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France and Ireland dominate World Rugby Men’s 15s Dream Team for 2023
By Ned Lester
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.
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).
Latest Comments
The weather was dreadful but the playing surface was great so there is no real excuse for such another poor standard of play from both sides. Dragons just the better team. But, what a shocking decision by the TMO not to award the Fifita try. This pretty much sums up Welsh rugby with poor teams and poor officials. The WRU have a lot of work to do and it needs to be done quickly to avoid rugby being lost to our future generations.
Go to commentsNo chance of Borthwick selecting any young talent. He announced his selection policy from the outset with naming a poor OF as Captain, retaining an equally poor Youngs and Vunipola brothers when there were many better EQP in the Premiership. SB revival of Leicester was based on SA muscle and a terrific Welsh flanker he has generally ignored young English talent.
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