Planet Rugby’s Greatest Professional XV: Hooker
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.
Over the next 15 days, we will give you our take on the four best players in each position, together with our choice for the Planet Rugby Professional XV.
You’ll have the chance to vote for yours and we will publish the readers’ team on the 16th day, together with some of the opinion comments from our readers and on social media.
The players will be listed traditionally, starting at 15 to 9 then 1 to 8.
The players are judged on their contribution to the pro era only. As a default we have only considered players that played 50% of their time or more in the professional era.
We have also taken into consideration the success they enabled for their team together with individual records, leadership skills, and overall contribution to the wider ethos of the sport and rugby in their home country.
We are well aware some greats haven’t made the cut but believe us when we say the debate needed around the office to get to this shortlist was exhaustive and not without some heated emotion!
Planet Rugby’s Greatest Professional XV: Hooker
Nominees:
Bismarck du Plessis (79 caps, 11 tries, 1 World Cup)
Keith Wood (63 caps, 16 tries)
John Smit (111 caps, 8 tries, 1 World Cup)
Mario Ledesma (84 caps, 3 tries)
Mobility, leadership and power are the order of the day for our hooking berth. The quality of our shortlist speaks for itself and it’s with regret that we can’t find room for Dane Coles, Guilhem Guirado, Sébastien, Dylan Hartley or Leonardo Ghiraldini. Nor too could we justify the inclusion of one of Planet Rugby’s favourites, the amazing Schalk Brits, but we’re confident that our fearsome foursome were the best of the best during the 25 years of the professional era.
Bismarck du Plessis spent many years in the shadow of his co-nominee John Smit, but was a massive force both in scrummage and loose. Indeed, so highly rated was Du Plessis that during 2008, the Springboks moved Smit to tighthead prop in order to accommodate both he and the younger, faster hookers in the front-row together. Against the British & Irish Lions in 2009, Du Plessis played an integral role in the Springboks’ series victory as he went about establishing himself as one of the finest hookers in world rugby.
A bench replacement in the 2007 Rugby World Cup Final, Du Plessis was selected for the 2011 Rugby World Cup along with his brother, tighthead Jannie. Bismarck came off the bench against Wales in their pool opener which South Africa won 17-16, and in June 2012 put in a man of the match performance against England in the second Test of that series. 2015 saw Du Plessis resume as first choice hooker for the World Cup where he enjoyed a run to the semi-final, his last Test coming in the third/fourth place play-off versus Argentina.
Keith Wood was an inspirational and charismatic player whether in the colours of Ireland or the British & Irish Lions. His try-scoring record is envied by many midfield backs, with 16 scores coming from 63 starts. In both 1997 and 2001 “The Raging Potato” was one of the Lions’ key weapons, where the Irishman put in a Man of the Series performance in South Africa followed by rampaging performances in the loose in Australia, despite playing most of the tour in extreme pain with an unstable left shoulder.
A Hurler of some distinction, Wood claimed that the uniquely Irish sport gave him the mobility and ball skills that characterised his rugby performances. He scored four tries in one game in the 1999 World Cup, during the pool stage against the USA. Wood retired from playing after the 2003 World Cup. He was succeeded as Ireland captain by Brian O’Driscoll.
John Smit was the ultimate front-row technician, one of the few players (if not the only player in the modern era) able to play Test rugby in any position across the front-row at the highest level. Smit may not have been the best technical hooker around, and indeed, it was arguable if he was the best hooker in South Africa for a long period of his career, but his leadership and rugby intellect provided a package that earned him 111 caps, making him the fourth most capped Springbok of all time.
Like Wood, Smit was a man for the big occasion, putting in remarkable shifts in the 2007 Rugby World Cup and then joining up with Du Plessis and Tendai Mtawarira to decimate the Lions scrum in 2009. His longevity is to be admired, his Test career spanning 12 seasons before he joined Saracens to enjoy the twilight of his distinguished career.
Mario Ledesma, like Smit and Wood, fused leadership and mobility with natural power to offer the complete hooking package. First capped in 1998 he played in four Rugby World Cup campaigns, where Argentina consistently punched well above their ranking. With a professional playing career in France spanning 10 years, he was a concrete block of a scrummager with peerless lineout work, becoming the architect of Argentina’s formidable set-piece for 14 seasons.
In 2011, Ledesma was the key leader of Los Pumas’ pack, taking them to the quarter-final where hosts and eventual winners New Zealand won the game 33–10. When Ledesma was replaced with 10 minutes to go it was his final appearance for his nation and he walked off the pitch to a standing ovation from both sets of fans. Since retiring he has coached at the highest level in the northern and southern hemispheres and is now the head coach of the Argentine national team.
With leadership, physicality and intelligence abundant in all four candidates, it’s the sheer charisma, entertainment value and will to win of Ireland’s Keith Wood that makes our leading choice for hooker of the professional era.