Top Players of the 1995 Rugby World Cup were mostly young faces who stayed on to book their places among the best players of the world. Like most of the earlier tournaments, the 1995 World Cup in South Africa also brought to the fore a few players who proved themselves fit to appear in the world stage.
Most of the teams had their new stars including the hosts South Africa who depended on them to lift the Webb Ellis Cup .
Nearly all the teams who found their place in the knockout stages of the World Cup had one or more players who had made most contribution to the team. France's Thierry Lacroix and Scotland's Gavin Hastings stood out with highest numbers of tries, conversions and penalties. The Western Samoa team rode on the genius of their player Darren Kellet to advance to the quarter finals by beating Italy and Argentina in their Pool B encounters. But it was England's Rob Andrew who emerged to be the star in the Pool helping England top the Pool. The Australian supporters were disappointed to see that the brilliant display of rugby by Michael Lynagh and his tremendous scoring ability was not enough to take them beyond the Quarter Final stage where they were defeated by England, depending again on the sheer genius of Rob Andrew.
The two finalists, New Zealand and South Africa also had a few players who performed like heroes in the World Cup matches. New Zealand depended on the scoring ability of Andrew Mehrtens to reach the final. But Jonah Lomu was outstanding among the Kiwis and used the big stage as the World Cup to reveal his genius in front of the world. Though his brilliant performance in the tournament helped him earn the status of the first truly global rugby star, yet his effort remained unfinished for he could not win the cup for his country. But South Africa's Joel Stransky did that for his motherland. His tremendous performance throughout the World Cup received suitable assistance from Gavin Johnson and they together presented South African sports one of its glorious moments by helping the team lift the Webb Ellis Cup.
