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France and Ireland dominate World Rugby Men’s 15s Dream Team for 2023

Eben Etzebeth poses after the Springboks World Cup win. Photo by Adam Pretty - World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images

World Rugby has unveiled the 2023 Men’s Dream Team of the Year, an XV stacked with bruising physicality, electric pace and otherworldly skillsets.

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All Blacks No. 8 Ardie Savea was crowned Player of the Year and rightly takes his place in the team after missing out a year ago to France’s mighty Grégory Alldritt.

Savea is one of four New Zealanders to feature in the team, while their Rugby World Cup final opponents South Africa claim just one representative.

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WATCH as two-time World Cup-winning Springbok captain Siya Kolisi gives an emotional farewell speech to departing coacj Jacques Nienaber

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WATCH as two-time World Cup-winning Springbok captain Siya Kolisi gives an emotional farewell speech to departing coacj Jacques Nienaber

The bulk of the XV comes from Ireland and France, with five players apiece. The form of the two recent Six Nations champions has denied Rugby World Cup bronze finalists England and Argentina any place in the dream team, despite colossal campaigns from the likes of Ben Earl and Marcos Kremer.

Just three players have managed to back up their selection in 2022’s dream team in 2023, with Ireland’s Tadgh Furlong, France’s Antoine Dupont and New Zealand’s Will Jordan claiming consecutive selections. It is in fact the third straight year that the trio has been selected, an incredible display of consistent excellence at rugby’s highest level.

World Rugby Men’s 15s Dream Team of the Year:

1. Cyril Baille (France)
2. Dan Sheehan (Ireland)
3. Tadhg Furlong (Ireland)
4. Eben Etzebeth (South Africa)
5. Scott Barrett (New Zealand)
6. Caelan Doris (Ireland)
7. Charles Ollivon (France)
8. Ardie Savea (New Zealand)
9. Antoine Dupont (France)
10. Richie Mo’unga (New Zealand)
11. Will Jordan (New Zealand)
12. Bundee Aki (Ireland)
13. Garry Ringrose (Ireland)
14. Damian Penaud (France)
15. Thomas Ramos (France).

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Comments

38 Comments
B
Brent 334 days ago

This is ridiculous!…irrespective of the disdain and hatred of the Springboks, to have 1 in the team shows the nonsensical decision to even expose this nonsense…actually embarrassing. From a neutral.

P
Petrus78 387 days ago

Yes…..let's all hail the dream ON team…….🤣

P
Pecos 387 days ago

1 Bok????

B
BeegMike 388 days ago

Scott “Red Card” Barrett 🤙

B
BeegMike 388 days ago

How many cards did Scott get this year? Is that the standard?

I
Ian 389 days ago

I’m a kiwi and fervent supporter of the ABs. I have to say that it doesn’t make sense to me that there is only one spring bok in this team. At the end of the day for good or bad, they played and beat all the top teams.

S
Steve 389 days ago

This dream team was picked with the whole year in mind and not just the WC. With that in mind, Malcolm Marx should be the hooker, P-S du Toit should be in there, and Tele’a should be there at wing (if not Kolbe, who had 1 bad day under the high ball all year).

G
Grant 389 days ago

This must be the greatest consulation prize WR can offer for the quarter final loosers and Northern Hemisphere hopefuls. Its a joke…to rate Penaud in front of Kolbe is pathetic to say the least.

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Rudolph_ 389 days ago

Really the bitterness on display by World Rugby and by New Zealanders the past few days has left a sour taste, for all that I hope the Boks come back and hit the books, start to prepare for the next one, we’ll keep breaking them until they acknowledge who we are!

S
Stuart 389 days ago

The forward pack , bar 2 maybe 3 players looks like a world cup development team.

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Hellhound 14 minutes ago
France put World Cup pain behind them with unbeaten run in November

France is starting to look like they are finally over their WC headache, although they were lucky that NZ had a very bad game. The Argies as usual is one game good, the next bad. If they can sort that out and be more consistent, they could become contenders for the WC.


NZ, Argentina (if they are more consistent), and now the Wallabies too is in an upward curve (can they be consistent?), as well as Fiji(as inconsistent as Argentina) looks like possible contenders. The Boks will be as usual a huge threat to defend their title. Things are looking up for the South, so the North should rightfully beware of the Southern Hemisphere threat.


With the French looking dangerous, the English with their close runs (mostly a mindset problem) and the Scottish seems to be the NH main contenders. The Irish is good, but not excellent anymore. They are more overbearing and with their glory days mostly gone with old players hanging on by a thread, by 2027 if they don't start adding in the younger players, they won't make it past yet another WC Quarter final. The problem is that their youngsters, while good is nothing special.


That is just 8 teams without the Irish that can become real WC contenders. Lots of hickups to be sorted still for these teams, excluding the Boks to become a threat. Make no mistake, the top Tier is much closer than people realise and the 2027 WC will be a really great WC, possibly the best contended WC ever.

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