As a result of these characteristics, wingers (sometimes disguised as full backs) are highly pre-disposed to individual performance compared to other positions on the pitch. Highlight reels, newspapers and bloggers love to write stories about these athletes. Clean little pieces about the lone wolf superstar with no need to paint a complex picture of what happened.

Historically, talk of the “Best Winger” brings to mind names like David Campese (Australia) and Jonah Lomu (New Zealand). However, the professional era of the sport has brought about a series of faster, stronger athletes at every position. This is most most notable at the wing position where coaches spend their days scouting massive players to run over their typically smaller counterparts as Lomu did during the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

Who then is the best ‘active’ winger still winning caps and playing test matches?

Is it Daisuke Ohata (Japan), the IRB leading try scorer of all time? What about Shane Williams (Wales), the 2008 IRB International Player of the Year and star of the 2008 Six Nations? What about dual-code Lote Tuqiri (Australia) measuring up at nearly 2 metres and over 100 kilos. Don’t forget Joe Rokocoko (New Zealand) with his standing 40 metre sprint time of 4.44 seconds and Bryan Habana, 2007 IRB Player of the Year who scored the most tries ever (8) in a World Cup (this distinction is shared Jomu).

Each of those fine rugby footballers could easily be the best winger in the world. But I think Cédric Heymans (France) is currently the most talented of the lot. Heymans began his test career in 2000 he has really come on strong in the last few years. In particular, embarrassing not less than four New Zealand defenders on Saturday to score a 50 metre try (see video below) highlights the talents of the Frenchman.

If the French goal kickers had even 50% success, France would have won the Dave Gallaher Cup outright and not just on points differential. Perhaps Heymans should take up goal kicking as his next challenge.

There’s no arguing that New Zealand will do anything but crush every team in their Pool as warm-ups for their all-but-certain Quarter Final against Australia. Once we get past this though, there is an interesting match-up in Pool C: Italy vs. Scotland on Sep. 29th. Italy has made HUGE improvements in their rugby program since joining the 5 Nations in 2000 (to create the Six Nations Championship). Italy finished 4th above both Wales and Scotland in the 2007 Six Nations campaign, and turmoil in the SRU since then could spell trouble and a pool-round exit for the Scots.