Five Greatest ABs of the past 50 years
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First three that come to mind...Dan Carter, Richie McCaw, Sean Fitzpatrick
then I struggle with a host of close arguments like this whole thread. I am leaning towards a fist fight between BBRR, Meads, Zinzan, Michael Jones and even in his era Grant Fox (Fox probably loses the fight against those other mongrels, but still there on merit) and apologies to all those amazing players that don't come to mind.
Since Meads was voted player of last century from NZ rugby he is in.
Dan Carter, Richie McCaw, Sean Fitzpatrick, Colin Meads,
So for me it is between Zinny and Jones, world record try scoring forward and world cup drop goal scorer versus a genuine legend who dominated at seven then changed how we played at six just as amazingly.
So for me I have
Dan Carter, Richie McCaw, Sean Fitzpatrick, Colin Meads, Michael Jonesbut incredibly tough to choose
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@Crucial said in Five Greatest ABs of the past 50 years:
Anyway, for me.
McCaw
Lomu
Jones
CarterThen it is a toss up between Fitzy, Cully, Kirwan , Nonu, Umaga, Fox, Zinny.
After cutting that down I get to Cully and Fitzy and struggle to separate them.
Fitzpatrick is certainly an all time great and would deserve to be there but Cully was the best ball
runner we have ever had.I like your selections and if I was voting based on players I liked watching then my list would also have Lomu and Cullen. Both have just as a good an argument for top players ever in their position.
just shows you how tough a top 5 irrelevant of position is..
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R. McCaw
J. Lomu
D. Carter
Z. Brooke
A. Smith————-
M. Jones, S. Fitzpatrick, M. Nonu, G. Bachop -
@mariner4life said in Five Greatest ABs of the past 50 years:
McCaw is a given, so i think we are looking for four.
Carter is arguably the greatest 10 ever, a freaky talent. Averaged nearly 15 points a test!!
Lomu was rugby's first global super star. Surely in.
It's gonna get real murky after that (and I'm not yet sold on Carter).
Michael Jones. Zinny. Fitzy. JK. Cullen. Wilson. All amazing players.
And in the category, but before my time are some absolute legends.
How are we running it? Nominations and then a poll?
Sorry, can't let that slide - 3x World Player of the Year; world's best ever player in arguably the most important position on the rugby pitch; match-winning performances in a RWC final and semi-final as his swansong; 100+ tests for the ABs; most complete individual performance by a 10 in AB an probably world rugby history (Lions 2005); and the resilience to come back after many, many injuries (including the devastation of 2011) and be the world's best player again. That's not even accounting for the fact that he also looked great in a pair of undies.
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@Crucial said in Five Greatest ABs of the past 50 years:
@hydro11 said in Five Greatest ABs of the past 50 years:
@Crucial said in Five Greatest ABs of the past 50 years:
The forgotten man of these conversations is Dougie Howlett.
Not saying he would end up in my selection but certainly worth a mention as the record try scorer in black. Considering that players like Cully, Rok, Wilson, Bender and Lomu are below him on the table and even BB after way more tests is going to be stretching to catch him I just find it interesting that his name doesn’t get mentionedHonestly, I would take Rococoko ahead of Howlett. Savea had a better strike rate than Howlett but he isn't in the conversation.
He wouldn’t be in my top five ABs just find it interesting that our record try scorer gets pretty much ignored even when people widen their lists
He's the brown George Bridge
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Great thread and I think the way I like to look at these things is as follows... Who were my AB heroes as a kid? Who were my AB "contemporaries" carrying the flag for my generation?
Thinking very hard about the former, the names I come up with are Fitzy, Zinny, JK, Jonah, Iceman.
The latter, Richie, DC, Ma'a, Conrad, Mils, Kaino.
Choosing the top 5 out of those lists is hard, but would probably be Fitzy, JK, Jonah, Richie and DC.
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@junior said in Five Greatest ABs of the past 50 years:
@mariner4life said in Five Greatest ABs of the past 50 years:
McCaw is a given, so i think we are looking for four.
Carter is arguably the greatest 10 ever, a freaky talent. Averaged nearly 15 points a test!!
Lomu was rugby's first global super star. Surely in.
It's gonna get real murky after that (and I'm not yet sold on Carter).
Michael Jones. Zinny. Fitzy. JK. Cullen. Wilson. All amazing players.
And in the category, but before my time are some absolute legends.
How are we running it? Nominations and then a poll?
Sorry, can't let that slide - 3x World Player of the Year; world's best ever player in arguably the most important position on the rugby pitch; match-winning performances in a RWC final and semi-final as his swansong; 100+ tests for the ABs; most complete individual performance by a 10 in AB an probably world rugby history (Lions 2005); and the resilience to come back after many, many injuries (including the devastation of 2011) and be the world's best player again. That's not even accounting for the fact that he also looked great in a pair of undies.
The post would have resonated more without the last sentence.
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Top five in no particular order: McCaw, Jonah, Cullen, Carter, MJ
Notable mentions for me: Rettalick, JK, Fitzpatrick, A Smith, B Barrett, K Read, S Whitelock, M Nonu, Wilson, Zinny, C Smith
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@nzzp said in Five Greatest ABs of the past 50 years:
I suspect Meads is in the chat for that as well, but before my time.
He was around in my early teens. Really was harder than Fitzy or BBBT, as big a motor as McCaw and with Zinny's skill-set. Not as good a captain as Ritchie but poss. a slightly better player.
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In no particular order:
Meads
McCaw
Carter
Fitzy
MJBubbling away underneath:
Jonah
Zinny
Sid Going
Cullen
BruceRobinsonRobertson -
@Victor-Meldrew said in Five Greatest ABs of the past 50 years:
In no particular order:
Bruce Rob
inertson - but, yes!!!!
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@Chris-B said in Five Greatest ABs of the past 50 years:
think the late 70s early -80s will be badly under-represented.
We were a bit crap then, but starting to come right.
Mourie is vastly underrated as player & captain IMHO - along with Jean-Pierre Rives he almost invented modern loose forward play. Ian Kirkpatrick & B G Williams almost made my bubbling under list.
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@mariner4life said in Five Greatest ABs of the past 50 years:
Lomu was rugby's first global super star. Surely in.
First global superstar, certainly. Apart from 1995 RWC and 99 against France I'm not sure he did enough consistently to be among the top five. If only he hadn't had got sick.
Fitzy makes the list because there's been no better captain. And that's high praise considering the august nature of that club.
GOAT, obviously.
DC because there's been no more complete five-eighth.
I have to think harder about the remaining two.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in Five Greatest ABs of the past 50 years:
@nzzp said in Five Greatest ABs of the past 50 years:
I suspect Meads is in the chat for that as well, but before my time.
He was around in my early teens. Really was harder than Fitzy or BBBT, as big a motor as McCaw and with Zinny's skill-set. Not as good a captain as Ritchie but poss. a slightly better player.
Did he leap over buildings in a single bound too...
There’s really only two players that my old man refers to from bygone eras - Meads and Going.
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@junior said in Five Greatest ABs of the past 50 years:
@mariner4life said in Five Greatest ABs of the past 50 years:
McCaw is a given, so i think we are looking for four.
Carter is arguably the greatest 10 ever, a freaky talent. Averaged nearly 15 points a test!!
Lomu was rugby's first global super star. Surely in.
It's gonna get real murky after that (and I'm not yet sold on Carter).
Michael Jones. Zinny. Fitzy. JK. Cullen. Wilson. All amazing players.
And in the category, but before my time are some absolute legends.
How are we running it? Nominations and then a poll?
Sorry, can't let that slide - 3x World Player of the Year; world's best ever player in arguably the most important position on the rugby pitch; match-winning performances in a RWC final and semi-final as his swansong; 100+ tests for the ABs; most complete individual performance by a 10 in AB an probably world rugby history (Lions 2005); and the resilience to come back after many, many injuries (including the devastation of 2011) and be the world's best player again. That's not even accounting for the fact that he also looked great in a pair of undies.
Even I can't avoid using it this time.
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@ACT-Crusader said in Five Greatest ABs of the past 50 years:
Did he leap over buildings in a single bound too...
He really was uber-skilful Can recall him coming away from a line-out crashing into the opposition midfield and then throwing a american football-style pass to the AB winger. The sort of thing that kept SBW in the AB's for years. Dropped goals too. Probably be a No. 6 in today's game.
There’s really only two players that my old man refers to from bygone eras - Meads and Going.
Going would be the best I've seen - if his passing game wasn't so crap.
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@bayimports said in Five Greatest ABs of the past 50 years:
Since Meads was voted player of last century from NZ rugby he is in.
The criteria is from Lions 71 Tour on. You cannot pick Meads on that basis. He played four tests, captained poorly (not his forte) to our only series defeat against the Lions and was dropped.
@nzzp said in Five Greatest ABs of the past 50 years:
In this thread: internet users tend to be under the age of 60
ahem
McCaw and Carter for me are certs. Probably Fitzy although I think his captaincy skills are well over-rated, probably Lomu because of his impact on the game. 5th one I have to ponder. I can make an argument for most of the names put forward (some of them are in jest surely) but I can also make an argument against the same players.
