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Five World Cup-winning locks among new inductees into RugbyPass Hall of Fame
By Sam Smith
The fifth wave of inductees into the RugbyPass Hall of Fame have been revealed as the finest locks ever to grace the game were recognised on Friday.
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Home to the greatest rugby players of all-time, the RugbyPass Hall of Fame acknowledges and recognises the outstanding efforts of the trailblazers from the amateur era through to the global stars who light up the sport to this day.
The amalgamation of rugby’s top players from the amateur and professional eras has been reflected in the Rugby Pass Hall of Fame’s first-ever induction announcement, from which 12 of rugby’s best locks have been unveiled as inductees.
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Among the headline names include World Cup-winning captain John Eales, who lifted the Webb Ellis Cup as skipper of the Wallabies in 1999.
Eales was also part of the 1991 World Cup-winning Australian side, making him one of two new inductees to have won rugby’s greatest prize on more than one occasion.
The other is current All Blacks lock Sam Whitelock, who recently captained New Zealand throughout their 2021 campaign.
Whitelock was part of both the 2011 and 2015 World Cup-winning All Blacks sides, and is one of four Kiwis – Robin Brooke, the late Sir Colin Meads and fellow 2011 world champion Ali Williams – included in the newest crop of inductees.
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Former Springboks greats Mark Andrews and Victor Matfield are the only other World Cup winners to be included in the recent additions to the RugbyPass Hall of Fame, having played a key role in delivering South Africa two world titles in 1995 and 2007, respectively.
Wallabies centurion Nathan Sharpe joins Eales as the only Australians among the new inductees, while current Wales veteran Alun Wyn Jones, the world’s most capped player, has been included alongside his countryman Craig Quinnell.
There are also two new Irishmen in the RugbyPass Hall of Fame in the form of iconic second rowers Paul O’Connell and Willie John McBride.
The admission of the 12 aforementioned players comes a day after it was confirmed that 11 other locks – Eben Etzebeth, Brodie Retallick, Martin Johnson, Bakkies Botha, Maro Itoje, Leone Nakarawa, Brad Thorn, Ian Jones, Dan Vickerman, Bill Beaumont and Chris Jack – had been inducted into the RugbyPass Hall of Fame on Thursday.
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Of all those included in the RugbyPass Hall of Fame, only the players with the most votes in each position will make the Fan 1st XV, a team made up of only the best players ever to have played rugby.
The door remains open for other players to become RugbyPass Hall of Famers, so register now to have your say and vote for your favourite inductee in the Fan 1st XV.
Current RugbyPass Hall of Fame Fan 1st XV
1. Os du Randt (South Africa, 1994-2007)
2. Sean Fitzpatrick (New Zealand, 1986-1997)
3. Owen Franks (New Zealand, 2009-2019)
4. Eben Etzebeth (South Africa, 2012-present)
5. Colin Meads (New Zealand, 1957-1971)
6. N/A
7. N/A
8. N/A
9. N/A
10. N/A
11. N/A
12. N/A
13. N/A
14. N/A
15. N/A
Coach: N/A
Referee: N/A
Stadium: N/A
You guys are getting this wrong. Never have current players on the best ever list. Best example is Eben leading with the most votes. Bakkies and Brad together don't even get half of what Eben got. Yet both those players were better and have achieved so much more. Eben had the best 3 games of his carreer in the last month. But for the rest of the year he was average. If this polling was done after the rugby championship then Brodie would have been the nr one choice because he was on fire then but faded towards the end of the year.