Northern Edition
Select Edition
Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Stephen Jones picks his ten best international teams of all-time

1995 All Blacks. (Photo by David Rogers / Allsport)

NZ Herald

ADVERTISEMENT

Controversial UK rugby critic Stephen Jones has rated the 1995 All Blacks as the best team of all-time.

Jones, who often makes headlines with his calculated barbs at New Zealand Rugby, also listed Richie McCaw’s 2015 Rugby World Cup winning All Blacks side as the third best team in rugby’s history.

Jones, writing in The Times, listed the ten best international teams of all-time in the wake of England coach Eddie Jones suggesting he will turn England into “the greatest team that rugby has seen.”

Jones said they have “some way to go” crack the top 10.

Jones listed at number 1 “the New Zealand team that should have won Rugby World Cup in 1995 but went on the year after to beat the Springboks 3-1 in South Africa in four weeks (the first win was in the Tri Nations, then Sean Fitzpatrick’s team won their first-ever series in South Africa). Colossal team in every position – back row of Josh Kronfeld, Michael Jones and Zinzan Brooke. Tasty.”

England’s 2003 team was ranked second. “….led by Martin Johnson to World Cup glory, were so good that they were actually a little past their peak by the time of the tournament. England gave what was their greatest performance in history in the grand slam match in Dublin earlier that year.”

The All Blacks side “that dominated the 2015 World Cup in England under the inspiration of Richie McCaw and Dan Carter, with hardly a weak link anywhere”, were ranked third.

ADVERTISEMENT

Ellis Genge of England and Leicester, took on Aston Hewitt of the Dragons, in the last sixteen of the RugbyPass FIFA Pros competition:

Video Spacer

Rounding out his top 10 were:

4th: Wales’ great team of the early 1970s, inspired by Gareth Edwards and Barry John.
5th: South Africa’s 1997-98 team under Nick Mallett
6th: England’s squad which won three grand slams between 1991 and 1995
7th: Ireland’s 2018 grand slam winning team under Kiwi coach Joe Schmidt
8th: England’s 2016 grand slam winning side
9th: Wales’ grand slam winning teams coached by Kiwi Warren Gatland
10th: South Africa’s champion 2019 Rugby World Cup team.

Last week, Jones listed Dan Carter as only the 10th best first-five of all-time, instead opting for a left-field selection for his pick at No. 1.

Writing for the Sunday Times alongside fellow pundit Stuart Barnes, the pair ranked Carter in vastly different positions, with Barnes placing the former All Blacks pivot at the top of his rankings.

ADVERTISEMENT

It isn’t the first time the duo have disagreed about the status of an All Blacks legend, with Jones last week leaving former New Zealand skipper Richie McCaw out of his top 10 all-time test captains, while Barnes placed him at No. 1.

Jones didn’t even have Carter listed as his best All Blacks playmaker, with Andrew Mehrtens selected three spots higher seventh place.

Stephen Jones’ top 10 No. 10s: 1 David Watkins (Wales), 2 Juan Martín Hernández (Argentina), 3 Jonathan Davies (Wales), 4 John Rutherford (Scotland), 5 Michael Lynagh (Australia), 6 Phil Bennett (Wales), 7 Andrew Mehrtens (New Zealand), 8 Jonny Wilkinson (England), 9 Barry John (Wales), 10 Dan Carter (New Zealand).

This article first appeared on nzherald.co.nz and is republished with permission.

ADVERTISEMENT
LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

N
Nickers 58 minutes ago
Scott Robertson names his 35-man All Blacks squad for France series

As always with Razor slightly unorthodox with a few surprises. Last year Blackadder was rushed back into the starting 15 after a long injury lay off and no game time, this year on the back of a good body of work in which he was immense in the final he doesn’t even make the squad. But Finau, who possibly wouldn’t have even been starting for the Chiefs if Parker was fit is the only specialist 6 in the squad. Likewise Havili, great season and a great final, much better than last year by all measures but doesn’t make the cut.


6 mid fielders when 4 will do, but only 5 loosies when 7 would be useful -> Maybe Lakai and Parker come in? No 3rd choice at 10 meaning if one of BB or DMac sustain a mid to long term injury there is no one they are specifically trusting to come into the team and be able to close out matches - maybe they think Love is the 3rd best 10 in NZ?


Great to see Tavatavanawai straight in on the back of a huge season - he should 100% be in the 23. There have been players before like Stevenson or Sotutu who had the season of the their lives and didn’t get picked, so this is great and a little surprising to see.


Only 4 locks and no lock cover among the loosies named. This seems like an area we need to be developing more players rather than concentrating the talent pool down further. Maybe when Darry is fit he finds his way back in, but it would be good to see Lord or whoever the 6th best lock is around the squad too.


One thing I continue to find strange about ABs selection going back many years is that they are obsessed with backs being able to cover multiple positions, but they don’t take advantage of this in any way. The fact that we have 3 players who can play 12, and 3 that can play 13, doesn’t stop them from selecting ALB to cover 12 and 13 giving them 4 options at each position - what is the point of this? Likewise Love, I really like him, especially at 10, But they have Jordan, BB, Dmac who all play 15 at test level, as well as JB who is world class at 15 to cover, so why take up another spot in the squad with yet another 15? Why do we need four options for every position in the backs except 10, which is arguably the most important one where we have not been able to develop a new test player for 8 or 9 years.


And unless there is a big change this year they also don’t use all these utility backs to enable a 6-2 bench split, and will instead pick a specialist winger on the bench to come on and play the last 10 minutes.

61 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING Steve Borthwick: 'A couple of people' at fault for England loss Steve Borthwick: 'A couple of people' at fault for England loss
Search