Name: Best Rugby Player of All Time
Brand: Superprof
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If you want to debate the greatest rugby player of all time, other than at a rugby match itself, there's no better place than the internet.

We've looked at several rankings (we also have our own top 15) and we've come up with the general consensus on who the greatest rugby players of all time are.

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The Top 10 Rugby Players of All Time Around the Web

We looked at several different sources across the web. We'll go through them before we get to our top 15, which we feel is a suitable number of rugby players.

RadioTimes.com: “Best rugby players of all time ranked”

Radio Times is the British weekly listing magazine for television and radio programme schedules. They put together a list in February of 2023 that included the following players:

10. Antoine Dupont
9. Sergio Parisse
8. Bryan Habana
7. Gareth Edwards
6. Martin Johnson
5. Brian O'Driscoll
4. Jonny Wilkinson
3. Dan Carter
2. Richie McCaw
1. Jonah Lomu

For the most part, their list seems to agree with the consensus from the other lists we've seen.

It's interesting to see the inclusion of Antoine Dupont. There's no doubt that the French scrum-half and fly-half is a great player, but it's interesting to see him in a list of the greatest players of all time.

After all, Dupont is still playing rugby professionally.

Rugby players playing in the rain. — The glamour isn't always apparent during rugby matches, but that's why we have competitions and awards for players! | Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash

Ruck.co.uk: “The 25 best rugby players of all time have been named and ranked”

Ruck.co.uk is a rugby news and fan site. The site is based in the UK and their list from May 2023 had the following as their top 10.

10. Schalk Burger
9. Michael Jones
8. Brian O'Driscoll
7. David Campese
6. Percy Montgomery
5. Richie McCaw
4. Gareth Edwards
3. David Pocock
2. Dan Carter
1. Jonah Lomu

Ruck.co.uk's list is the only one to include Schalk Burger, the South African flanker. The Ruck.co.uk ranking also seems to prioritise forward play with the inclusion of players like Michael Jones and David Pocock.

As you'll see as we go through the other lists, most of the typical suspects are there and the #1 spot, like many other rankings, goes to Jonah Lomu.

Sports Foundation: “15 Best Rugby Players of All Time”

Sports Foundation is a more general site that covers several sports. We found their recent “15 Best Rugby Players of All Time” from April 2024.

This was their top 10:

10. Joost van der Westhuizen
9. Willie John McBridge
8. Sébastien Chabal
7. Gareth Edwards
6. John Eales
5. Dan Carter
4. Brian O'Driscoll
3. Martin Johnson
2. Richie McCaw
1. Jonah Lomu

With no surprises towards the business end of the list, Sports Foundation has a more antipodean focus with lots of players from the southern hemisphere.

It's also the only ranking that included the French rugby player Sébastien Chabal in the top 10. Perhaps not guaranteed an automatic top 10 position for most rugby fans, "the caveman" would likely be regularly mentioned in conversations about the greatest players of all time by French fans.

A rugby player making a tackle. — Rugby's a physical game and many of the highest-ranked players are lauded for their physical play. | Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash

Fan Arch: “The Top 10 Rugby Players of All-Time”

Fan Arch is a site that makes branded websites and logos for sporting professionals so it was interesting to look at how their top 10 stacked up against some of the more rugby-focused sources.

10. Sergio Parisse
9. Sean Fitzpatrick
8. George Gregan
7. Gareth Edwards
6. David Campese
5. Martin Johnson
4. Brian O'Driscoll
3. Dan Carter
2. Jonah Lomu
1. Richie McCaw

Fan Arch was the first (but not the last) of the rankings we found that didn't include Jonah Lomu as #1. Instead, they opted for Richie McCaw, who was second in many rankings and first in one of the other lists we've used.

It's the only list to feature the scrum-half George Gregan and Sean Fitzpatrick and also includes Willy John McBride, who only features on one of the other lists.

Wales Online: “The 40 greatest Rugby World Cup players ever”

The Welsh website Wales Online's list is using slightly different criteria, ranking players based solely on Rugby World Cup performances.

Not only does this mean that their list omits some of the older players on the other lists, but it also rules out some players whose national sides aren't often represented at the Rugby World Cup.

From the top 40, this was Wales Online's top 10:

10. John Kirwan
9. David Campese
8. Joose van der Westhuizen
7. Martin Johnson
6. John Eales
5. Jonny Wilkinson
4. Dan Carter
3. Richie McCaw
2. Francois Pienaar
1. Jonah Lomu

The outlier here is Francois Pienaar. The South African captained the Springboks to the Rugby World Cup in 1995 and while an outstanding achievement, the rest of his career wasn't apparently noteworthy enough for the majority of lists that we saw.

If you're new to rugby, you may recognise Pienaar's name from the movie Invictus, which tells the story of South Africa's Rugby World Cup victory and has Matt Damon play the role of the South African captain.

However, the performance of Pienaar and the rest of his team contributed to South Africa's status as one of rugby's greatest nations.

Several rugby players in a lot of mud. — Different people prefer different aspects of the game, making rating and ranking players difficult. | Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash

The Rugby Blog: “Best Rugby Player of All Time”

The Rugby Blog's article from April 2024 includes many of the other players from the other lists. However, it also features the New Zealand rugby player Zinzan Brooke, who was definitely one of the best rugby players for New Zealand.

This was their top 10:

10. Zinzan Brooke
9. Gareth Edwards
8. Jonny Wilkinson
7. Martin Johnson
6. Jonah Lomu
5. David Campese
4. Brian O'Driscoll
3. Michael Jones
2. Dan Carter
1. Richie McCaw

Most of the rankings that we found tended to debate whether Jonah Lomu or Richie McCaw was deserving of the #1 spot. However, the Rugby Blog went with a fairly bold choice of going with McCaw as the best of all time. They put Jonah Lomu in 6th, the lowest ranking given to him by any of the sources that we could find, though it's not easy choosing from the best rugby players.

This isn't to say that they're wrong, but it's definitely a choice that doesn't tend to agree with the overall consensus.

Rugby Pass: “Top 10 rugby legends”

The Rugby Pass website's article from a couple of years ago on the top 10 rugby legends doesn't throw up too many surprises with a selection that generally matches the overall consensus found online.

This was their top 10:

10. Sergio Parisse
9. Brian O'Driscoll
8. David Campese
7. Waisale Serevi
6. Willy John McBride
5. Jonny Wilkinson
4. Gareth Edwards
3. Dan Carter
2. Richie McCaw
1. Jonah Lomu

The outlier here, however, was the inclusion of Waisale Serevi, the Fijian rugby player.

The Rugby Pass list has a nice mix of playing styles and positions represented, too, which offers a broader appreciation of different types of rugby talent and greatness.

A rugby player scoring a try. — You could also rank rugby players by points and tries scored, but this would largely ignore many other important aspects of the game. | Photo by Philippa Rose-Tite on Unsplash

The Superprof Average Rankings for Best Rugby Player of All Time

So what do all these different rankings mean?

For one, nobody on the internet can agree on anything, but we know that already.

To try and make all the differing opinions a little clearer, we considered these rankings averaged them out, did some other maths, and came up with what we think is a pretty solid top 15 rugby players of all time:

15. Sébastien Chabal
14. Francois Pienaar
13. Joost van der Westhuizen
12, Willie John McBride
11. John Eales
10. Michael Jones
9. David Pocock
8. Martin Johnson
7. Jonny Wilkinson
6. Gareth Edwards
5. Brian O'Driscoll
4. David Campese
3. Dan Carter
2. Richie McCaw
1. Jonah Lomu

As you can see, this puts Jonah Lomu in first. Despite being ranked 6th by the Rugby Blog, his average ranking was still higher than that of McCaw, though we'd also completely understand if you'd prefer to put McCaw at number one.

Both players featured in every one of the top 10 rankings that we saw as did Dan Carter, whose average position was behind both Lomu and McCaw.

David Campese in 4th had a high average ranking and only didn't make the top 10 in the Radio Times and Sports Foundation lists.

Brian O'Driscoll could have easily been in 4th, too, but his average ranking was slightly behind that of Campese. He wasn't included on the Wales Online list.

The rest of the list was based on average rankings and for closely-ranked players, we gave priority to players who were mentioned more frequently.

While Pienaar, for example, was ranked 2nd according to Wales Online's rankings for Rugby World Cup performances, he didn't feature on any other list. For us, this warrants an inclusion outside of the top 10, but still an honourable mention in our top 15 of all time, even if it's mostly for his massive impact in a single tournament over some of the more consistently illustrious careers of other players.

While all of these rankings are subjective, we've tried to aggregate the general opinion on great rugby players and while not everybody's favourite players will feature, we think we have a fairly solid top 15.

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