How many of Ireland's players are World Class?

Kirk Van Houten

Anyone who names Rob Kearney as world class should hang their heads in shame... in total and utter shame. Shame I tells ya. Living in the past.

efb

Sexton O'Brien and Murray

efb

Healy was dreadful in RWC 2015

captbarnacles

Rory Best is world class. Hell, even some nz media picked him in their squad of the tournament (he was the only irish player in it)

LorMal

Larbre34 wrote: »

Healy, Best, Henderson, O'Brien, Murray, Sexton and Rob Kearney are world class. They may not make an New Zealand team but they would be in with a shout on any other test side.

Other players have had purple patches in their careers which could be considered world class, but injury or other loss of form / confidence has intervened, to wit, Tommy Bowe, Luke Fitzgerald, Peter O'Mahony, Andrew Trimble.

Some others are making great headway but unproven; Henshaw, Zebo, Ruddock and some others.

Wow, with that many world class players, we will have an amazing World Cup 2015. Oh, wait...

RichieRich89

The question of what the criteria for being a "world class" rugby player are is an interesting one. The term 'world class' gets bandied about way too often, especially by coaches when they're talking about what such and such a player brings to their team

You could say it's the top three players in their positions in the world, or the top 5 players in their positions - Clive Woodward's concept of 'medal players', i.e. players who are among the three best in the world in their position, is an interesting one - but there could be quite a disparity between the best and the third best. Equally there could be a situation where you have numerous players of similar calibre in a position, like there is internationally at full-back at the moment.

For me a reasonable definition of a 'world class' player would be someone who, on their best form, would or could arguably make a World XV or maybe even XXIII (since there could be impact specialists). I'd say there should also be some sort of longevity and consistency clause. Players have to show quality over a number of seasons, and should also be reasonably consistent

CMOTDibbler

RichieRich89 wrote: »

For me a reasonable definition of a 'world class' player would be someone who, on their best form, would or could arguably make a World XV or maybe even XXIII (since there could be impact specialists). I'd say there should also be some sort of longevity and consistency clause. Players have to show quality over a number of seasons, and should also be reasonably consistent

That would go along with how I defined it. If a player could walk into any squad in the world, by definition they would make a world squad.

A kind of worldwide Lions squad really.

Yeah_Right

I'm going to be an arrogant kiwi and judge it by who from the Irish team would make the ABs RWC squad.

Healy and McGrath would be there ahead of Crockett. B Franks can cover both sides so they wouldn't get ahead of him.

Best would be there. Definitely. Even Straus and Cronin would have a good chance as the 3rd hooker for NZ is a weak point.

No THs would be ahead of the kiwi ones.

Henderson would be ahead of Romano. POC possibly but I don't think he would suit the ABs style.

SOB and Heaslip would make it ahead of Kane and Messam/Vito.

No HB would make it as they don't suit the AB style.

Sexton ahead of Slade and possibly Barrett.

Henshaw might get ahead of Fekitoa.

That's it as far as I can see.

CMOTDibbler

Yeah_Right wrote: »

I'm going to be an arrogant kiwi and judge it by who from the Irish team would make the ABs RWC squad.

Healy and McGrath would be there ahead of Crockett. B Franks can cover both sides so they wouldn't get ahead of him.

Best would be there. Definitely. Even Straus and Cronin would have a good chance as the 3rd hooker for NZ is a weak point.

No THs would be ahead of the kiwi ones.

Henderson would be ahead of Romano. POC possibly but I don't think he would suit the ABs style.

SOB and Heaslip would make it ahead of Kane and Messam/Vito.

No HB would make it as they don't suit the AB style.

Sexton ahead of Slade and possibly Barrett.

Henshaw might get ahead of Fekitoa.

That's it as far as I can see.

I wouldn't disagree with either the methodology or the choices. However would those same players get into all of the rest of the world squads?

Both looseheads mightn't nor perhaps the hookers. The point being that NZ's weaknesses might be other nation's strengths.

El_Duderino 09

Kirk Van Houten wrote:

Anyone who names Rob Kearney as world class should hang their heads in shame... in total and utter shame. Shame I tells ya. Living in the past.

I think it makes sense to judge the world class players on recent form. Take the last 5 games or the world cup as a sample of games and pick your top 5 players for each position.

O Driscoll was great and would have been in the top 5, on and off, for a lot of his career, probably not in his last year though. He was good but probably not top 5.

Rob Kearney was definitely world class for at some periods. So was Sean o Brien, Healy, Murray. They did alright in the world cup but the form players are probably Henderson, Henshaw, McGrath.

Henderson and Best definately and McGrath, Sexton, Murray, are there or there abouts, Henshaw maybe.