Since the inception of the Rugby World Cup in 1987, a total of 69 players have scored three tries or drop goals (a hat-trick) in a single match. The first player to achieve the feat was Craig Green, who scored four tries in New Zealand's 74–13 victory over Fiji during the 1987 Rugby World Cup. His teammate John Gallagher also scored four tries in this match. Besides Green and Gallagher, 15 players have scored more than three tries in a match; of these, Chris Latham and Josh Lewsey have scored five, while Marc Ellis scored six in New Zealand's 145–17 victory against Japan in 1995. Two of Ellis's teammates, Eric Rush and Jeff Wilson, also scored hat-tricks in this game. Five players have scored a hat-trick of drop goals: Jannie de Beer, Jonny Wilkinson, Juan Martín Hernández, Theuns Kotzé and George Ford. Of these, de Beer scored the most in one match, with five drop goals in South Africa's 44–21 victory over England in the 1999 Rugby World Cup.
Hat-tricks are more likely to occur in the pool stages, where higher ranked teams, such as New Zealand, who have scored fourteen World Cup hat-tricks, face lower ranked opposition, such as Namibia, who have conceded hat-tricks on ten occasions. There have only been seven hat-tricks in the World Cup knockout stages: Chester Williams and Jonah Lomu in 1995, de Beer in 1999, Wilkinson in 2003, Julian Savea and Adam Ashley-Cooper in 2015 and Will Jordan in 2023.
Six players have scored two World Cup hat-tricks, Savea being the only one to have scored both in the same tournament. Of the six teams in the Six Nations and four in the Rugby Championship teams, only Italy have failed to score a hat-trick at the World Cup. Fiji, Namibia and Samoa are the only other teams to score a hat-trick, which were scored by Vereniki Goneva, Kotze and Alesana Tuilagi, respectively. Goneva and Kotze's hat-tricks are the only time players on opposing teams have accomplished this feat in the same match at the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
Hat-tricks Unless noted otherwise, the players listed below scored a hat-trick of tries. +KeyD3Player scored hat-trick of drop goalsD5Player scored five drop goalsT4Player scored four triesT5Player scored five triesT6Player scored six tries
+Rugby World Cup hat-tricks No. Player Year For Against Stage Result Venue Date 1 T4 1987 Pool Lancaster Park, Christchurch 2 T4 Pool Lancaster Park, Christchurch 3 Pool FMG Stadium, Palmerston North 4 Pool Concord Oval, Sydney 5 Pool Carisbrook, Dunedin 6 Pool Eden Park, Auckland 7 Pool Eden Park, Auckland 8 T4 Pool Rugby Park Stadium, Invercargill 9 Pool Ballymore Stadium, Brisbane 10 T4 1991 Pool Lansdowne Road, Dublin 11 Pool Kingsholm, Gloucester 12 Pool Stade Lesdiguières, Grenoble 13 Pool Murrayfield, Edinburgh 14 T41995 Pool Olympia Park, Rustenburg 15 Pool Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein 16 T6 Pool 145–17 Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein 17 Pool 145–17 Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein 18 Pool 145–17 Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein 19 T4 Quarter-final Ellis Park, Johannesburg 20 T4 Semi-final Newlands, Cape Town 21 T4 1999 Pool Lansdowne Road, Dublin 22 Pool Ravenhill, Belfast 23 Pool Stade Chaban-Delmas, Bordeaux 24 Pool 101–3 Galpharm Stadium, Huddersfield 25 D5 Quarter-final Stade de France, Saint-Denis 26 2003 Pool Lang Park, Brisbane 27 Pool Subiaco Oval, Perth 28 Pool Central Coast Stadium, Gosford 29 T4 Pool Docklands Stadium, Melbourne 30 Pool Lang Park, Brisbane 31 Pool 142–0 Adelaide Oval 32 T5 Pool 142–0 Adelaide Oval 33 Pool 142–0 Adelaide Oval 34 Pool Wollongong Showground 35 T5 Pool 111–13 Lang Park, Brisbane 36 D3 Semi-final Telstra Stadium, Sydney 37 2007 Pool Stade Vélodrome, Marseille 38 Pool Stade de Gerland, Lyon 39 T4 Pool Parc des Princes, Paris 40 Pool Stadium Municipal, Toulouse 41 Pool Murrayfield, Edinburgh 42 Pool Stade de la Mosson, Montpellier 43 Pool Stadium Municipal, Toulouse 44 D3 Pool Parc des Princes, Paris 45D32011 Pool Rotorua International Stadium 46 T4 Pool Rotorua International Stadium 47 Pool Rotorua International Stadium 48 Pool McLean Park, Napier 49 Pool Wellington Regional Stadium 50 Pool Otago Stadium, Dunedin 51 Pool Otago Stadium, Dunedin 52 Pool Yarrow Stadium, New Plymouth 53 T4 Pool Wellington Regional Stadium 54 2015 Pool Millennium Stadium, Cardiff 55 Pool Villa Park, Birmingham 56 Pool Millennium Stadium, Cardiff 57 Pool Olympic Stadium, London 58 Pool City of Manchester Stadium 59 Pool City of Manchester Stadium 60 Quarter-final Millennium Stadium, Cardiff 61 Semi-final Twickenham, London 62 2019 Pool Tokyo Stadium, Chōfu 63 Pool Hanazono Rugby Stadium, Higashiōsaka 64 Pool Kobe Misaki Stadium, Kobe 65 Pool Shizuoka Stadium Ecopa, Fukuroi 66 Pool Oita Stadium, Ōita 67 D32023 Pool Stade Vélodrome, Marseille 68 PoolNouveau Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux17 September 202369 PoolNouveau Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux 17 September 202370PoolStade Vélodrome, Marseille21 September 202371T5PoolStade Pierre-Mauroy, Lille23 September 202372PoolParc Olympique Lyonnais, Décines-Charpieu29 September 202373T4 PoolStade Pierre-Mauroy, Lille30 September 202374PoolParc Olympique Lyonnais, Décines-Charpieu5 October 202375PoolStade de la Beaujoire, Nantes7 October 202376PoolStade de la Beaujoire, Nantes8 October 202377Semi-finalStade de France, Saint-Denis20 October 2023
Multiple hat-tricks PlayerHat-tricksYears Jeff Wilson21995, 1999 Vincent Clerc2007, 2011 Bryan Habana2007, 2015 Julian Savea2015 Adam Ashley-Cooper2011, 2015 Cobus Reinach2019, 2023
By national team TeamScoredConceded170909092927060433113171711001010202030304050506010
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