Ranking the 5 Best Goalkickers in World Rugby Right Now

No man bears more individual pressure in a rugby team than the goalkicker. The spotlight falls upon him more intensely as he lines up his shot at goal than at any other point of the game.

During the 2015 Rugby World Cup we saw matches decided by pressure kicks in the dying embers of matches that were the difference between progression and a passport home. 

We have seen Lions tours hinge on the same sort of moments, and we have even seen club matches decided by penalty shootouts, during which the less-practised players find out just how hard it is to put ball between posts.

It's in those moments a goalkicker will call upon his processes, his mental strength and those hours and hours of practice long before and after training sessions start and finish to do his job, writing himself into history as either hero or fall guy.

This ranking is based on goalkicking performances at the 2015 World Cup as well as, for those who are already back in action, how they have been faring in domestic action since the tournament.

Here are the five best in the business right now.

All World Cup statistics referenced come courtesy of goalkickers.co.za.

5. Owen Farrell

The debate may have raged long and hard over Owen Farrell's selection for England's crunch matches in the World Cup, but not once was his goalkicking part of the debate about his perceived deficiencies.

The Saracens man was perfect from the tee against Wales with five penalties, a drop goal and conversion, and his stats for the tournament read 16 successes out of 18 attempts.

He has been sharing duties with veteran Charlie Hodgson at Saracens, but he has been in the driving seat in Europe and sits second in the points table with 46 after four games.

If, as Sarries' early-season form suggests, they are adding a dash more elan to their power game and Farrell is the architect of that, the quality of his goalkicking is going to make him devilishly hard for Eddie Jones to overlook for the starting England No. 10 jersey.

4. Bernard Foley

Australian Foley made his mark in the 2016 World Cup with the two tries he scored that helped dump England out of the tournament.

But those tries overshadowed what had been one of the best goalkicking performances of any player in the pool stages by the Waratahs man.

Foley missed just twice with a shot at goal in all four games before the knockout stages.

And he was then given the sternest test of nerve and accuracy—in biblical weather—with that last-minute penalty to win the quarter-final against Scotland.

The 26-year-old was up to the task, and his reputation as a somewhat hit-and-miss goalkicker was banished, having ranked as the 51st-best kicker in the 2014 Super Rugby season, per Fox Sports.

3. Dan Carter

Dan Carter signed off on his All Blacks career with a flawless display in the 2015 World Cup final that saw him kick 19 points, including a superbly taken drop goal.

That drop goal came at a time when Australia were elbowing their way back into the match and slammed the door on the Wallabies with one swing of his cultured left boot.

He had knocked over a similar effort in awful conditions in the semi-final that helped edge out the Springboks 20-18.

Carter ended the tournament with a success rate of 80.5 per cent and has carried his reliable form into the next chapter of his career at Racing 92.

The former Canterbury man kicked three conversions in his first outing for the Paris club as they defeated Northampton, and he was on song with three penalties a week later in a 9-9 draw with the same opposition.

Carter's temperament has been tested and proven at the highest level of the game. It would be no surprise if that cool head and all-round ability play a major role in bringing some silverware to the Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir.

He topped 2015 off by being named the BBC's overseas sports personality of the year, and even before he has retired fully, he stands as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, fly-half ever to play the game.

2. Nicolas Sanchez

Argentina No. 10 Nicolas Sanchez knocked over 33 of his 37 attempts at goal during the 2015 World Cup as the Pumas reached their second semi-final in three tournaments.

Sanchez's highest note of 2015 was his performance against Ireland in the World Cup quarter-final in which he kicked 23 points in their 43-20 win.

Sanchez has signed for the Argentine Super Rugby franchise that will enter the competition in 2016, leaving the star-studded surroundings of Toulon to tackle the best the Southern Hemisphere has to offer in a Los Jaguares squad that contains the vast majority of the successful Pumas national side.

The 26-year-old displayed during the World Cup that, allied to his reliable boot, he can ignite a back line with his visions and execution. The hard grounds and high tempo associated with Super Rugby may well suit him perfectly

1. Dan Biggar

Biggar was the most accurate goalkicker in the World Cup, with the highest percentage of any goalkicker—in the 90s—and his fidgety, unorthodox pre-kick routine spawned a new dance craze.

Described in the Telegraph by Will Greenwood as a “a man with itching powder in his kit,” Biggar was nerveless when the kicks were crucial, too.

This was never more evident than the booming three points he struck to give Wales the lead against England in their pivotal clash at Twickenham during the pool stages.

Biggar proved himself more than an able deputy to the injured Leigh Halfpenny, who would have shouldered the Lion’s share of goalkicking duties had he not been injured before the tournament.

Since the World Cup, Biggar has had a good first half to the 2015/16 season with the Ospreys and leads the points table in the Champions Cup with 60 after just four rounds of pool action.

For a player who has spent the first few years of his career in the shadow of the bigger personalities of Welsh Rugby, Biggar has reveled in the responsibility of being the first choice No. 10, and if there was a Lions tour tomorrow, he would edge out Jonny Sexton for the starting spot.