Planet Rugby Readers’ Professional XV: Forwards
As professional rugby reaches its 25th anniversary and with time to reflect on those incredible years, we decided it’s time to look at the greatest players we’ve seen grace the pitches and screens of the world.
When we embarked on our mission to select this XV, we never quite anticipated the level of engagement and passion we’ve had from our readers.
Arguments have raged on every corner of social media over the minutiae of qualification (yes, we said over 50% of their career as a professional), over the players we didn’t shortlist and of those perhaps some thought we’d forgotten.
The editorial team didn’t select this in isolation and we’d like to thank some of our regular contributors, England internationals Nick Easter and George Chuter, our heads of selection, together with Premiership referee David Rose and former England Women’s coach, Graham Smith, for their tireless wisdom and inside track in discussing the players they’ve experienced and played against in their careers. Some of the debates were very intense and absolutely eye-opening.
We promised you that the readers would have the final say in selection, and after counting up literally thousands of votes on Twitter, here’s the final line-up in the forwards.
1 Os du Randt (South Africa): The burly Bok comes in by the thinnest of margins over our choice Tendai Mtawarira as only nine per cent variance covered all of four nominees. We might lose the explosive power of the Beast, but Os’ tackle and work rate easily make up for that. Planet Rugby opinion contributor Kyle Robinson summed it by saying: “From the list I’d go Os, but my personal favourite loosie isn’t even on the list. This man wasn’t the biggest, but his scrum work was technically supreme, and he was brilliant in attack and defence around the park.”
2 Keith Wood (Ireland): A landslide for the “Raging Potato” as he sees off the competition by 20% or more, reminding us how much supporters of all nations loved the Munsterman. Opinion commentator JohnnyC reminded us of Wood’s heritage and supreme skill set: “Don’t forget Wood was also inaugural world player of the year. Untouchable for four years from 97-01. Definitely deserving of this given his overall career, technical ability, scrummaging, darts, dynamism and leadership.”
3 Carl Hayman (New Zealand): The All Black saw off challenges from Adam Jones and Martin Castrogiovanni to win this category by 10% or so, a reminder of just what an impression the big Kiwi left in his truncated Test career. Twitter follower @colinsmith is a big admirer of Hayman and observed: “Carl Hayman. One of the first NZ players who left NZ in his prime to go play up north. Tall for a prop and a monster.”
4 Martin Johnson (England): A very close group where all the nominees had strong claims. In the end, Johnson beats Alun Wyn Jones by seven per cent of the votes to occupy the berth he spent so many hours in. Few players demand selection in any World XV but PR opinion writer Nathan Carr hit the nail on the head for us when he pointed out: “A bit like Lomu for the 11 shirt this one. It could only be Johnno.”
5 Victor Matfield (South Africa): Ok, we are going to ‘fess up here – not one position was as hotly debated internally as this one. The forwards in our selection panel pushed hard for the big Blue Bull, whereas the romanticists within the editorial team placed faith in John Eales. In retrospect, Matfield’s extra power will probably benefit our side, so we welcome him. Facebooker Trippy’s perspective was wholly accurate when he reminded us of lock partnerships: “I think, again, the result is based on Eales’ World Cup winning captaincy…just like the selection of Martin Johnson previously. As partnerships, however, both Matfield and Botha and Whitelock and Retallick, respectively were stronger combinations though.”
6 Richard Hill (England): The silent Saracens assassin bags another honour as he ran out the clear winner in this category, beating the great All Black Jerome Kaino by seven per cent. A favourite of the entire rugby community, Planet Rugby Facebooker, Frans, summed up what many think: “Richard Hill was a huge influence in my early playing years. He came and spoke to me after one of my games and gave me some incredible words of encouragement. Top guy.”
7 Richie McCaw (New Zealand): An absolute landslide as everyone expected and you have to feel sorry for George Smith, who despite 20 years at the top, could only manage to poll 15.5% of the votes to McCaw’s 68.8%. A runaway win for the openside and by far the most convincing vote for the great man. @JMGray80 made us all chuckle on Twitter when he quipped: “Richie should walk it, but that’s purely a measure of his greatness & in no way disrespecting the incredible talents of the other nominees & those unbelievable players not even nominated. McCaw was simply that good. I’d have carded him more though!”
8 Sergio Parisse (Italy): When we picked Parisse over Kieran Read and Duane Vermeulen we felt we were adopting a high risk strategy, but he really was one of those players that as a writer you loved commenting on. We’re absolutely delighted our readers agreed, deservedly making the Italian entertainer our number eight of the professional era. Twitter commentator @rava_jan said what everyone believes when he observed: “Parisse shone in a poor Italian side. I think he would have been outstanding in any of the other Tier 1 teams.”
And finally, that’s all from us. We’ve had over 10,000 votes on the team, we had three, yes just three variances from our original selections and when we look back, the addition of Ma’a Nonu, Os du Randt and Victor Matfield probably strengthen our selection.
Here it is, the official Planet Rugby Team of the Professional Era as voted by you:
15 Christian Cullen
14 Jason Robinson
13 Brian O’Driscoll
12 Ma’a Nonu
11 Jonah Lomu
10 Dan Carter
9 Joost van der Westhuizen
1 Os du Randt
2 Keith Wood
3 Carl Hayman
4 Martin Johnson
5 Victor Matfield
6 Richard Hill
7 Richie McCaw
8 Sergio Parisse
Thanks to all who commented and voted – it really means a lot to us and we hope our debates entertained you in these difficult times.