{"id":335610,"date":"2025-12-25T22:59:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T22:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/335610\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T22:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T22:59:08","slug":"ronan-ogara-worlds-apart-my-top-25-rugby-players-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/335610\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronan O\u2019Gara: Worlds apart &#8211; my top 25 rugby players in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">THESE are the ground rules. If he didn\u2019t play in 2025, he can\u2019t really be considered for 2025\u2019s finest (although for a certain A Dupont, one would be half-inclined to make an exception).<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Second stipulation: no La Rochelle players. You may think that\u2019s because I want to be fair and independent. It\u2019s nothing of the sort. How can I mention Uini Atonio when Will Skelton, and the size of him, is coming along the corridor after Christmas? Ditto Levani Botia, who might cut me in half \u2018by accident\u2019 on the field if I mentioned Greg Alldritt and not him?<\/p>\n<p>This is exclusive subscriber content. Already a subscriber? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/login\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign in<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"IE Logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4633150_1_org_IE_logo_modals.png\" width=\"340\" height=\"41\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\tSubscribe to access all of the Irish Examiner.<\/p>\n<p>Annual \u20ac130\u20ac80<\/p>\n<p class=\"best-value\">Best value<\/p>\n<p>Monthly \u20ac12\u20ac6 \/ month<\/p>\n<p>                    <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Benefits image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4874751_1_org_Funnel_image.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t&#13;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THESE are the ground rules. If he didn\u2019t play in 2025, he can\u2019t really be considered for 2025\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[130560,5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-335610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-ronan-ogara","9":"tag-rugby","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}