Wikipedia:Today's featured list/September 8, 2023
Fifty-seven players have scored hat-tricks in the Rugby World Cup since its inception in 1987. In rugby union, a player achieves a hat-trick by scoring three tries or drop goals in a single match. The first player to achieve the feat was Craig Green (pictured), 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, fourteen 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. Four players have scored a hat-trick of drop goals: Jannie de Beer, Jonny Wilkinson, Juan Martín Hernández and Theuns Kotzé. 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. (Full list...)