Rugby World Cup 2015: Ranking Top Forwards in Tournament

Travel to any rugby club on a dark, midweek evening and observe the forwards going through a punishing session on the scrummage machine, or beating each other up in a rucking drill.

At some point in proceedings, they’ll come together for some words of wisdom from their coach.

Any gambling man would have a shilling or two on one of his first lines being: “Remember, boys, forwards win matches, backs decide by how much.”

It has ever been thus. The players wearing No. 1 to No. 8 are the hole diggers, the piano shifters, the labourers who clear the way for the players Mick Skinner would disparagingly call “the girls” to do the pretty stuff.

These are the men with ears like vegetables, noses with more twists and turns than a roller coaster and shoulders you could build a house on.

They don’t get the modelling contracts, it's fair to say.

Forwards do get their share of the World Cup glory, however.

Two finals have been settled by tries scored by loose head props, and of the seven captains to have hoisted the Webb Ellis Cup aloft, five have been forwards.

Let’s have a look at the 15 best men from the coal face we’ll see at the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

Honourable mentions

A list this short is always going to miss some quality names off. Among those deserved of an honourable mention are Eben Etzebeth, Duane Vermeulen, Jamie Heaslip, Tom Wood, Billy Vunipola, Juan Manuel Leguizamon, Marcos Ayerza, Dane Coles, Stephen Moore and Victor Matfield.

15. Courtney Lawes

Courtney Lawes is the most aggressive tackler of any second row on the planet.

The Northampton Saints man has the ability to time his tackles—usually on unsuspecting halfbacks, with shuddering results on the recipient.

On form, Lawes is a key player for England, with the ability to swing the momentum of a game with one of his big carries or massive hits.

He edges Eben Etzebeth out here for his more explosive defence.

14. Samu Manoa

Labeled at the end of 2014 as “perhaps the finest No. 8 playing the game in the northern hemisphere” by ESPN’s Tom Hamilton, Samu Manoa spearheads the USA’s campaign.

The former Northampton Saint will be plying his trade at Toulon next season, by which time his stock may have risen even higher if he has an impressive World Cup.

Pace, power and uncompromising defence make him one of the standout back rowers by any measure.

13. Agustin Creevy

Argentina’s hooker and captain Agustin Creevy is second only to Bismarck du Plessis in terms of his breakdown work.

His squat frame and considerable bulk make him almost impossible to shift off the ball once he has clamped himself over a tackled player.

Added to that, he has a voracious appetite for ball carrying and seems to revel in the responsibility he has as captain of the Pumas.

12. Michael Hooper

Australia's Michael Hooper has accepted every challenge thrown at him since becoming a Wallaby and answered each one resoundingly.

After an eye-catching performance at Twickenham early in his career, Hooper capitalized on an injury to David Pocock and made the gold No. 7 jersey his own.

He was then thrust into the captaincy after injury to hooker Stephen Moore and led from the front with a string of sterling displays.

After helping lead the Waratahs to the 2014 Super Rugby title, Hooper has faced the task of hanging on to his international shirt since Pocock’s return.

So good has he been that coach Michael Cheika is now likely to field both men in a scavenging, buccaneering back row that could yet hold the key to a famous autumn in England for Australia.

11. David Pocock

Pocock’s comeback from injury saw him impress in this year’s Super XV competition with the Brumbies.

And he continued that form as Michael Cheika reintroduced him to the international fold during this year’s Rugby Championship.

Pocock’s impact on the side’s ability to contest the breakdown and counter attack with speed was immediately obvious, and he may well be deployed as an unorthodox No. 8 at times in the tournament to add his world-class scavenging skills to those of Michael Hooper in the Wallaby back row.

Before injury struck, Pocock was tipped to take Richie McCaw’s crown as the best No. 7 in the business.

After this tournament, he may well be top of the pile.

10. Sean O’Brien

Sean O’Brien will be Ireland’s biggest ball-carrying threat from their back row in this tournament.

His power with ball in hand is unmatched by any other No. 7 in world rugby, and he was missed by Ireland until returning from shoulder surgery at the end of the Six Nations.

Impossible to stop when going from short range for the try line and immensely destructive when given the chance to run down the opposing No. 10’s channel, he will get Ireland beyond the gain line more than most in this tournament.

9. Schalk Burger

From the brink of enforced retirement, per Sanzar Rugby, back into the heat of battle, Schalk Burger has reasserted himself as one of the first names on Heyneke Meyer’s teamsheet.

Burger has forged his reputation as an uncompromising flanker, but in the recent Rugby Championship, he was shifted to No. 8 as a result of the Springboks’ injury plague.

Burger was outstanding.

He made 20 tackles in Brisbane against the Wallabies and followed that up with 13 more against the All Blacks a week later.

A true modern great.

8. Sam Warburton

How Wales need their captain now.

Shorn of stars Leigh Halfpenny and Rhys Webb, the pressure to perform at his best has been cranked up on Lions skipper Sam Warburton.

The Cardiff man has unfinished business with the World Cup after his controversial red card that arguably cost Wales a place in the final in 2011.

Warburton has been pushed hard by some outstanding performances from No. 7 rival Justin Tipuric in recent weeks, but the 26-year-old is up to the challenge, and he will need all his turnover skills and leadership qualities to steer Wales out of the pool of death.

At his best, Warburton is the type of player who can drag a team with him to a higher level.

7. Alun-Wyn Jones

Alun-Wyn Jones has been described by his Ospreys team-mate Gareth Delve as having the "Gareth Bale effect" on other players, such is the example he sets.

Jones has been hitting consistently high standards for a number of years for Wales.

The Lions lock gets through a tremendous amount of work in terms of defence and ball carrying, and he brings added leadership to the Wales side.

His return to fitness, per Wales Online, is a welcome boost for Wales following the loss of Leigh Halfpenny and Rhys Webb.

6. Thierry Dusautoir

France’s captain and talisman Thierry Dusautoir was their sole tryscorer in the 2011 final and leads them into this tournament again as their most inspirational figure.

He obtained legendary status in France after the 2007 World Cup for the 38 tackles he made against New Zealand when Les Bleus knocked the favourites out.

After missing the bulk of France’s warm-ups with a knee injury, he was back for their final pre-tournament outing against Scotland and was described by the Guardian’s Ian Malin as a “key figure on his return…whose first appearance on the big screen before the match received a deafening cheer from a fervent crowd.”

5. Richie McCaw

The doubters have begun to grow in number over McCaw’s powers as the world’s premier No. 7, but he remains one of the finest exponents of the role.

This will be his swansong as one of the greats of the game bows out.

Still capable of bossing the breakdown and regularly on hand to score crucial tries for New Zealand, as he showed with the winner in Johannesburg during the 2015 Rugby Championship, McCaw is also one of the all-time great captains.

4. Paul O’Connell

Paul O’Connell’s last World Cup brings with it Ireland’s best chance of going further than ever before.

The Toulon-bound Munsterman still runs a mean lineout, and his ball carrying around the fringes seems to have lost very little edge with his advancing years.

As a captain, he is the closest thing to Martin Johnson any side has had since the Englishman retired.

O’Connell is what Sir Ian McGeechan would describe as a "Test match animal," and he will surely rise to the occasion when his country needs him most.

3. Brodie Retallick

Current World Player of the Year Brodie Retallick has had his season interrupted by injury.

If anything, the lay-off has allowed the Chiefs lock to recharge his batteries ready for the task at hand. At his best, no one gets through as much work as him.

His appetite for ball carrying around the fringes of the breakdown often allows him to punch holes and set the platform for New Zealand’s deadly backs.

His lineout prowess is also among the best in the world.

2. Bismarck du Plessis

Chris Hyde/Getty Images

Bismarck du Plessis brings all the powerful attributes you would expect to the hooking role.

Strong in his ball carrying, solid at scrum time and accurate at the lineout.

But what really marks him out is that he is as good a breakdown merchant as any openside flanker in the tournament, even credited by England coach Stuart Lancaster as South Africa’s best man over the ball, per the Guardian.

His quality was never more obvious than in the way he destroyed Australia in this year’s Rugby Championship for 50 minutes before he was taken off. Thereafter, South Africa surrendered a winning position.

1. Kieran Read

The 2013 World Player of the Year has a unique set of skills no other No. 8 can match.

Read marries the skill and athleticism of a Harlem Globetrotter with the rugby intelligence of a world-class fly-half.

The Crusaders man spent a few months recovering from concussion but is close to his best now, and he will be a key figure for the New Zealand as they look to defend their crown.

Adept in the lineout and a force to be reckoned with at the breakdown, Read’s greatest impact seems to come when he roams the wider channels, acting as a link man with his sublime handling skills or appearing on the end of attacks to score himself.