THE 100 BEST PLAYERS IN THE WORLD RIGHT NOW
GLOBE THEATRE
The planet is full of incredible rugby players – here’s how Rugby World picked the 100 best
A LOT HAS changed in the two-and-a-half years since we last put together this countdown. One thing that hasn’t is that it’s a really tough task!
So how do we compile the ultimate list of the 100 best players in the world? First, we seek the opinions of writers from across the globe as well as a few international coaches and players. Then we bring together an expert panel to debate who should be on it, with a vote to determine the top ten.
Wasps Women DoR Giselle Mather, BBC rugby correspondent Chris Jones, Welsh broadcaster Lauren Jenkins, Sportsbeat chief sports writer Paul Eddison and our columnist Stephen Jones joined us for the selection meeting at the start of November – with a few players making a late charge for the list given their performances in the autumn Tests.
A few ground rules: current form is given precedence and those who have had lengthy spells on the sidelines weren’t considered as we’ve not seen enough of them recently to judge (that’s why 2019’s World Rugby 15s Players of the Year, Pieter-Steph du Toit and Emily Scarratt, miss out). As ever, comparing players across formats, positions and genders is extremely hard, so we look at influence as well as skill-set.
Here you’ll find a breakdown of the age, nationality and position of those on the list and turn over to see who makes the top 100.
Of course, we want to know what YOU think. Use #RW100 on Twitter and Instagram, get in touch via Facebook or email rugbyworldletters@futurenet.com
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BY AGE
100 NEMANI NADOLO
Age 33 (31.1.88) Position Wing
Anyone who can score with regularity in the Premiership, Top 14, Super Rugby and Top League, let alone 22 tries in 32 Tests, commands huge respect. As a 6ft 5in, near-20st wrecking ball with a global reputation, he also puts team-mates over as he offloads out of a double tackle. The 50:22 law has provided more space for the Fijian and boy is he exploiting it.
99 ANDREW PORTER
Age 25 (16.1.96) Position Prop
In recent years, Porter had lined up as a tighthead but this season he has gone back to loosehead. And he’s been superb. In the build-up to the All Blacks Test, he said: “It’s just that next level up that I’m trying to get to grips with still.” He’s certainly got a grip and is manhandling the game.
98 TOMOS WILLIAMS
Age 26 (1.1.95) Position Scrum-half
The Mike Phillips stamp of approval for a scrum-half comes with some weight, so when he stated it was time to stop umming and ahing about who should get the red nine jersey and give it to Williams, folk noticed. “His basic skills are there as a nine, he can control things, make breaks and he’s got that bit of edge about him,” Phillips concludes.
97 HUGO KEENAN
Age 25 (18.6.96) Position Full-back
It’s a little over a year since Keenan made his Ireland debut, yet it’s now hard to envisage a national line-up without him in it. Having marked his first cap with two tries from the wing against Italy in October 2020, he has gone on to start every Ireland Test since and looks like making the green No 15 shirt his own for a long while yet.
As well as ticking all the boxes for a modern full-back – reliable under the high ball, excellent positioning in the backfield, solid defensively – he is a superb distributor. There was the sublime 20-metre pass to set Andrew Conway up for his second try against Japan and another long one out to the wing that saw James Lowe open the scoring in the win over New Zealand.
Keenan puts in the work in that area, performing drills off both hands, and he also credits his time playing sevens for Ireland, telling The42: “It’s exactly like a first receiver pass in the sevens game. I used to call it ‘feeding the speed’! It’s nice when they come off.” They’re proving effective in 15s too.
96 KATE ZACKARY
Age 32 (26.7.89) Position Back-row
It was a tough November for Zackary as the USA lost all four Tests, including a record hammering by England. Yet she is at the heart of not only the Eagles but an Exeter Chiefs side who continue to defy expectations. Her work-rate is a standout. “Going to that dark place and keeping going,” as she puts it. 2021 vision for Zackary: P80-81
95 JAMIE RITCHIE
Age 25 (16.8.96) Position Back-row
It’s been quite an elevation to sometime-captaincy with Scotland for the headband-sporting back-row. A fine reward for bruising, selfless work. He’s the kind of flanker players love playing with and it’s notable that last year Jim Telfer said of Ritchie: “He brings a genuine hardness.”
94 CAELAN DORIS
Age 23 (2.4.98) Position Back-row
But for concussion issues that cost him four months of rugby, Doris would likely have claimed the Lions place that instead went to team-mate Jack Conan. That’s conjecture; what’s not in question is the impact he has made for Leinster and Ireland, crystallised in the beautiful unders line that took him past a flailing Codie Taylor to NZ’s try-line last month.
93 PAOLO GARBISI
Age 21 (26.4.00) Position Fly-half
Oh how Italy have searched for a talent to fill the No 10 jersey with the same aplomb as Diego Dominguez. When Garbisi made his Test debut last year, aged just 20, he became the 17th player to be tried in that fly-half role since Dominguez’s retirement in 2003, but there are signs he could be the man to guide Italy to greener pastures (although it may take a while).
He has endured a tough start to his Italy career – he had to wait for more than a year and for his 13th cap until he won a Test, against Uruguay – but he isn’t cowed by the pressure of trying to revive his country’s fortunes.
“The thing I really like about fly-half is the requirement to take responsibility,” he told Rugby World earlier this year. “You’re the one who makes decisions, who controls how the team plays. It’s the most difficult thing about my role but at the same time the most fun.”
He has the self-assurance to be Italy’s pivot for many years but needs more assistance from those around him to see a significant upturn in results.
92 SARAH BERN
Age 24 (10.7.97) Position Prop
BERN MISSED much of the 2020-21 season with a shoulder injury but the tighthead was back with a bang in the autumn, doing enough to surge onto this list much like she surges past opposition defences.
As a ball-carrier, she possesses not just the power to go through defenders but the footwork to go around them – and the offloading skills to link with team-mates. That was evident in her Player of the Match (PoM) performance in Bristol’s win at Harlequins and she carried that form into the Red Roses’ dominant autumn campaign.
One of the few to play in all four of England’s matches, she was part of a forward pack that put the Black Ferns firmly on the back foot at set-piece time to deliver two record-breaking wins. Bern picked up another PoM gong in the victory over Canada and scored a brace off the bench against the USA. She got four tries overall in the autumn and, according to Opta, beat an average of 6.7 defenders per 80 minutes – the most of any player.
Carry this form into 2022 and she will be one of the stars of the World Cup.
91 CHARLES PIUTAU
Age 30 (31.10.91) Position Full-back
Perhaps the former All Black isn’t quite the player who dazzled us all at Blues, Wasps, Ulster and initially at Bristol. Yet he still creates moments of magic that linger in the memory, such as the jagged sidestep against Saracens that would have had even Cheslin Kolbe purring. Just think what he could do for Tonga. Inside The Mind: P25
90 ROB VALETINI
Age 23 (3.9.98) Position Back-row
The Australia back-row has had a big 2021, playing in both the wins over the Boks before his season was marred by a red card in Wales. The 18st giant has come on a truckload under Dave Rennie. He says he’s working harder now than ever before and is getting the rewards.
89 DANNY CARE
Age 34 (2.1.87) Position Scrum-half
He’s taken his game to new heights as a club player in the past three years, being directly involved in a third of Quins’ tries. He’s a probing runner, but his calling card is his ability to identify space
