Planet Rugby’s Greatest Professional XV: Scrum-half
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: Scrum-half
Nominees:
Aaron Smith (92 caps, 19 tries, 1 World Cup)
Fourie du Preez (76 caps, 16 tries, 1 World Cup)
George Gregan (139 caps, 19 tries, 1 World Cup)
Joost van der Westhuizen (89 caps, 38 tries, 1 World Cup)
Our scrum-half battle is an all-southern hemisphere affair featuring the contrasting styles of four World Cup winners. Their cases are so compelling that we can find no room for Lions powerhouses, Matt Dawson, Conor Murray, Mike Phillips and Rob Howley nor the silky skills of Fabien Galthie or Agustin Pichot or the colourful character that’s TJ Perenara, but we’re confident our quartet are the best of the best of the last 25 years.
Aaron Smith‘s service seems faster than a speeding bullet. Possessing the ability to flick pass the ball from the base without lifting or stepping, his precision is at the core of the All Blacks ability to create fast, relentless waves of phase play. His footwork matches the speed of his pass, and the Kiwi has the innate ability to make himself available to ensure the continuity of attack from his team.
Eschewing a career as a hair stylist in favour of becoming a professional rugby player, Smith has been a squad ever-present for New Zealand since his debut in 2013 and won the World Cup with his side in 2015. His ongoing duel for the All Black shirt with TJ Perenara has been one of the more friendly battles of recent years, both players being close friends and with Perenara’s spiky running complementing Smith’s peerless distribution.
Fourie du Preez picked up the Springbok nine jersey from where our other nominee, Joost van der Westhuizen left it. Like his predecessor, Du Preez is a big man for a half-back and fused sharp breaks around the base with one of the most educated kicking games you’re likely to see. The Blue Bull was pivotal for South Africa in three World Cups and became a winner in 2007, when his partnership with Butch James complemented perfectly the physical nature of Jake White’s Springboks.
In 2006, Du Preez was voted SA Rugby Player of the Year by the South African Rugby Football Union and was nominated for IRB Player of the Year. A serial medal winner, he won the Super 14 title in 2007, 2009 and 2010, and the Tri-Nations in 2004 and 2009. In short, he was one of the most complete scrum-halves rugby has seen and his control was evident in 2009 as he steered the Boks to a famous series win over the British and Irish Lions.
George Gregan was one of the most durable players of the professional era. Aged 22, he started playing Super Rugby from the inception of the 12-team format in 1996 until it was expanded to the Super 14 in 2007 – an 11-year career that yielded two titles for the Brumbies in 2001 and 2004. With his beloved Wallabies, Gregan’s rattle and rile was omnipresent for almost 15 years in the Green and gold, and such was the importance of his performance to the team, he personified their big wins in the same way he occasionally characterised their losses too.
In short, you stop Gregan and you stop Australia, was often the message. As Australia became world champions in 1999, Gregan played an integral role in a titanic tussle with South Africa in a semi-final that went into extra-time and became a World Cup winner after dispatching France in the final. Despite losing to England four years later in the final, Gregan spent another four years gracing the international stage before pulling the curtain down on his career after spells in France and Japan.
Joost van der Westhuizen lays claim to being the greatest Springbok of all time. First capped in 1993, the giant half-back was at the core of South Africa’s historic World Cup win in 1995, where his power around the base, his speed of thought and precision of execution bore comparisons with the great Gareth Edwards. Captaining his country in 1999 where his battle with Gregan in the semi-final was the stuff of rugby legend. He retired in November 2003 after a disappointing RWC showing, finishing up as South Africa’s record Test cap holder with 89, and then record Test try-scorer with 38.
Sadly, Van der Westhuizen’s life after rugby became a fight for life when in 2011 he announced he was suffering from Motor Neurone Disease. This was a battle not even the giant Bok could win and, as his health declined, he used his profile and his determination to set up a charitable organisation, the J9 Foundation, to raise awareness, funds and to support research. On February 6, 2017, Van der Westhuizen passed away leaving the hearts of rugby folk broken. His impact was so great that on February 11, 2017, every rugby stadium and every clubhouse in the world joined to give Joost a round of applause, an apt and fitting tribute to the showman of scrum-halves.
Our nominees have it all in terms of skill and achievements. But one man, like Lomu, transcended the sport and captured the hearts of rugby forever. Our winner is the late, great Joost van der Westhuizen.