RugbyRebels

Inspired by the turn the "Are the All Blacks too good" thread has taken, it seems like a good time to thrash out a "Greatest All Blacks XV". To avoid problems comparing across eras, and to accommodate the memory spans of most of us, let's limit it to professional era players. I'm happy to consider any player who played at least 1 test after RWC1995 but for the polls I will be shortlisting the 4 players with the most starting caps* from 1996 onwards who played mostly in the relevant position. Feel free to nominate others. Please justify your votes.

Lets begin!

*Due to limitations in the Statsguru database, its hard to calculate how often players started at loosehead/tighthead, openside/blindside, 2nd five-eighths/centre and left/right wings. We will just have to do the best we can.

For me this is a straight contest between Woodcock and Dowd. (Frankly, it's a little embarassing that Crockett makes the shortlist).

I vote Woody for the simple reason that at his peak he would have had a shot at a World 1st XV, whereas Dowd was perhaps the only member of the great Dowd-Fitzpatrick-Brown front row that would not have done so.

Dowd was a better prop than Woodcock imo

Doorzetbornandbred wrote:Dowd was a better prop than Woodcock imo

Why do you think that? I probably wasn't as clued up on scrummaging technique when Dowd was playing so I might have missed something.

The two best AB scrums I can recall are the Dowd/Fitz/Brown combo, which was solid and reliable, and the Woodcock/?Mealamu/Hayman outfit which was really destructive in about 2006/07. Bit of a toss-up between the two, but I think I'd go for Dowd.