Best ever rugby union wingers
Rugby can be a complicated game, with so many rules and so many different roles.
But when it comes down to it, the object of the game is to catch the ball and run forwards, preferably fast and hard.
The most electrifying players in this part of the game tend to be the wingers, designed to be the fastest, the most agile, and nowadays some of the most powerful, so as a result can be mesmerising.
Let’s have a look at the ten greatest to have ever worn the 11 and 14 jerseys.
10) Doug Howlett
Doug Howlett was a prolific try scorer, capped 63 times by New Zealand during his long and illustrious career. At the domestic level, he also represented the Blues, Munster, and a host of other elite sides.
A super-fast winger, Howlett could run the 100m in 10.94 seconds, which meant in clear space he was almost impossible to catch up with.
During his time in the black of New Zealand, he scored 49 tries which to date remains a record for the All Blacks.
9) Rupeni Caucaunibuca
One of the most flamboyant and exciting players to have ever played the game, Rupeni Caucaunibuca was often described as being one of the world’s greatest-ever wingers.
It was in 2003 that the flying Fijian came to light, with his incredible individual tries in that year’s world cup. Almost impossible to stop one on one, he also had a devastating wing partnership with Joe Rokocoko for the Blues that year.
Following on from his early career exploits, Caucaunibuca moved to France and went on to win France’s Player of the Year award in 2006, as well as multiple top try scorer awards.
Unfortunately due to his lack of discipline and other issues, Caucaunibuca never quite hit his astronomical potential. This led many fans and pundits to ponder the question, what if?
8) Jeff Wilson
Jeff Wilson is a former winger and fullback who was a ‘double All Black’. As well as receiving 60 caps for the New Zealand rugby union side, he also represented his country in cricket.
Wilson’s talent for the game was obvious as soon as he burst onto the scene with Southland, making his debut for the All Blacks only a year later. Between 1993 and 2001, he made 60 appearances for the side and scored 44 tries. At the time of his retirement, this was a record for the All Blacks.
7) Joe Rokocoko
Thought to be the natural successor to the great Jonah Lomu, Joe Rokocoko had an incredible career lasting sixteen years. Although his All Blacks career lasted just seven, he achieved a strike rate that only the very best could match.
A different style of winger to Lomu, Rokocoko relied on pure pace and a side-stepping ability that would leave defenders stuck in the mud. Noted in particular for his spinning side-step that would leave all disorientated, bar him.
Following his career in New Zealand, Rokocoko moved to France where he turned out for Bayonne and later Racing 92 with whom he won the Top 14 championship.
6) Jason Robinson
Billy Whizz as he was affectionately known during his playing days, was one of the greatest back-three players England has ever seen. His incredible sidestepping abilities and acceleration off the mark saw the Sale and England player strike fear into any defence that dared give him space.
Jason Robinson was one of the leading players in England’s 2003 world cup victory and appeared on two British and Irish Lions tours.
Despite officially retiring from international rugby in 2005, Robinson returned in 2007 to help bring back some leadership and winning qualities into the squad at the time. With this Robinson continued on that year to help the national side reach another world cup final.
Even to this day, the former player is seen as the benchmark for all future England back-three players to achieve.
5) Shane Williams
After a slow start to his international career, Shane Williams went on to become one of Wales’s greatest-ever players.
Known for his slender size, this little speedster had the agility of very few others that had played the game before or after him. Able to plant either foot down to change directions in milliseconds, defending players needed an extra arm or three if they were to get any sort of hold on him.
Williams spent the majority of his career in Wales, before moving into semi-retirement over in Japan with Mitsubishi Dynaboars. By this time, Williams had multiple caps for the British and Irish Lions, as well as holding the Welsh try-scoring record with 58.
4) David Campese
Over a century of caps for Australia, David Campese was an electric back-three player known for his trademark goose-step. There were very few players in the history of the game that could bring a crowd to their feet like Campese.
As well as representing many of Australia’s top sides, David Campese also spent nine seasons in Italy where he won the Italian title on five occasions.
He appeared in three world cups, winning it in 1991, and in doing so was named the Player of the Tournament.
3) Julian Savea
Nicknamed ‘The Bus’ due to his storming direct running, Julian Savea clocked an incredible strike rate of a try almost every game in his All Blacks career.
A former nominee for the World Player of the Year Award, Savea has been a dominant force in Super Rugby for the Hurricanes since 2011. Despite the incredible world-beating form he was in at the start of his career, Savea started to lose form in 2016.
Following his deterioration of form, he made the move to France to restart his career with Toulon. Being away from home and lacking form made the French experience a torrid one for the former All Black legend.
Since returning to Wellington with the Hurricanes, Savea has started to show glimpses of his former magic. This time he has returned to New Zealand as a centre with albeit less speed but a much more rounded game.
2) Bryan Habana
The man raced a Cheetah. He was quick. Bryan Habana could sprint 40 metres in just 4.58 seconds, making him one of the fastest to have ever played the game.
During the 2007 world cup, he scored a record-equalling eight tries in total as part of the winning South African side. Just four years later Habana went on to score seven tries over in New Zealand, putting him joint top of the all-time world cup try-scoring charts, level with the late great Jonah Lomu.
His club career saw him playing for some of South Africa’s top sides, before moving over to France to play for the Galactico’s of rugby, Toulon.
1) Jonah Lomu
Jonah Lomu is a giant of rugby. Although he sadly passed away unexpectedly in 2015, he remains one of the most famous rugby players to have ever played the game.
Over his illustrious career, Lomu played for a number of Super Rugby clubs including the Blues, Chiefs, and Hurricanes as well as teams in Wales and France. However, he’s best known for his electrifying performances in an All Blacks shirt.
At 1.96m and 120kg, Lomu was a new-generation of winger. Bigger than most second rows, and faster than most wingers. This fascinating player was able to literally run over the opposition, and speed away from any that dared chase him.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments