World Top 10's!

[TobesHodges]

Or Creevy. Totally ridiculous. And if Bismark is number one then im god.

My original pick:

1) Bismarck Du plessis
2) Dane Coles
3) Motu Matu'u
4) Dlyan Hartley
5) Augustin Creevy
6) Adriaan Strauss
7) Stephen Moore
8) Dimitri Szarzewski
9) Tatafu Polota-Nau
10) Tom Youngs

Bismarck has been outstanding, for years, even after coming back from full shoulder reconstruction.. I hope your happy to see Strauss and Creevy in there

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[Kiwi_]

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McCaw is still the best openside in the world, he's probably got a few more years left in the tank as well, he's like Brad Thorne, age means nothing, sadly he's retiring.

 

[TobesHodges]

Second Row:

1) Eben Etzebeth
2) Brodie Retallick
3) Sam Whitelock
4) Paul O'Connell
5) Courtney Lawes
6) Alun Wyn Jones
7) Lodewyk De Jager
8) Joe Launchbury
9) Lopeti Timani
10) Will Skelton

 

[psychic duck]

Thankfully I didn't say his core skills were poor then.



Knew I was forgetting a French prop, Ben Arous goes straight on to the list, Aguero is a maybe and I had thought of Debaty but just don't rate him as much.

Only a maybe? Aguero is a superior scrummager than the majority of your top 10, just doesn't get credit as the Italian scrum goes ***s up when de Marchi takes the field. Debaty is great in the loose as well, and not as bad as he once was scrummaging. Both are miles better than anything Australia have at loosehead. There's no way Slipper is top 10. He wouldn't even start for a few Tier 2 sides.

 

[Peat]

Speaking of Italian players, I reckon Ghiraldini's worth a top ten slot as a hooker.

Tbh, this is the reason I'm not trying this. I simply don't know enough about French, Italian, Argentine or Georgian players (i refuse to believe they don't have some of the top 10 props in the world). The Top 14 is a foreign world to me.

So I'll just sit on the sidelines and nitpick :lol:

 

[iINDOMINUSxx]

Second Row:

1) Eben Etzebeth
2) Brodie Retallick
3) Sam Whitelock
4) Paul O'Connell
5) Courtney Lawes
6) Alun Wyn Jones
7) Lodewyk De Jager
8) Joe Launchbury
9) Lopeti Timani
10) Will Skelton

Nothing in the top 3..

No Jonny Gray ?

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Samu Manoa and Pieter-Steph du Toit are also options for 2nd row IMO. The one plays for a 'minnow' rugby team and the other is continually injured so I can understand them being left out though but if Skelton and De Jager can make it off ~10 caps I'll ack PSdT. Also, only 10 picks make it tough..

 

[chippieolamus]

Samu Manoa and Pieter-Steph du Toit are also options for 2nd row IMO. The one plays for a 'minnow' rugby team and the other is continually injured so I can understand them being left out though but if Skelton and De Jager can make it off ~10 caps I'll ack PSdT. Also, only 10 picks make it tough..

I completely forgot Samu Manoa (although I think it could be argued that his primary position is 8 now). I think I'll revise my list to:

Lock:
1) Retallick
2) Etzebeth
3) O'Connell
4) Wyn Jones
5) Launchbury
6) Whitelock
7) Manoa
8) Lawes
9) J. Gray
10) Toner

 

[TobesHodges]

No Jonny Gray ?

He is in blistering form, thinking about it I have done him a dis-service I will re post!

 

[TobesHodges]

Second Row:

1) Eben Etzebeth
2) Brodie Retallick
3) Sam Whitelock
4) Paul O'Connell
5) Courtney Lawes
6) Lodewyk De Jager
7) Joe Launchbury
8) Johnny Gray
9) Lopeti Timani
10) Will Skelton

Nothing in the top 3..

 

[yaboyjj]

Second Row:

1) Eben Etzebeth
2) Brodie Retallick
3) Sam Whitelock
4) Paul O'Connell
5) Courtney Lawes
6) Lodewyk De Jager
7) Joe Launchbury
8) Johnny Gray
9) Lopeti Timani
10) Will Skelton

Nothing in the top 3..

Launch >> Lawes, De Jager and probably Whitelock too imo. tbh I think he'd be very close (if not in) to my world XV.

 

[iINDOMINUSxx]

Scrum Half:

1) Aaron Smith
2) Conor Murray
3) Ruan Pineear
4) Will Genia
5) TJ Peranara
6) Sebastian Tilles-Borde
7) Nick Phibbs
8) Ben Youngs
9) Henry Prygos
10) Rhys Webb

I think there will be some guys on this list after the World Cup like Morgan Parra, Sam Hidalgo-Clyne (big talent, needs opportunity), Corbus Reinarch (didn't have a great season), Jonothan pellisse probs a few more..

Sam Hidalgo-Clyne or Greig Laidlaw instead off Henry Pyrgos

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Here is my list off the worlds top 10 locks (so i can stop picking on other people's selection )

1.) Brodie Retallick
2.) Eben Etzebeth
3.) Sam Whitelock
4.) Paul O'Connell
5.) Joe Launchbury
6.) Courtney Lawes
7.) Jonny Gray
8.) Lodewyk De Jager
9.) Alun Wyn Jones
10.) Devin Toner

Hookers
1.) Danes Coles
2.) Bismarck Du plessis
3.) Augustin Creevy
4.) Stephen Moore
5.) Kevin Mealamu
6.) Adriaan Strauss
7.) Rory Best
8.) Guilhem Guirado
9.) Dylan Hartley
10.) Tom Youngs

Outside Centre's
1.) @Conrad Smith
2.) Tevita Kuridrani
3.) Jonathan Joseph
4.) Jean de Villiers
5.) Jonathan Davies
6.) Jesse Kriel
7.) Malakai Fekitoa
8.) Manu Tuilagi
9.) Mark Bennett
10.) Jared Payne

 

[Kiwi_]

There's no way on Earth Eben is better than Brodie, it's not even subjective

 

[Mcfadden]

In general I'd say you are right, Kiwi. But Etzebeth is seriously improving all the time, and although only two games have been played in the RC so far, he has made a solid go of it. I would use Super Rugby stats, but the games played between the two are very different.

<a href="http://imgur.com/YAvKwaB"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/YAvKwaB.jpg?1" ***le="source: imgur.com" /></a>

(For the record, Etzebeth has slightly better tackling stats).

 

[Kiwi_]

Stats are useful in some areas and I'm sure even more players are statistically better than their other teams comparisons in an isolated 2 games, Ebens damn good, would put him at 2 and that's why he was one of the 3 players I'd "steal" from another team.

 

[TobesHodges]

There's no way on Earth Eben is better than Brodie, it's not even subjective

Like I said there's nothing in Eben, Sam and Brodie, I think you can have them any way round in the top 3..

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

There's no way on Earth Eben is better than Brodie, it's not even subjective

It's difficult to make a straight like for like comparison though and though over the last two years I'd agree with you over the last two games I'd say Eben has shaded it and is sowly but surely getting back to 2013 form after a horrible run of injuries.

I'd actually like to see the two play together for the Baabaas or something as I think they'd really complement each other with Brodie your classic grafting lock that just goes on and on and has some soft skills as well as a clever head that sets him apart while Eben is IMO the better line-out operator and scrum lock and is the better carrier as well as a very aggressive tackler... IE he only does 4 things but he does them so well. My mouth just waters thinking of the two of them side by side. We'll see soon enough though as PSdT is a somewhat similar player too Brodie (an extra fank almost without giving anything away in the locking dept's) on the mend and might even play Currie Cup for the Sharks this weekend. He'll probably walk into the Bok squad alongside De Jager and Matfield(or FvdM).

 

[TRF_heineken]

There's no way on Earth Eben is better than Brodie, it's not even subjective

I think it's horses for courses...

I wouldn't compare Eben and Retallick necessarily. And the other thing is that I don't think Retallick would fit/perform for the Boks, and Eben for the All Blacks. both of them play a certain style which fits in well for their national team. Eben is an enforcer and Brodie has the finesse to offload and pass, that wouldn't necessarily have worked if they played for the other team.

 

[Kiwi_]

There's a reason the All Blacks have been #1 for so long and it's players like Retallick. I know what you're saying, but we see this so often in sport, a form game here or there, or a slight dip in form here or there, then suddenly somebody is better. Retallick being part of the winning team and having won the IRB award speaks for itself.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

There's a reason the All Blacks have been #1 for so long and it's players like Retallick. I know what you're saying, but we see this so often in sport, a form game here or there, or a slight dip in form here or there, then suddenly somebody is better. Retallick being part of the winning team and having won the IRB award speaks for itself.

Notice your use of the plural: "playerS like Retallick". IE you have players in or around wolrd XV status in nearly every position rather than only half of them like SA, Aus, Ireland, France and England.

Does Retallick make the All Blacks or visa versa though? He has been very ordinary for the Chiefs. I think being in a good team dynamic with a settled modus operandi brings the best out in players and if anything makes a player better than what he would have been on his own.

Being 1 of 15 players means your contribution to a teams' success can only count for so much and I'd put forward citing a team's success cannot count so much for assessing an individual player, so, no, it probably doesn't speak for itself. If it did you might as well say Franks is the best TH prop in the world.