#1. Ma’a Nonu (New Zealand)
- Position: Centre
- Caps: 103
- Tries: 31
Known initially more for his braided hair and eyeliner, he added passing and kicking to his raw line-breaking power to become one of the great centres, capping his Test career with that superb World Cup final try against the Wallabies in 2015.
Roberts said: “He had this low centre of gravity that allowed him to change his point of contact so late. You think you’d have a shot but, bang, he was gone.”
DID YOU KNOW? Nonu became a vegetarian while playing in France for Toulon, citing his son Michael as his motivation: “Michael, my second one, he’s seven years old. When he was growing up, I was trying to feed him meat – chicken – and he never liked it. I thought ‘let’s try something new’. I said ‘I’m not going to eat meat because I feel sorry for him enough, he’ll (feel) stink. If we’re going out and I’m ordering a T-bone steak and he’s eating his carrots and cucumber … so I said look for the love of my son I won’t eat meat because I’ll try to be the same as him”.