Although we will always be fascinated by the icons of the rugby world, such as Colin Meads, Jack Kyle, Frik du Preez, and many more, I have realised that all these players could not have achieved what they did without the help of their teammates. Every player deemed to be best in his position in his country at a particular time deserves to be considered together with the great players of his day. Consequently, I wanted to learn about the players who, in their day, were also indispensable for their teams but whose names had been forgotten.
To this end, I have created a comprehensive database of all the rugby test matches played by the Tier One nations, the British and Irish Lions, and the players who played in them from 1 January 1945 until the present day. The database focuses on the Tier One nations and the British and Irish Lions due in large part to data availability. When I started to compile the database, I chose 1 January 1945 as the starting date. In my mind, it was only possible to compare players after the Second World War since the game had changed too much from how it was played before the war to make accurate comparisons.
When I completed the database in December 2024, I wondered what to do with all this information. And so we come to the purpose of this blog and the website. My son, Du Toit, and I believe that there may be many persons from all over the world who have rugby heroes of yesteryear who they believe may have been the best players ever in his position, but also know that there is no way to prove this empirically. Therefore, rather than drawing comparisons, we will be delving into history to tell the stories of players who excelled for their countries and made rugby the sport we love today. We will also spotlight those players whose names have been forgotten but played their part in the story.
Although rugby history will be the main focus of our blog, new chapters are added to the game’s annals with every new Six Nations Championship, Rugby Championship, and British and Irish Lions tour. We hope to bring a long-term, historical perspective to these current rugby stories by examining them against the backdrop of the competitions and tours preceding them.
The Rugby Historian 