahead of the past record holder, Richie McCaw

Sam Whitelock (New Zealand) also broke the record for the most match appearances, previously held by Jason Leonard (England) and Richie McCaw (New Zealand) with 22 appearances each – Whitelock had 19 appearances before the 2023 RWC, now he has 26; Agustin Creevy (Argentina, 22 appearances) and James Slipper (21 appearances) also joined the top 5 rankings of the most appearances after the 2023 tournament with a second and third place tie, respectively

Handré Pollard (South Africa) entered the top 5 of the most overall points across all players and tournaments, tying for 3rd place with Michael Lynagh at 195 points

Henry Arundell (England) joined Chris Latham (Australia) and Josh Lewsey (England) as the player with the second most tries in one match (5), second only to to New Zealand’s Marc Ellis with 6 tries – Arundell’s 5 tries were achieved during England’s match with Chile; Darcy Graham (Scotland) also joined a list of 12 other players who achieved 4 tries in one match (Graham did so in the match against Romania)

Will Jordan (New Zealand) tied Jonah Lomu (NZ), Julian Savea (NZ) & Bryan Habana (South Africa) for the most tries in one tournament – 8 

George Ford (England) tied 3 other players for second place as the player with the most drop goals in a match (3) which was achieved during England’s match against Argentina

PJ Van Lill (Namibia) and Aranos Coetzee (Namibia) climbed up in the rankings for the most losing appearances in the RWC – Van Lill is now tied for 2nd place with 2 other players (12 losing appearances) and Coetzee is right behind him with 11 losing appearances alongside 7 other players.

Wayne Barnes became the first referee to officiate in five editions of the Rugby World Cup 

Richie Mo’Unga (New Zealand) climbed up higher in the rankings of the players with the most overall conversions across World Cups – he is currently in 3rd place with 38 overall conversions

Sam Cane (New Zealand) became the first player to ever receive a red card in the RWC Final

Mark Telea (New Zealand) broke the record for beating the most defenders during RWC finals (9), breaking Jonah Lomu’s record (8) from 1995

Ardie Savea (New Zealand) broke the record for the most carries in RWC finals – 22, breaking Billy Vunipola’s record (19) from 2019 

Pieter-Steph du Toit (South Africa), broke the record for the most tackles in a RWC final (28) breaking Richie McCaw’s record (18 tackles) from 2011.