{"id":591741,"date":"2025-11-25T00:09:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T00:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/591741\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T00:09:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T00:09:17","slug":"all-blacks-legends-go-springboks-heavy-with-test-team-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/591741\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks legends go Springboks-heavy with Test team of the year"},"content":{"rendered":"

A trio of former All Blacks have put together their Test team of the year which of course features a plethora of Springboks given their outstanding 12 months.<\/b><\/p>\n

There are three in the backline and four up front with it headlined by World Rugby Men\u2019s 15s Player of the Year Malcolm Marx and fellow South African nominees Pieter-Steph du Toit and Ox Nche.<\/p>\n

The other individual who was up for that award, France wing Louis Bielle-Biarrey, is also included, but he is one of just four from the northern hemisphere in the XV.<\/p>\n

In a team dominated by the south and, more specifically, the Boks<\/a>, Cheslin Kolbe, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Damian Willemse, who is at inside centre, take their place behind the scrum.<\/p>\n

Three Kiwis in the team<\/p>\n

They are joined by two New Zealanders in Will Jordan and Cam Roigard, a Wallaby in Len Ikitau and the aforementioned Bielle-Biarrey.<\/p>\n

Up front, Jasper Wiese is the other Springbok alongside Du Toit, Marx and Nche, with Tadhg Beirne, Fabian Holland, Maro Itoje and Tadhg Furlong completing the pack.<\/p>\n

That means there is no place for All Blacks<\/a> superstar and 2023 World Rugby Player of the Year Ardie Savea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was picked by Jeff Wilson, Mils Muliaina and Stephen Donald with the latter firstly discussing the selection of Feinberg-Mngomezulu over the likes of Finn Russell and Santiago Carreras.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had Browny (Springboks coach Tony Brown) on the show and he put him in the [Antoine] Dupont and [Dan] Carter class, and Browny\u2019s not one to put out wild statements like that. He\u2019s had an amazing year,\u201d Donald said on The Breakdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinn Russell would have to have come very, very close. He plays for Scotland and he doesn\u2019t have much of a set-up there, he\u2019s their man every time anyone plays Scotland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Autumn Nations Series Team of the Week: World Rugby Player of the Year one of SIX Springboks named while England debutant scoops individual honour<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Willemse was perhaps a surprise at 12 given that he played most of his Test rugby at full-back, but Muliaina felt they had to include him somewhere given his excellence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was hard to know where to put him, whether at 12 or 15, he had to go in there somewhere,\u201d the 100-times capped All Black said.<\/p>\n

Donald then joked about the selection of Ikitau, who has played the entirety of his international rugby at inside centre rather than 13.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe amazing thing for me is these are two guys (Wilson and Muliaina) that have been to World Cups when the All Blacks coaches at the last minute decided who their 13 was and they\u2019ve gone ahead and put Ikitau in at 13,\u201d the former fly-half quipped.<\/p>\n

Donald added: \u201cHe had a great Brumbies year and for the Wallabies he was their one constant. I thought he played too narrow against the Lions and was a pick-and-go merchant, but once he got a bit wider, he\u2019s got a skill set. He\u2019s a whole lot more than just a carrier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Savea shock<\/p>\n

However, it is the omission of Savea which is perhaps the biggest talking point, certainly from a New Zealand perspective, after he was overlooked for Du Toit.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the other ones that was really tough was Ardie, we left Ardie out. I sort of wanted to bring him back in but we went for Pieter-Steph du Toit, he\u2019s been fantastic this year,\u201d Muliaina said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the other side, we had Tadhg Beirne, who had a great Lions series but Pieter-Steph, come on.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Africa operate with left and right flankers which means Du Toit is really a blindside despite wearing seven.<\/p>\n

They could have therefore opted for him and Savea together, but they instead put Beirne alongside the Springbok.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Du Toit) plays like an openside flanker. He is a game-changer and difference-maker. For me, I think he does everything you would need consistently, minute after minute. He doesn\u2019t take a minute off,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe physicality comes in every part of his game and the fact he\u2019s been able to cover at lock for them when they\u2019ve needed to, this guy is an absolute beast.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Breakdown\u2019s team of the year<\/p>\n

15 Will Jordan, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Len Ikitau, 12 Damian Willemse, 11 Louis Bielle-Biarrey, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Cam Roigard, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Tadhg Beirne, 5 Fabian Holland, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Ox Nche<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Who\u2019s hot and who\u2019s not: World Rugby\u2019s award winners, Springboks\u2019 \u2018scrum dominance\u2019 and Tom Curry and Felipe Contepomi beef<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A trio of former All Blacks have put together their Test team of the year which of course…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[186,393,36,225,90462,678,704,12,4151,2196,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-591741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-france","11":"tag-home-page","12":"tag-internationals","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-rugby","17":"tag-south-africa","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115607434933896831","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}