A global panel of journalists has named New Zealand’s Portia Woodman-Wickliffe as the best women’s rugby player in the world right now.
RugbyPass has just released its list of the Top women’s rugby players, curated by its leading journalists. Inclusion in the list was determined by performance over the last calendar year and if the players played international 15s in this period.
The top 10 players on the list include:
1. Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, New Zealand
2. Pauline Bourdon-Sanus, France
3. Zoe Aldcroft, England
4. Alex Tessier, Canada
5. Aoife Wafer, Ireland
6. Megan Jones, England
7. Ruahei Demant, New Zealand
8. Hope Rogers, USA
9. Morgane Bourgeois, France
10. Kaipo Olsen-Baker, New Zealand
“The group at RugbyPass working on the Top 50 all agreed that Portia Woodman-Wickliffe deserved to be named number one on the list due to the fact that even coming out of retirement earlier this year, she managed to return and not only excel for the Blues in Super Rugby Aupiki to help them win a historic double title, but also seamlessly slide back into a Black Ferns starting spot and, whilst at it, break the all-time Black Ferns try scoring record,” the panel said on its decision to award Woodman-Wickliffe the top spot.
“Not many hold a presence on the pitch quite like the World Cup winning winger. An incredible athlete and advocate for the women’s game.”
On the recognition, Woodman-Wickliffe said: “To be recognised by RugbyPass this way, it really means a lot. I’m probably never going to come to terms with this at all! I’m extremely grateful for this award, even though I still feel like I’ve got a lot to learn as a player myself and to even get anywhere near these types of accolades is just amazing.”
The largest representation overall on the Top 50 list was from England, with 13 Red Roses players making an appearance.
The full list of the RugbyPass Top 50 can be found here.