Kick off '99, the official magazine of this year's rugby World Cup, invited a panel of international journalists to list their six favourite players in each position for a fantasy world rugby team.

Only three players received the maximum number of points - 10 out of 10. They are Australia's captain John Eales, South African scrum-half Joost van der Westhuizen and Springbok skipper Gary Teichmann.

Ireland's Keith Wood has made a big impression in the front row and was selected along with South Africa's James Dalton as the top-ranked hooker in the world. Wood received six votes out of a possible 10, as did Dalton. The props either side of Wood were England's Jason Leonard at loose-head and South African Adrian Garvey at tight-head.

Not surprisingly, all of the positions were filled by either South African, Australian or New Zealand players except Wood, Leonard and England's Jeremy Guscott, who was chosen at outside centre.