Which player has won the most rugby premierships?


Premiership Rugby has seen some phenomenal players in the history of the competition, but even the very best players have not always had the most success when it comes to

Premiership titles. So who has the most Premiership Rugby titles? 

Which player has won the most Rugby Premierships? Richard Wigglesworth has won the Premiership Rugby title the most times, with seven titles in total, collected with three different teams. 

For anyone who knows a bit about Premiership Rugby, it can’t be that surprising to hear that the player with the most appearances in the competition is also the player with the most Premiership titles. 

Richard Wigglesworth is by far the most experienced player in Premiership Rugby, currently with more than 50 greater appearances than Steve Borthwick who is in second. So it is no surprise that Wigglesworth has managed to accumulate seven Premiership titles particularly when you find out that Wigglesworth spent the majority of his career with Saracens. 

Richard Wigglesworth Rugby Premiership titles 

As it was quite a while ago now, many people will forget that Wigglesworth came through the academy of Sale Sharks, having worked his way through the academy ranks before becoming the starter at scrum half in the mid-2000s. Sale were not a hugely successful side at this time. 

But they did have one very successful campaign, reaching the Premiership final in 2006. Sale were able to outscore Leicester Tigers with ease, with Wigglesworth starting the game that finished 45-20 and it gave Wigglesworth the first title of his career. In the search for further success, he chose to depart for Saracens with Sale dropping out of title contention. 

The search for success meant Wigglesworth did not immediately become the starter for Saracens, taking his time to knock Neil de Kock out of that position. Wigglesworth did play a role in Saracens’ second Premiership title, coming off the bench in the 50th minute as Saracens edged past Leicester Tigers. 

Wigglesworth became the starter after Saracens lost the 2014 Premiership final. Wigglesworth started in the final a year later with de Kock moved to the bench. He was crucial in Saracens’ success in the final, with the team only scoring three points in the 25 minutes he was off the field. 

It was enough though for Saracens to win another title, giving Wigglesworth his third, with his forthcoming just a year later as he was once again the starter as Saracens beat Exeter in the final. By this point, Wigglesworth was the nailed-on starter for Saracens even as he passed the age of 35. 

Just a couple of weeks before turning 35 Wigglesworth started in another Premiership final and outplayed Australian Nic White as Saracens comfortably beat Exeter. With age catching up, Wigglesworth was demoted to the bench a year later but still played 38 minutes as Saracens edged past Exeter in a brilliant Premiership final. 

At the end of the 2019-20 season, Wigglesworth was let go by Saracens and it looked like his career was over. However, a couple of months into the season he signed for Leicester Tigers for the 2020-21 season and it was with Leicester that he got past 300 appearances in the Premiership. 

Wigglesworth became a player/coach with Leicester and did not appear a huge amount in the Premiership. But he still played a crucial role the season later as Leicester finished the season top of the Premiership and beat Northampton on their way to the final. 

Tigers coach Steve Borthwick decided to go with experience for the final and Wigglesworth started, with England’s record appearance maker Ben Youngs demoted to the bench. It turned out to be an excellent decision from Borthwick as Wigglesworth played very well in his 63 minutes before being replaced by Youngs. 

An 80th-minute drop goal from Freddie Burns meant that Wigglesworth collected his seventh Premiership title and it is a record that will be very difficult to beat. 

Rugby Premiership top try scorers all time 

3. Mark Cueto- 90 

Having worked his way through the academy of Sale Sharks, Mark Cueto made his Sale debut in 2001 and quickly showed his talent, being taken on the England tour of Argentina just a year later. This agility and try-scoring ability was part of the reason for Cueto being selected to play for England Sevens the same year he made his England debut. 

Throughout his career with Sale, Cueto was a consistently excellent try scorer, even leading the Premiership in tries in his first season in the league. He consistently played excellently for Sale and scored a try in the 2006 Premiership final which was Sales’ only Premiership title success and still is. In 2013 he scored his 76th try of his career which broke the previous Premiership record of 75 set by Steve Hanley 

2. Tom Varndell- 92 

Tom Varndell was one of the most exciting players to watch in Premiership Rugby and his ability was recognised by the Sevens team much like Cueto, with Varndell winning silver with the team in the 2006 Commonwealth games. 

In his time with three different Premiership teams, Varndell led the league in tries on three separate occasions, including two seasons where he scored 14 tries. This try-scoring led to just four England caps despite some phenomenal try-scoring. In his first Premiership season, Varndell scored the fastest hat trick of tries in Premiership history, with three coming in just 13 minutes. 

Varndell broke the Premiership try-scoring record In 2017, finishing his career with 92 tries in the Premiership. 

1. Chris Ashton- 98 

At the time of writing, Chris Ashton looks incredibly likely to become the first player to score a century of Premiership Rugby tries. The winger made his Premiership debut in 2007 and has since played for six different teams in the league, scoring plenty of tries with all of them.

He broke Tom Varndells’ try-scoring record with Leicester Tigers in 2022. 

What is most incredible about Ashtons’ try-scoring record is that he has only led the Premiership in try-scoring once, having been named the Premiership Player of the Year in 2009-10 thanks to 16 tries in 20 games.

Recent Posts