Ian Rush is a Welsh former professional footballer who represented the Wales national football team from 1980 to 1996, scoring 28 international goals in 73 appearances. He made his debut on 21 May 1980, in a 1–0 defeat against Scotland in the British Home Championship. Rush scored his first international goal two years later in a 3–0 home game victory against Northern Ireland.

In his 55th match, a 6–0 win over the Faroe Islands on 9 September 1992, Rush scored his 23rd international goal and the only hat-trick of his career. This drew him level with the top scorers of Wales: Trevor Ford and Ivor Allchurch. Ford had scored 23 goals in 38 matches between 1947 and 1957, and Allchurch had scored the same number in 68 matches between 1951 and 1966. Rush became the Wales national team's all-time top goalscorer on 31 March 1993, when he broke the record with a goal against Belgium.

Rush scored four more goals in his Wales career to extend the record to 28 goals. He held it until 2018, when Gareth Bale scored his 29th international goal against China. Rush's tally included a goal that saw Wales beat then-world champions Germany in 1991 by a score of 1–0. He retired from international football in 1996, making his final appearance for Wales in a 3–0 defeat to Italy on 24 January. During his international career, Wales failed to progress further than the qualifying stage of any major tournament.

Goals Scores and results list Wales' goal tally first.

+ Rush's goals against international opponents Date VenueCap Opponent Score Result Competition 1 27 May 1982 Racecourse Ground, Wrexham 8 3–0 3–0 2 2 June 1982 Stadium Municipal, Toulouse 9 1–0 1–0 3 22 September 1982 Vetch Field, Swansea 10 1–0 1–0 4 15 December 1982 Stadion Pod Goricom, Titograd 11 2–3 4–4 5 23 February 1983 Wembley Stadium, London 12 1–0 1–2 6 12 October 1983 Racecourse Ground, Wrexham 15 1–0 5–0 7 3–0 8 26 February 1985 Racecourse Ground, Wrexham 22 1–1 1–1 9 27 March 1985 Hampden Park, Glasgow 23 1–0 1–0 10 30 April 1985 Racecourse Ground, Wrexham 24 1–0 3–0 11 3–0 12 26 March 1986 Lansdowne Road, Dublin 27 1–0 1–0 13 1 April 1987 Racecourse Ground, Wrexham 31 1–0 4–0 14 29 April 1987 Racecourse Ground, Wrexham 32 1–1 1–1 15 1 June 1988 Ta' Qali National Stadium, Valletta 37 3–2 3–2 16 4 June 1988 Stadio Mario Rigamonti, Brescia 38 1–0 1–0 17 17 October 1990 Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff 46 1–1 3–1 18 14 November 1990 Stade Josy Barthel, Luxembourg 47 1–0 1–0 19 5 June 1991 Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff 51 1–0 1–0 20 20 May 1992 Stadionul Național, Bucharest 54 1–5 1–5 21 9 September 1992 Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff 55 1–0 6–0 22 4–0 23 6–0 24 31 March 1993 Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff 58 2–0 2–0 25 6 June 1993 Svangaskarð, Toftir 60 3–0 3–0 26 8 September 1993 Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff 61 2–1 2–2 27 13 October 1993 Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff 62 2–0 2–0 28 23 May 1994 Kadrioru Stadium, Tallinn 66 1–0 2–1

Statistics

+ Caps and goals by year Year Caps Goals 1980 2 0 1981 3 0 1982 6 4 1983 6 3 1984 4 0 1985 4 4 1986 4 1 1987 5 2 1988 6 2 1989 3 0 1990 4 2 1991 6 1 1992 4 4 1993 6 4 1994 6 1 1995 3 0 1996 1 0

+ Caps and goals by competition Competition Caps Goals Friendlies 20 8 British Home Championships 10 2 World Cup qualifiers 20 11 UEFA European Championship qualifiers 23 7

See also List of international goals scored by Gareth Bale Wales national football team records and statistics

References

Work cited