LONG READ Top 100: The unluckiest players not to make the list

On occasion you’ll read a list of the Top 100 this or that and by the time you get down to the bottom, you’re wondering why some of those names were included at all.

That is not the case with RugbyPass’s Top 100 players rugby. It’s more concentrated than that triple-strength squash which can permanently neutralize your taste buds.

The current top 100 players in the men’s game is remarkable and shows just how good the modern game has become. However, as complete as the list is, some players were unlucky not to get a spot and their fans will be miffed.

Here are 10 would could count themselves unfortunate to be left on the cutting room floor. Maybe next time…

Franco Mostert

First up is Franco Mostert, the oft-forgotten South African lock – outside of South Africa that is. In some ways, it’s understandable that he doesn’t get as much shine as the other Boks locks. With Eben Etzebeth and RG Snyman, it can be difficult to step out of their shadow – quite literally with those two. But Mostert would start for pretty much any other Test team in the world. He has the build of a lock, but the speed and dexterity of a 6.5. An awesome player.

Ronan Kelleher

Rugby can be a cruel sport sometimes. Just as a Test shirt finally becomes available and you get to wear it for a few seasons, a ‘generational’ player comes along and takes it off you – namely Dan Sheehan. Ronan Kelleher is a fantastic hooker, at both club and Test level. When he takes the field for Ireland there is very little drop in performance, if any. It’s an unfortunate situation for Kelleher, but let’s not forget that he could easily be going on the Lions’ tour alongside Sheehan.

Thomas du Toit

Thomas du Toit is arguably the most dominant prop in the world when you consider that he can play both sides perfectly. Very few have been able to switch so effectively. You can count them on one hand – a similar situation to the number of tightheads who make it onto lists like this. There are plenty of looseheads in this Top 100, yet only one tighthead in Malherbe. It is of course because most tightheads have fewer opportunities to make glory carries, but that shouldn’t downgrade their importance. They are the most important players on the field, bar none. Try playing Test rugby without a proper Test tighthead and you’ll take a bigger battering than the seven-panel-fence in this author’s back garden. Cheers Darragh.

Matthieu Jalibert

When you fall out of favour with your Test coach, you fall out of plenty of other things too – such as TV coverage and Top 100 lists. It seems inconceivable that Jalibert can’t get onto a list such as this, but that’s what happens when you get stuck behind a player like Romain Ntamack – who is about as perfect a modern Test No.10 as you’ll find. You’d argue that Jalibert is the more creative player, but that is no longer what Test rugby is about in the fly-half channel. Chin up Mr J, you’ll be back on this list soon enough.

Cameron Hanekom

Admittedly, Cameron Hanekom is new to Test rugby, but the author of this column doesn’t care and will fight you for the right to put CH on this list. He is a number eight like no other in South African rugby. In fact he rather breaks the mould of recent Springbok eights. He’s more of a Pierre Spies than Duane Vermeulen. He makes yards not by seeking contact, but pouring through gaps like liquid gel. South Africa are so lucky when it comes to back-row forwards. In Hanekom, Elrigh Louw and Evan Roos, they could lose two down the back of the sofa and still be fine. It would need to be one hell of a big sofa though.

Tom Curry and Sam Underhill

Okay, granted, I couldn’t separate them, but Tom Curry and Sam Underhill are two of the most under-rated players in Test rugby, especially Underhill – who is basically a 6ft 2ins tin opener. With lists such as these, it tends to be the opensides who make the big line-breaks that get the exposure – when in reality it is no longer their core role. About 25 years ago, opensides were link players, in-between the backs and forwards. Now their role is far more defensive and breakdown-based. As the old saying goes, if you’re looking for more creativity from your openside, you need new centres. Curry and Underhill are both fantastic sevens, who perform their core role to perfection.

André Esterhuizen

Big Andre, the real Andre the Giant. Almost unmarkable at his best. Essentially, he’s the equivalent of the Kardashians’ brother, fourth or fifth choice and getting none of the attention or freebies. Esterhuizen is a one-man pod system, in that he carries and almost cleans out his own rucks as he moves forward. And while he obviously has hard shoulders, don’t get caught napping on his soft hands. Big fan of Andre.

Grant Williams

Grant Williams is arguably the rarest type of player on this list, in that he is a legit wing/scrum-half hybrid. Many nines can and have covered wing at Test level, but don’t really have the pace – Grant Williams does. Williams makes quarter-gaps look like half-gaps, and half-gaps look like the Great Rift Valley. To see Williams break in the narrow channels is like watching Gout Gout with a rugby ball strapped to his chest. Brilliant player.

Taniela Tupou

Taniela Tupou is a name you’d expect to see on a list such as this. It’s maybe understandable that he didn’t make it this time around, as his recent performances haven’t been quite at the level many of us expected they would. But his scrummaging has still been super solid, and a major contributing factor to the Wallabies’ improvements at the set-piece. With the Lions tour on the horizon, it’s a big season for the Wallabies and Tupou in particular.