Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Alun Wyn Jones named world's best player as Rugby World publish Top 100

Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Alun Wyn Jones has been named the world’s best player by Rugby World magazine.

ADVERTISEMENT

The 33-year-old Wales captain and second-row forward has topped a list of 100 of the world’s current leading players compiled and voted for by Rugby World’s expert panel.

New Zealand fly-half Beauden Barrett and England prop Mako Vunipola were placed second and third respectively.

The panel included Fiji’s Olympic gold medal-winning sevens coach Ben Ryan, Wasps Ladies director of rugby Giselle Mather, broadcaster Ross Harries and Kiwi writer Liam Napier as well as the magazine’s editorial team.

On their choice of Jones as number one, Ryan said: “He’s like superglue for any team he plays for – unbreakable in the toughest of moments – and that simultaneously elevates those around him too.

“He leads from the front with the highest level of guile, intellect and bravery that is a rarity even among the greats.”

Jones guided Wales to a Six Nations grand slam earlier this year, while there has been speculation over his future with Guinness Pro14 side Ospreys with whom he has yet to sign a new contract.

ADVERTISEMENT

England fly-half Owen Farrell topped Rugby World’s last list, compiled in January 2018, but is ranked sixth this time.

Pauline Bourdon, the France scrum-half, is the highest-ranked women’s player in the top 100 at 11th.

New Zealand have the highest representation of players on the list, with 21, followed by England (17), South Africa (12) and Wales (10). There are also nine Irish players and five Scots.

The top 10 is: Alun Wyn Jones, Beauden Barrett, Mako Vunipola, Brodie Retallick, Liam Williams, Owen Farrell, Ben Smith, Finn Russell, Viliame Mata, Tadhg Furlong.

ADVERTISEMENT

Press Association

Watch: ‘Unfinished business’ behind Gatland leading the Lions for a third time

Video Spacer

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

A
AM 39 minutes ago
'Freelancer' Izaia Perese shows the need for true inclusivity in Australian rugby

That's Cron's job though. Australia has had one of the most penalised scrums in international rugby for a long time. Just look at the scrum win loss percentage and scrum penalties. That is your evidence. AA has been the starter during that period. Pretty simple analysis. That Australia has had a poor scrum for a long time is hardly news. If bell and thor are not on the field they are woeful. So you are just plain wrong. They have very little time for the lions so doing the same old things that dont work is not going to get them there.


Ainsley is better than our next best tighthead options and has been playing well at scrum time for Lyon in the most competitive comp in the world. Superstar player? No. But better than the next best options. So that is a good enough guide. The scrummaging in the Prem is pretty good too so there is Sio's proof. Same analysis for him. Certainly better in both cases than Super, where the brumbies had the worst win loss and scrum pen in Super. Who plays there? Ohh yes... And the level of scrummaging in Super is well below the URC, prem and France with the SA teams out.


Nongorr is truly woeful. He's 130kg and gets shoved about. That just should not be happening at that weight for a specialist prop who has always played rugby cf pone with leauge. He has had enough time to develop at 23. You'd be better off with Pone who is at least good around the field for the moment and sending Nongorr on exchange to France or England to see if they can improve him with better coaching as happened with Skelton and Meafou. He isn't going to develop in time in super if he has it at all.


Latu is a better scrummaging hooker than BPA and Nasser. and he's the best aussie player over the ball at ruck time. McReight's super jackling percentage hasnt converted to international level but latu consistently does it at heniken level, which is similar to test level in the big games. With good coaching at La Rochelle he's much improved though still has the odd shocker. He should start the November games.

72 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Rugby fans are about to find out what Robertson's All Blacks are made of Rugby fans are about to find out what Robertson's All Blacks are made of
Search