Nine All Blacks in rugby's Team of the Decade

Superstars Richie McCaw and Dan Carter head a list of nine All Blacks in a Welsh website's world rugby Team of the Decade.

Such selections often reflect a regional bias, but All Blacks dominated Wales Online rugby correspondent Andy Howell's XV.

McCaw and Carter were joined by wings Ben Smith and Julian Savea, midfielder Ma'a Nonu, No 8 Kieran Read, lock Brodie Retallick and frontrowers Dane Coles and Owen Franks.

Of McCaw's selection, Howell wrote that there were other standout openside flankers in the 2010s, but "unfortunately for them, they have been eclipsed by one of the greatest rugby players in history. A world record 148 caps for the All Blacks says everything about McCaw."

Howell said Carter, a three-time world player of the year, "didn't have a single flaw in his armoury", was "head and shoulders above any other outside-half" and was "the easiest pick in this team".

Read's "leadership and knack of seizing control of matches at key moments" earned him the nod at No 8 while Retallick was "a Rolls-Royce of a lock with a brutal edge", but "an amazing skill-set and fitness levels".

Howell claimed Smith's "best rugby for the All Blacks came from the wing" despite his displays at fullback while Savea was "virtually unstoppable" with 46 tries in 54 tests.

Coles would "almost certainly be ​up there with the best in history" but for long spells out of the game through injury.

Three Welsh players- lock Alun Wyn Jones, centre Jonathan Davies and prop Gethin Jenkins - made the XV, along with former Wallabies fullback Israel Folau, France flanker Julien Bonnaire and South African halfback Fourie du Preez.

 

Howell wrote: "Unfortunately, English and Irish players weren't quite good enough to make the cut".