World Rugby Hall of Fame

The World Rugby Hall of Fame (formerly the IRB Hall of Fame) recognises special achievement and contribution to the sport of rugby union. The World Rugby Hall of Fame covers players, coaches, administrators, match officials, institutions and other individuals. The Hall of Fame recognises the history and important contributions to the game, through one or more induction ceremonies that have been held annually except in 2010. The permanent physical home of the Hall of Fame was based at the Rugby Art Gallery, Museum & Library in Rugby, Warwickshire from 2016 until 2021.

History

The Hall of Fame was introduced by the International Rugby Board (as World Rugby was then known) during the 2006 IRB Awards ceremony in Glasgow, Scotland. The inaugural inductees were William Webb Ellis, who apocryphally caught the ball during a football game and ran with it, and Rugby School, which has left a huge legacy with the game in a number of ways.

The second induction to the Hall of Fame took place in Paris on 21 October 2007, the night after the 2007 Rugby World Cup final. The next induction was in London on 23 November 2008.

The third induction, in which nine figures entered the Hall, was held on 27 October 2009 at Rugby School. The voting process for the class of 2009 was geared toward the history of British & Irish Lions tours to South Africa, the most recent of which took place in that year; all of the candidates were either Lions or Springboks.

For 2011, induction ceremonies were held at various locations around the world, with the year's final ceremony taking place as part of the 2011 IRB Awards on 24 October in Auckland, the day after the Rugby World Cup final in that city. The inductions at the Auckland ceremony, according to the IRB, were "under the theme of Rugby World Cup founders, visionaries and iconic figures," and were made in three groups—first for the founders of the RWC, then all World Cup-winning captains and coaches through the 2007 World Cup (minus John Eales, inducted in 2007), and finally other iconic players of the World Cup.

The pattern begun in 2011 was repeated in 2012, with six induction ceremonies being held in six countries. As in the two previous induction cycles, the 2012 inductions had an overriding theme; "Rugby – A Global Game". According to the IRB, it "celebrates Rugby's expansion to become a global sport played by millions of men and women worldwide."

On 31 July 2014, the IRB announced that its Hall would merge with the separate International Rugby Hall of Fame later in 2014. The merger saw the 37 members of the International Hall who had not already been honoured by the IRB formally enter the World Rugby Hall of Fame in 2014 and 2015. The 2014 class of inductees also included six women.

On 19 November 2014 the IRB rebranded as World Rugby, and the Hall of Fame became known as the World Rugby Hall Of Fame.

Inductees

Year	No.	Nation	Inductee	Link
2006		England	William Webb Ellis	[1]
		England	Rugby School	[2]
2007		South Africa	Danie Craven	[3]
		France	Pierre de Coubertin	[4]
		Australia	John Eales	[5]
		Wales	Gareth Edwards	[6]
		New Zealand	Wilson Whineray	[7]
2008		New Zealand	1888–89 New Zealand Native football team	[8]
		Scotland	Ned Haig	[9]
		Ireland	Jack Kyle	[10]
		Scotland	Melrose Rugby Football Club	[11]
		Argentina	Hugo Porta	[12]
		France	Philippe Sella	[13]
		New Zealand	Joseph Astbury Warbrick	[14]
2009		South Africa and  Argentina	Barry Heatlie	[15]
		Scotland	Bill Maclagan	[16]
		Ireland	Willie John McBride	[17]
		Scotland	Ian McGeechan	[18]
		Ireland	Syd Millar	[19]
		Wales	Cliff Morgan	[20]
		Ireland	Tony O'Reilly	[21]
		South Africa	Bennie Osler	[22]
		South Africa	Frik du Preez	[23]
2011		United Kingdom	Barbarian Football Club	[24]
		France	Serge Blanco	[25]
		France	André Boniface	[26]
		Wales	Cardiff Rugby Football Club	[27]
		England	William Percy Carpmael	[28]
		New Zealand	Dave Gallaher	[29]
		Ireland	Mike Gibson	[30]
		Wales	Frank Hancock	[31]
		France	Lucien Mias	[32]
		France	Jean Prat	[33]
		England	Alan Rotherham	[34]
		England	Harry Vassall	[35]
		South Africa	Kitch Christie	[36]
		Australia	Bob Dwyer	[37]
		Australia	Nick Farr-Jones	[38]
		England	Martin Johnson	[39]
		England	John Kendall-Carpenter	[40]
		New Zealand	David Kirk	[41]
		Samoa	Brian Lima	[42]
		New Zealand	Dick Littlejohn	[43]
		New Zealand	Brian Lochore	[44]
		New Zealand	Jonah Lomu	[45]
		Australia	Rod Macqueen	[46]
		South Africa	François Pienaar	[47]
		Argentina	Agustín Pichot	[48]
		Canada	Gareth Rees	[49]
		Australia	Nicholas Shehadie	[50]
		South Africa	John Smit	[51]
		Australia	IR Vanderfield	[52]
		South Africa	Jake White	[53]
		England	Clive Woodward	[54]
2012		United States	1920 and 1924 United States Olympic rugby team	[55]
		Romania	1924 Romania Olympic rugby team	[56]
		Chile	Donald Campbell	[57]
		Chile	Ian Campbell	[58]
		Japan	Yoshihiro Sakata	[59]
		New Zealand	Gordon Tietjens	[60]
		Zimbabwe	Kennedy Tsimba	[61]
		Zimbabwe	Richard Tsimba	[62]
2013		Scotland	David Bedell-Sivright	[63]
		Australia	David Campese	[64]
		Australia	Ken Catchpole	[65]
		Ireland	Ronnie Dawson	[66]
		Australia	Mark Ella	[67]
		Australia	George Gregan	[68]
		England	Alfred St. George Hamersley	[69]
		Scotland	Gavin Hastings	[70]
		Soviet Union	Vladimir Ilyushin	[71]
		Australia	Thomas Lawton, Snr	[72]
		Wales	Jack Matthews	[73]
		United Kingdom	Robert Seddon	[74]
		United Kingdom	1888 British Lions	[75]
		Fiji	Waisale Serevi	[76]
		Australia	John Thornett	[77]
		Wales	Bleddyn Williams	[78]
2014		New Zealand	Fred Allen	[79]
		New Zealand	Don Clarke	[80]
		New Zealand	Grant Fox	[81]
		New Zealand	Sean Fitzpatrick	[82]
		New Zealand	Michael Jones	[83]
		New Zealand	Ian Kirkpatrick	[84]
		New Zealand	John Kirwan	[85]
		New Zealand	Terry McLean	[86]
		New Zealand	Colin Meads	[87]
		New Zealand	Graham Mourie	[88]
		New Zealand	George Nēpia	[89]
		France	Nathalie Amiel	[90]
		England	Gillian Burns	[91]
		United States	Patty Jervey	[92]
		England	Carol Isherwood	[93]
		New Zealand	Anna Richards	[94]
		New Zealand	Farah Palmer	[95]
		Wales	Keith Rowlands	[96]
		Scotland	James Greenwood	[97]
		Wales	J. P. R. Williams	[98]
		Australia	Michael Lynagh	[99]
		France	Jo Maso	[100]
		Ireland	Keith Wood	[101]
		Wales	Ieuan Evans	[102]
		England	Jason Leonard	[103]
		England	Jonny Wilkinson	[104]
		England	Bill Beaumont	[105]
2015		Australia	Tim Horan	[106]
		Australia	Tom Richards	[107]
		England	Edgar Mobbs	[108]
		England	Ronald Poulton-Palmer	[109]
		England	Wavell Wakefield	[110]
		France	Jean-Pierre Rives	[111]
		France	Marcel Communeau	[112]
		Ireland	Basil Maclear	[113]
		Ireland	Fergus Slattery	[114]
		Ireland	Tom Kiernan	[115]
		Scotland	Andy Irvine	[116]
		Scotland	Bill McLaren	[117]
		Scotland	Gordon Brown	[118]
		South Africa	Danie Gerber	[119]
		South Africa	Hennie Muller	[120]
		South Africa	Joost van der Westhuizen	[121]
		South Africa	Morne du Plessis	[122]
		South Africa	Naas Botha	[123]
		South Africa	Nelson Mandela	[124]
		Wales	Barry John	[125]
		Wales	Carwyn James	[126]
		Wales	Gerald Davies	[127]
		Wales	Gwyn Nicholls	[128]
		Wales	Mervyn Davies	[129]
		Wales	Phil Bennett	[130]
		Wales	Johnny Williams	[131]
2016		Australia and  United States	Daniel Carroll	[132]
		Canada	Heather Moyse	[133]
		England	Margaret Alphonsi	[134]
		England	Lawrence Dallaglio	[135]
		England	Jeremy Guscott	[136]
		Ireland	Brian O'Driscoll	[137]
		Japan	Daisuke Ohata	[138]
		Scotland	G.P.S. Macpherson	[139]
		Wales	John Dawes	[140]
		Wales	Arthur Gould	[141]
		Wales	Shane Williams	[142]
2017	133	Argentina	Felipe Contepomi	[143]
	134	Canada	Al Charron	[144]
	135	France	Fabien Pelous	[145]
	136	England	Rob Andrew	[146]
	137	United States	Phaidra Knight	[147]
2018	138	Australia	Stephen Larkham	[148]
	139	Ireland	Ronan O'Gara	[149]
	140	France	Pierre Villepreux	[150]
	141	New Zealand	Bryan Williams	[151]
	142	Wales	Liza Burgess	[152]
2019	143	New Zealand	Richie McCaw	[153]
	144	Japan	Shiggy Konno	[154]
	145	South Africa	Os du Randt	[155]
	146	Samoa	Peter Fatialofa	[156]
	147	New Zealand	Graham Henry	[157]
	148	Uruguay	Diego Ormaechea	[158]
2021	149	Fiji	Osea Kolinisau	[159]
	150	Kenya	Humphrey Kayange	[160]
	151	New Zealand	Huriana Manuel	[161]
	152	Australia	Cheryl McAfee	[162]
	153	England	Will Carling	[163]
	154	Scotland	Jim Telfer	[164]
2022	155	England	Deborah Griffin	[165]
	156	England	Sue Dorrington	[166]
	157	England	Alice Cooper	[167]
	158	England	Mary Forsyth	[168]
	159	United States	Kathy Flores	[169]
	160	New Zealand	Fiao'o Fa'amausili	[170]
2023	161	England	The Varsity Matches	[171]
	162	New Zealand	Dan Carter	[172]
	163	France	Thierry Dusautoir	[173]
	164	Australia	George Smith	[174]
	165	Argentina	Juan Martín Hernández	[175]
	166	South Africa	Bryan Habana	[176]
2024	167	Australia	Emilee Cherry	[177]
	168	New Zealand	DJ Forbes	[178]
	169	Italy	Sergio Parisse	[179]
	170	Scotland	Donna Kennedy	[180]
	171	New Zealand	Chris Laidlaw	[181]

See also

• International Rugby Hall of Fame – merged into the World Rugby Hall of Fame in 2014 and 2015
• World Rugby Museum – a celebration of the best international players to have played at Twickenham Stadium

Footnotes

1. This inductee is a woman.