Top 10 rugby legends
There are very few occasions greater for sporting fans than seeing their favourite players take to the biggest stages to showcase their immense talents.
Here at RugbyPass we’ve taken a look at the greatest names to have ever played our beloved sport.
This list doesn’t just look at the quality of the players in their prime, but also takes into account what they did for our game too.
10) Sergio Parisse
Sergio Parisse is a true veteran of the game. Playing at the highest level for 20+ years, he is without a shadow of a doubt the most decorated Italian rugby player of all time.
Making his international debut at the age of just 18 years old, Parisse helped embed his national side into the newly formed Six Nations Championship. Going on to win 142 caps, the former captain helped bring Italy into a genuine tier 1 side.
Born in Argentina to Italian parents, Parisse moved to Italy to pursue a rugby career. His professional career started at Benetton Treviso in 2003 where he played his trade for 4 years, before spending his prime rugby playing time at Stade Francais. Scoring 238 points in his time at the French side, Parisse eventually moved on to Toulon in 2019 to find yet more silverware.
A powerful number 8, Parisse has always had the skillset of a backline player. This alongside his mammoth size has allowed him to become one of the most dangerous players of all time.
9) Brian O’Driscoll
Often touted as the greatest Irish rugby player of all time, Brian O’Driscoll holds the record for both the most caps and the most tries for his national side.
Noted for having both exceedingly good ball skills and a brilliant rugby brain, he has an honours list as long as anyone in world rugby.
The four-time British and Irish Lions tourist and three-time six nations player of the tournament played his entire club career for Dublin-based province Leinster.
The Irish number 13 shirt became synonymous with Brian O’Driscoll, and he has since become one of the most well-known and respected rugby pundits in the game today.
8) David Campese
With more than a century of caps for Australia, David Campese was an electric back three player for the Wallabies.
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.
A cross-code player, Campese was also a prolific Rugby Sevens player performing at multiple Hong Kong Sevens competitions and was awarded the Leslie Williams Award for Player of the Tournament in 1988.
7) Waisale Serevi
Affectionately known as ‘the wizard’, he is often described as the greatest Rugby Sevens player of all time.
With multiple player of the tournament awards, Serevi was also the first-ever Fijian rugby player to be inducted into the IRB Hall of Fame.
The skills Serevi possessed, and the footwork to go alongside them made him almost impossible to play against.
Quite unusually Serevi was a player that was also able to transfer his incredible sevens skills to the 15s game, appearing in a total of three Rugby World Cups for Fiji.
He played 359 tournaments in the sevens game and turned out for the fifteen aside national team 39 times.
6) Willy John McBride
The oldest of this list, Willie John McBride is a true legend of the game. The Ireland Rugby legend turned out for the British and Irish Lions a record seventeen times in test matches over five tours.
Known as one of the hardest men in rugby history, McBride instigated a policy of “one in, all in” during their 1974 tour of South Africa. The idea was when one Lion got into a fight on the field, all other Lions were expected to fight the nearest Springbok.
5) Johnny Wilkinson
With his list of honours so long, England rugby legend Jonny Wilkinson could possibly feel aggrieved not to find himself higher up on this list, alas.
Known for his dedicated work rate, leadership skills, and incredible kicking abilities, Wilkinson personified the position of fly-half.
Due to his exploits in the 2003 Rugby World Cup, Wilkinson inspired a whole generation of young English rugby players.
Retiring in 2014 Wilkinson ended his career with one Premiership Rugby title, one Top 14 title, two Heineken Champions Cups, a Rugby World Cup, and multiple Six Nations Championships, all alongside a plethora of individual honours.
4) Gareth Edwards
Often described as the greatest ever player to wear the red of Wales. Edwards was a scrum-half well ahead of his time.
A career spanning 12 years saw Edwards turn out for Cardiff RFC 195 times. This one-club player made his national honours for Wales, as well as turning out for the British and Irish Lions on two separate tours.
Known for scoring the greatest try of all time for The Barbarians, Edwards touched down during their famous victory over the All Blacks at Cardiff Arms Park in 1973.
3) Dan Carter
The perfect 10. Dan Carter finally retired in 2020 after a career that saw him become arguably the greatest fly-half of all time.
Known for his incredible game management, kicking skills, smooth handling, and running ability.
Carter played the majority of his club career for the Crusaders, but he had stints over in France and Japan during the latter stages of his playing days.
The three-time World Rugby Player of the Year holds the record for the most international points scored of all time, as well as multiple other personal and team accolades.
2) Richie McCaw
Thought by many to be the greatest rugby player of all time, Richie McCaw holds a joint record three World Rugby Player of the Year awards. He was also given the New Zealand sportsman of the decade award, which is the highest sporting honour an individual can achieve in New Zealand.
McCaw played alongside Dan Carter for both the Crusaders and New Zealand, winning two world cups together.
McCaw’s record 148 caps for the All Blacks was achieved thanks to his ability to remain at the top of the world game throughout his career. He had an incredible ability to read the game as well as the referee.
Often a frustrating player to play against, the flanker was generally always on the edge of legality with his work around the breakdown, but always found a way to come out on the right side.
1) Jonah Lomu
Jonah Lomu reinvented the game of rugby. He brought in a whole generation of new fans with his incredible running abilities.
Standing at 6 ft 5 inches and weighing in at 19 stone in his prime, you would expect the huge specimen to be taking his place in the scrum. Instead, with the ability to run the 100m in 10.80 seconds, this absolute unit took his place on the field where he could find the most space, the wing.
With 37 tries for the All Blacks, Lomu had many career highlights over his career. This included scoring a record 15 Rugby World Cup tries, and literally running over Mike Catt during a semi-final match.
Unfortunately Jonah Lomu passed away at the young age of 40 in 2015 from a heart attack in relation to his long-term Kidney problems.
Comments on RugbyPass
Good 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.
17 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.
7 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.
17 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?
7 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
7 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
26 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
17 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
26 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
17 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
84 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
2 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
7 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
17 Go to comments9 Brumbies! What a joke! The best performing team in Oz! Ditch Skelton for Swain or Neville. Ryan Lonergan ahead of McDermott any day! Best selection bolter is Toole … amazing player
14 Go to commentsI like this, but ultimately rugby already has enough trophies. Trying to make more games “consequential" might prove to be a fools errand, although this is a less bad idea than some others. Minor quibble with the title of the article; it isn’t very meaningful to say the boks are the unofficial world champions when it would be functionally impossible for the Raeburn trophy not to be held by the world champions. There’s a period of a few months every 4 years when there is no “unofficial” world champion, and the Raeburn trophy is held by the actual world champions.
17 Go to comments