'I wanted to stop doing media': Reece on breaking the try scoring record

Only a week after matching TJ Perenara’s record of 65 tries against the Waratahs, All Blacks and Crusaders winger Sevu Reece is now top of the all-time Super Rugby Pacific try-scoring list.

Reece’s try won’t be the best try he’ll ever score, but will go down in history nonetheless after a long TMO review led to the try being awarded against the Highlanders at Apollo Projects Stadium in Christchurch.

The Crusaders were able to get the job done at home on a special night, especially for Mitchell Drummond who brought up 150 games for the Crusaders, while Dallas McLeod played his 50th for the Christchurch-based franchise.

Reece told Sky Sport after the game that he’s very proud of the achievement, particularly as it was in front of his friends and family in Christchurch.

“I mean, a try is a try, but what a place to do it, and here at home in front of my fans and families, so that’s awesome,” Reece told Sky Sport.

“Honestly I can’t thank the boys enough, you know the boys that I’ve played with in the past as well.”

The Crusaders winger admitted it wasn’t the most fancy try, but he’ll take it.

“I mean, I would have loved to score a nice dive in the corner try or something, a bit nicer than what I did score, but like I said, try is a try and, yeah I’ll take it at any time of the day.”

When asked about whether the try-scoring record had been hanging over him, Reece explains that it was all smooth sailing at the start of the season.

“Like the start of the season, when no one was talking about it, I was scoring tries, but when everyone started to talk about me, I couldn’t score.

“The media would come up to me, you’ve got one more. That one more took me about seven weeks, and I got to a point, where I told media, I was like, I don’t want to do any more media. So I stopped doing media, and I managed to get one last week, and then managed another today.”

As Reece’s try was confirmed by referee Todd Petrie, both the broadcast and the stadium paused the game to pay tribute to Reece for breaking the record.

“Honestly, it was pretty cool, like I was standing there and Scott Barrett was telling the guys to kick the ball and I was like, hang on Scooter, look up to the screen so we can celebrate for a moment.

“But yeah it was pretty cool right, looking up to the screen and seeing this, so yeah, it was just awesome.”