Bomb Squad or Pom Squad? Rugby's best benches revealed

System players, impact players, game-changers, finishers, or plain old-fashioned replacements. Whatever your team call them, there is no disputing the fact that players on the bench have become vital to dictating the course of a modern game, hence why coaches talk about it being a 23-man effort.

Not only that, but the split between backs and forwards is almost as big a talking point as the actual starting XV whenever a matchday 23 is named. And how the bench is deployed during the 80 minutes has lent itself to terms such as Bomb Squad, in the case of the forward-heavy Springbok bench, and it’s English equivalent, the Pom Squad.

Benches can alter the momentum of a game in many ways, whether it be an old-school prop coming on to fix a creaking scrum, a jackaling flanker turning the tide in the turnover stakes, a fresh pair of legs to stoke the engine room or a jet-heeled back who can create a moment of magic out of nothing and score from anywhere.

Try-scoring is one tangible way of measuring the impact of a bench, and the figures we’ve pulled together show quite a wide disparity of success in this respect in 2025 across the 12 teams who will compete in the Nations Cup next year. Interestingly, the three highest-ranked teams in the world had the most impactful benches, as you’ll discover below.

12. Fiji (7.9% – 3/38)
The three tries scored by Fiji replacements were all against lower-ranked opposition. Two were in the Asahi Pacific Nations Cup, when Fiji scored almost two-thirds of their tries in the first half, with both tries coming from players who replaced an outside-centre – Taniela Rakuro (v Tonga) and Joji Nasova (v Canada), while the other came from prop, Atunaisa Sokobale, in the final fixture of the year, the 41-33 win against Spain.

Fiji didn’t need a game-changing bench in the PNC; they were too good with the initial XV they put out on the park. However, the lack of tries from impact players arguably cost them in the Quilter Nations Series, as it prevented them from making up lost ground in the two main Tests of November, against England and France. In both games, Fiji were within one score of their opponents at half-time, but on each occasion they could only manage one try in the second half, the time when the bench is usually unloaded, and couldn’t keep up on the scoreboard.

11. France 5/49 (10.2%)
When you take away Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Damian Penaud’s tries, there were not many to share around. Even so, just five tries was a paltry return from the Pas Bon (not good) Squad. Les Bleus’ bench look set to go five straight games without contributing a single five-pointer until the final minute of the final Test, when Julien Marchand’s replacement at hooker, Maxime Lemothe, crashed over against Australia.

10. Wales (11.5% – 3/26)
Nick Tompkins’ late matchwinner against Japan apart, Wales’ bench made little impact in 2025. In fact, Tompkins’ try in Cardiff was the only one scored by a Wales replacement outside of the Guinness Men’s Six Nations, when No.8 Aaron Wainwright and lock Teddy Williams managed to get on the scoresheet against Italy and Scotland, respectively.

9. Scotland (11.8% – 6/51)
Scotland trebled their replacement try count when they signed off a disappointing 2025 with a 56-0 thrashing of Tonga. Ewan Ashman and George Horne defied the yearly trend when they came off the bench and bagged braces in the victory.

Scotland replacements had only accounted for two of their 43 tries beforehand, with not one try scored by a player outside of the starting XV until George Turner burrowed over in their seventh match of the year, the summer tour win over Samoa.

Horne scored their second ‘sub’ try in the 85-0 Quilter Nations Series rout of the USA when everyone bar the kitman seemed to cross the whitewash. Given the slow release of energy from the bench, Porridge Squad might be an apt description of Scotland’s bin juice collective.

8. Italy (13.33% – 4/30)
Italy had the propensity to score more tries in the first half than the second (six to four) in the Six Nations, a trend which doesn’t lend itself to replacements getting on the scoresheet. It was only 17 minutes before the end of Italy’s final Six Nations match, the 22-17 loss to Ireland, that a sub fired a shot, Stephen Varney crossing shortly after coming on for Martin Page-Relo at scrum-half.

The next two games yielded three tries for replacements, with prop Mirco Spagnolo and Varney, again, dotting down. Hooker Pablo Dimcheff then scored in the first of two July Tests against South Africa. After that, though, nothing from a bench that was more Fiat than Ferrari.

7. Japan (16.2% – 6/37)
Japan kicked off their year with a 1-1 drawn series against Wales in which half of the Brave Blossoms’ six tries were scored by replacements. Tries from outside backs, Ichigo Nakakusu and Halatoa Vailea, proved crucial in Japan’s second-half comeback in the opening encounter, while prop Shuhei Takeuchi crashed over in the rematch. After that, though, Japan only managed three in the next seven Tests. Not a single player contributed a try from the bench in their final four matches of the year against South Africa, Ireland, Wales and Georgia.

6. Ireland (18% – 9/50)
Ireland’s decision to go for a 6-2 split on the bench against France in the penultimate round of the Six Nations — the first time they had chosen to do so in a year – resulted in two tries. However, it was too little, too late, as the visitors had the game well and truly in the bag by the time Cian Healy and Jack Conan scored consolation tries.

On a personal note, it was a fitting farewell for the soon-to-be-retired Healy at the Aviva Stadium, but his try and Conan’s – his second off the bench in the Six Nations after an earlier score against Scotland – barely masked the cracks as Ireland fell to a heavy 42-27 defeat.

Healy’s try was one of four scored by replacement front-rowers, with hooker Dan Sheehan scoring in the opening round win over England and the McCarthy brothers, prop Paddy and hooker Gus, each scoring a try in the November victory over Japan.

5. Argentina (18.4% – seven from 38)
The introduction of a wild-eyed Pabloa Matera, the direct running of Justo Piccardo in midfield and the silky smooth skills of Santiago Carreras at the back, contributed massively to the Pumas’ stunning comeback win against Scotland in their penultimate game of the year. Matera and Piccardo were both rewarded for their impact with a try, while Carreras came up with multiple assists and points from the tee.

Up until the Murrayfield match, the Pumas’ bench had not exactly been forthcoming, with Santiago Grondona’s 80th-minute effort against Wales only significant in that it brought up their half-century. In the first four rounds of The Rugby Championship not a single Pumas try was scored by a sub, but they broke the trend in the back-to-back Springboks game, with Tomas Albornoz and then Rodrigo Isgro touching down in the defeats.

4. Australia (20.8% – 10 from 48)
Tries from Carl Tizzano and Tate McDermott may not have won the Wallabies the first Test against the Lions, but they did help to change the momentum of the series. The home side were much more competitive in the remaining two Tests, with McDermott, still in the No.21 jersey, crossing the whitewash again in the final Test as the Wallabies avoided an embarrassing whitewash with a 22-12 victory.

Australian subs then scored five of Australia’s 21 tries in The Rugby Championship. Only the Springboks’ Bomb Squad contributed more. Over the year, three different hookers came off the bench and claimed five-pointers: Brandon Paenga-Amosa, Billy Pollard and Josh Nasser.

3. New Zealand (21.2% – 11/52)
Once again, front row replacements weighed in with more tries (six) than the rest of the positions put together. Dynamic hooker Samisoni Taukei’aho accounted for half of those with three in the back-to-back games aginst the Pumas. Fellow hooker Brodie McAlister got on the scoresheet in the third Test against France earlier in the year, while props George Bower and Tamaiti Williams burrowed over against Australia and Ireland.

The biggest impact, however, came from Damian McKenzie against Scotland in November. ‘D-Mac’ introduced himself to proceedings with a booming 50:20, a wonderful finish in the corner and a long-range penalty to almost single-handedly dig the All Blacks out of a hole.

2. South Africa (21.5% – 17 from 79)
South Africa’s final figure dropped by a couple of percentage points after just one of the 11 tries scored by players in the 73-0 rout of Wales was claimed by a replacement, Eben Etzebeth being the one to catch the eye in more ways than one. It was the lock’s second try off the bench in 2025, a feat matched by Grant Williams and Andre Esterhuizen – as a centre and a flanker.

As a standalone match, the record 43-10 win over the All Blacks in Wellington is the match where the bench made the most impact, in terms of tries scored and changing the course of the match. Half of the six tries were scored by benchmen: RG Snyman, Kwagga Smith and Esterhuizen.

1. England (32.7% – 17/55)
Led by young tyro, Henry Pollock, England’s ‘Pom Squad’ had no peers when it came to tries from the bench in 2025. A fraction under a third of their tries were scored by replacements, with Pollock accounting for three of the 17 – two on his Test debut against Wales and one against Australia.

It is very rare for Maro Itoje to start a game on the bench, but even the England captain, not known for his try-scoring, was ‘on-trend’ whe he crashed over against Fiji after getting the call to arms. Another notable moment for the Pom Squad was when Henry Arundell, having waited patiently for his chance all Autumn, scored with his first touch in the same game.

As Wales centurion turned TV pundit, Dan Biggar recently observed: “Everyone is copying South Africa, and with good reason. England used their bench better than anyone this Autumn: tight games turning when fresh power and clarity arrive together. If you don’t have impact players 16-23, you’re already behind.”

*Penalty tries not included in the totals