Wilson, Kirwan, or Lomu

Of the 3 greatest wingers of the last 20 years... who would be your pair?
(Cullen at fullback)

It's almost impossible to pick the best 2. At his peak, Lomu was the best, but he was wildly inconsistent. Kirwan had the raw pace as a youngster. Wilson had the skills and variation.

I think I'd go Kirwan - Lomu. Probably.

Glen Osbourne

Greatest wingers from any nation? At their peak?

You pretty much know who I'd name as one of them, if that was the case.

You're talking about James Small right?

Small pissed over Lomu but Habana is still the best wing ever and currently playing.

Currie Cup, Super 14 and WorldCup to his name << Thats how you determine it aye Vadz?

fucking biggie wont let me log on!


Kirwan would have thrown Habana around like a rag doll! Wilson would have never let him pass. But postering aside I rate all 3 wingers equal. Id go for those 2 and bench/impact Lomu for games vs the Yapies and Wallabies and unlease Johan vs the others. Wilson was almost mistake free and the complete player. Kirwan is a little hard to rate as he was part amatuer and before the era of monster wingers, but he played NRL and didnt disgrace himself. Id pick him over Lomu b/c of consistancy
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Jason Robinson was a fantastic union wing fwiw

At the absolute peaks of their games easily Lomu... Scariest winger to ever play the game. If spanning their whole careers then Wilson because of his complete skill set.

Although he doesn't fall into the same category of those three I'd like to give an honourable mention to Doug 'Big Time' Howlett, because the sheer number of game deciding/winning tries he scored was exceptional.

I think JK is a f**king legend, the first AB to rep my old school, but I'd have to go with Lomu and Goldie.

Jonah was a freak in his prime and Goldie had all the skills and more.

Lomu never scored vs. South Africa... or like 1-2 tries... I remember once seeing a stat that had Cullen with 15 tries in like 16 games vs. the Jaapies and Lomu with 0 or 2 in the same.

Obviously for the OTHER cretins this is NZ wingers only

Well it can't just be "at their peak" because guys like Rupeni would walk in... it's more like "at their sustained peak"

lomu never scored a try against south africa

Which is precisely why I left Lomu out. He never played great vs the Springboks (which is clearly the ultimate test), started his test career poorly, was occasionally a liability on defence and had zero utility value. Its difficult to critise Wilson for anything at all. Same almost applies to Howlett and Kirwan.

Obviously Lomus big games gains much of that ground for him, but its closer than most rugby followers would realise. Belting the shit out of crappy teams like England basically because you are physical a monster doesnt get you many points in my book. You need to produce vs the best, which is one of the main reasons Shane Bond was so awesome

Against South Africa Lomu often got used as decoy because they generally made sure no one was going to have to stop him one on one... So we got him to look menacing while we gave the ball to Cullen.

Lomu used to carve up Australia, who were the ultimate test for much of his career rather than SA imo. Agree with your other points though.

In that case Lomu and Wilson. I've never seen Kirwan play, simply because I wasn't even in the country in that era.

Kirwan vs Italy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_lT00QqXGk

Ya fair call on the Wallabies actually, we didnt hold the Bledisloe Cup for long periods in that era and the Boks were pretty horrible at times too

I've seen those tries grinder. I'm more talking about watching full games, you know. And those are great tries. But I think what Vadz is talking about, is longer period, consistently good type of stuff.

If we're talking youtube moments then Lomu is way ahead. But yeah, they seldom tell the whole story.

Play all 3 and put Wilson at Fullback, he played 15 quite often for Otago yeah??

Yeah... sorry nacoa but Cullen is a freak and the best player I've ever seen
Ranking outside backs from ALL countries goes like this:

1. Cullen
2-65. Daylight
66. David Campese

haha, I never said drop him... shows Wilsons ability to play different positions though

Interesting stat I heard about David Campese earlier today.. the biggest losing stretch of any one player against any one side, was David Campese vs All Blacks (18 consecutive losses) .