Wallaby great Lynagh in IRB Hall of Fame

Australia’s 1991 World Cup-winning five-eighth Michael Lynagh and fellow rugby great JPR Williams are among 15 new inductees into the International Rugby Board’s (IRB) Hall of Fame.

Lynagh was the most prolific Test points-scorer of his generation during a career in which he helped the Wallabies complete a grand slam tour of Britain and Ireland in 1984 and played a key role for the Australian team who won the 1991 Cup in England.

Former fullback Williams was a mainstay of the successful 1970s Wales team and one of a select few to play all eight Tests of the British and Irish Lions sides who won series in New Zealand in 1971 and South Africa three years later.

Also elevated to the Hall of Fame at Monday’s London ceremony was Bill Beaumont, captain of England’s 1980 grand slam team and later a rugby commentator and administrator as well as Ireland’s Keith Wood and France’s Jo Maso.

“The men’s inductions include some of the biggest names in our sport over the past 40 years and all have contributed immensely to the enjoyment we have all felt watching top-level rugby over the decades,” IRB chairman Bernard Lapasset said.

Stars from the women’s game such as New Zealand’s Anna Richards and the United States’ Patty Jervey rubbed shoulders with the men as the first female inductees.

Jervey won the inaugural Women’s Rugby World Cup in 1991 and Richards took out a fourth successive global title with the Black Ferns in 2010.

Farah Palmer captained New Zealand to three World Cup crowns, Nathalie Amiel coached France to a third-place finish at the 2014 edition on home soil, having previously won 56 caps for her country at centre, while England’s Gill Burns and Carol Isherwood both enjoyed distinguished careers.

“It is particularly pleasing to be able to induct the first women into the IRB Hall of Fame,” said Lapasset.

“These six were wonderful players and, in many ways, trailblazers for the women’s game in their countries and around the world.

“We saw the success of the Women’s Rugby World Cup this year in France and it is doubtful that would have been possible if not for the pioneering spirit of those great players and personalities that went before.”