Kicking a dropkick or being one

A Joel Stransky drop goal won the 1995 World Cup for South Africa. Photo / Getty Images

Drop goals are a boon and a curse - kick them and you are lauded as a genius; miss and you can be regarded as a dropkick.

Stacey Jones has had intimate knowledge of this phenomenon three weeks in a row - but he is not alone. Look, for example, at the two Terrys - Terry Lamb, the stocky pivot for the Bulldogs for many years and Terry Campese, current playmaker for the Raiders.

In one NRL season, Lamb - who sits high on the NRL record books in all manner of categories - dropped a goal and ran back to halfway with his arms aloft, saluting the victory. It took a team-mate to point out Lamb's faulty maths and the fact that the Bulldogs still needed another point to win.

Only last month, Campese suffered the embarrassment of taking a drop kick to win the match - but had an air shot.

Jones' first droppy-drama, on April 21, was his golden point drop goal against the Roosters for the Warriors - and instant hero status. Then, on April 26, he hit the woodwork with one match-deciding attempt against the Storm and then knocked on before passing to Lance Hohaia - whose drop kick, ironically and tragically, went over.

Last weekend, against the Dragons, Jones again knocked on in trying for a match-winning drop kick and has been pilloried by some talkback callers and the like.

But he's in good company. Here is the Herald on Sunday's roll of honour and dishonour when it comes to droppies'.

10. Jannie de Beer (Springboks)
Talk about overkill. Five drop goals - count 'em, five - in the quarter-final of the 1999 Rugby World Cup to defeat a stunned England. All five came in the second half, as De Beer masterminded a 44-21 victory. He set a South African points record of 34 in a single test and beat Naas Botha's record of three drop goals in an international match. After the game, the deeply religious De Beer said: "The Lord gave me the talent and the forwards gave me the ball."

However, what the Lord giveth, the Lord also taketh away - he played just one more game in Springbok colours, the 27-21 semifinal extra-time defeat against Australia. Ironically, it was a drop goal in injury time from Australian first-five Stephen Larkham that finally won the match for the Wallabies, after De Beer had added one more to his tally and missed several others.

9. Matthew Ridge (Kiwis)
In the 1995 Rugby League World Cup, the Kiwis and Australia were tied 20-20 at Huddersfield when Ridge, from about 48m, snapped a powerful drop kick. It looked beautifully struck, a winner all the way, but just twisted away and shaved the upright. Australia went on to win 30-20 in extra time.

8. Stephen Larkham (Wallabies)
1999 Rugby World Cup, Australia vs South Africa. Go to Youtube and watch this thing. Larkham was never a renowned dropkicker but he was in the Boks' 10m and on the run when he produced this soaring kick. There's no truth in the rumour that it left the stadium and was caught by a stunned woman in a green coat on the No 39 bus - but it was a huge kick that could have gone many metres further and still counted. Maybe deserves to be higher up, as the Wallabies went on to win this World Cup.

7. Luke McAlister (All Blacks)
Oh dear. He was among those who bore the brunt for the All Blacks' woeful departure from the 2007 World Cup. In the closing stages of the second half, McAlister, among others, was in position to take a drop goal... but didn't. At least, not until it was almost too late when he let fly with one from somewhere near the halfway mark. It was a pallid, sickly thing that flew like a shotgunned duck and expired somewhere between despair and hopelessness.

6. Craig Polla-Mounter (Bulldogs)
Perhaps the hot-diggetty-doggiest of all drop goal stories. Polla-Mounter, the Bulldogs halfback for many years, was a key figure in the NRL's 1998 grand final qualifier where the Eels were leading 18-2.

The Dogs mounted a comeback in the final 15 minutes - Polla-Mounted, you might say. He scored a try in the 70th minute, 18-6. Rod Silva's try and Daryl Halligan's pressure-filled sideline conversion made it 18-12. Then it was 18-18 when Willie Talau scored and the ice-cool Halligan goaled from wide again.

Parramatta could have wrapped things up earlier when a John Simon drop goal missed, just like that of Benny Elias in 1989.

As the full-time siren sounded, Polla-Mounter, almost on halfway, snapped a fantastic drop goal after zipping around with his back to the goal. It flew and flew and everyone on the ground believed he had landed it and won the match - except for referee Bill Harrigan, who referred it to the video ref, who saw that the kick had dropped short by a margin no greater than the hyphen in Polla-Mounter's name.

In extra time, Polla-Mounter took over, scoring a try and then two drop goals before Travis Norton wrapped up a stirring 32-20 win. There wasn't an entirely happy ending, however. The Bulldogs were outclassed by the Broncos in the grand final.

5. Zinzan Brooke (All Blacks)
One of the most stirring moments of the 1995 World Cup came when the vastly talented Brooke, on the run 47m out, fielded an England kick and suddenly snapped his enormous drop goal from nowhere. It was the first of his career, followed by successful efforts against South Africa and Wales, and memorable for its sheer shock value and its demonstration of how Brooke and other New Zealand forwards of the day possessed some skills others didn't.

4. Matt Dunning (Waratahs)
Drop kick? Did we hear the phrase drop kick? Waratahs and Wallaby prop Matt Dunning reeled off a successful drop goal from 35m in the 2003 match against the Chiefs. Only problem was, his team needed a bonus point from scoring four tries to progress to the playoffs.

Dunning knew the referee was about to award the Waratahs a penalty, from which a kick to touch would have been followed by a lineout and the chance of a try. So his drop goal was designed to miss - so the ref would blow for a penalty.

But it didn't. It sailed majestically over, robbed the Waratahs of their momentum and helped cost them a playoffs spot. It has also given huge amusement, even six years later, as no-one can figure out why he chose to go for goal.

Dunning said after the match: "I don't even know why I did it. It was just heat of the moment."

Talking of heat of the moment, at the end of the season, Dunning and others then went on a massive bender which ended with Dunning breaking a team-mate's nose, a cab driver being harassed and poor behaviour in public, including another team member vomiting over a student. Give that man the Order Of The Dropkick.

3. Fergie McCormick (All Blacks)
McCormick's 24 points against Wales on Eden Park in 1969 included a drop goal which resembled a low-flying brick, McCormick hit it so poorly. But it limped over the crossbar and 'Fergie' had what was at the time a world point-scoring record in a single test.

It is also indicative of the comparative lack of dropkicking talent in recent All Blacks sides. McCormick, although an All Black great, was never a natural kicker and rarely attempted drop kicks. In fact, the All Black drop kick roll of honour includes no current players - Andrew Mehrtens (10) heads the list, then Grant Fox (7) and then you have to go through past players like Mac Herewini, Doug Bruce (the first to kick more than one drop goal in an All Black test), Don Clarke, Allan Hewson and Brooke - no sign of Dan Carter, Luke McAlister, Nick Evans, et al.

In comparison, Jonny Wilkinson (29) heads the drop goals in tests record list, with Hugo Porta (26) and Rob Andrew (23) next. The best current player, with 14, is Ireland's Ronan O'Gara. Ali Williams, bless him, even came out with that wonderful quote after the 2007 debacle ("All Blacks don't kick drop goals") and it looks as if Spiderman was right.

2. Jonny Wilkinson (England)
Yet, as Jonny Wilkinson proved with that chillingly cool dropkick to win the World Cup final in 2003, the dropkick remains a great way to win matches. Wilkinson's kick wasn't particularly long or remarkable - except for the vast pressure he was under and because he took it with his weaker right foot.

This kick is rated No 2 because Australia were not a particularly good side - in spite of the way they dealt to the All Blacks - and England should have won the game long before they needed Wilko's droppo.

1. Joel Stransky (Springboks) and Andrew Mehrtens (All Blacks)
So pride of place goes to Joel Stransky, whose extra-time drop goal famously broke All Black hearts in the 1995 World Cup final but which helped to unite a nation. The pressure was even greater here as this was a home venue and the All Blacks were commonly regarded as the best team in the tournament - and they would have won it if, and here is the tragic factor potentially inherent in all drop kicks, Mehrtens' effort late in the second half had gone over instead of shaving the upright.

Francois Steyn
Francois Steyn of the Sharks and South Africa perhaps holds the record for the longest successful drop kick, against the Blues in 2007. He followed it with a drop goal against the Cheetahs in 2008 and his 58m effort, a gargantuan thing, would have cleared the bar had he kicked it from 60m.

Steyn also helped the Boks beat Australia in a 2007 Tri Nations match with two late drop goals, prompting Australian coach John Connolly to call for the value of the drop kick to be reduced.

Connolly, of course, said nothing when Larkham kicked his drop goal to beat South Africa in 1999 - which we believes also merits him the Order Of The Dropkick.