Beirne Makes World Rugby Dream Team For Second Successive Year
Tadhg Beirne is pictured alongside Rónan Kelleher following Ireland's Quilter Nations Series win over Japan ©INPHO/Billy Stickland
Ireland forward Tadhg Beirne has been included in the 2025 World Rugby Men’s 15s Dream Team line-up, adding to his British & Irish Lions Player of the Series honour and his Rugby Players Ireland and Guinness Rugby Writers Of Ireland Men’s Player of the Year awards.
Beirne is one of six players in the 2025 side to make the World Rugby Dream Team for a second year in a row. It is his third Dream Team selection in all, having first been honoured in 2022.
The Munster captain was ever-present during the 2025 Guinness Men’s Six Nations, helping Ireland to win the Triple Crown, before playing every minute of the Lions’ 2-1 series win over Australia, with three starts at blindside flanker and a try in the second Test.
Following a 20-minute red card against New Zealand that was later rescinded, he again played every minute of Ireland’s Quilter Nations Series campaign, packing down in the second row against Japan, Australia, and South Africa.
Malcolm Marx, the World Rugby Men’s 15s Player of the Year, is one of six South Africans to receive Dream Team recognition at the end of another successful year for Rassie Erasmus’ World champions, who claimed back-to-back Rugby Championship titles for the first time.
Marx makes up one-third of an all-Springbok front row, alongside Ox Nché and Thomas du Toit, while two-time Player of the Year Pieter-Steph du Toit is named in the back row.
Out-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and winger Cheslin Kolbe complete the South African contingent in the 2025 Dream Team, a year after seven featured on the 2024 list. Marx, Nché, Pieter-Steph du Toit, and Kolbe were also part of the 2024 team.
Full-back Will Jordan, another player who was named in last year’s XV, and scrum half Cam Roigard are the two New Zealanders included this time.
Australia are represented by centre Len Ikitau and number 8 Harry Wilson, while two of Beirne’s 2025 Lions team-mates, England’s Maro Itoje and Tom Curry, also have places in the pack.
Scotland centre Huw Jones and France flyer Louis Bielle-Biarrey, this year’s Men’s Six Nations Player of the Championship and top try scorer, complete the Dream Team for 2025.
The World Rugby Men’s 15s Dream Team was first presented in 2021, and Ireland have had players picked every year so far – Tadhg Furlong in 2021, 2022, and 2023, Beirne in 2022, 2024, and 2025, Caelan Doris in 2023 and 2024, Jonathan Sexton and Josh van der Flier in 2022, Dan Sheehan, Bundee Aki, and Garry Ringrose in 2023, and Jamison Gibson-Park and James Lowe in 2024.
Today’s announcement caps off an extraordinary year of international rugby and sets the stage for a new era beginning in 2026, with the launch of the inaugural World Rugby Nations Cup and Nations Championship.
2025 WORLD RUGBY MEN’S 15S DREAM TEAM OF THE YEAR:
Will Jordan (New Zealand); Cheslin Kolbe (South Africa), Huw Jones (Scotland), Len Ikitau (Australia), Louis Bielle-Biarrey (France); Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (South Africa), Cam Roigard (New Zealand); Ox Nché (South Africa), Malcolm Marx (South Africa), Thomas du Toit (South Africa), Maro Itoje (England), Tadhg Beirne (Ireland), Pieter-Steph du Toit (South Africa), Tom Curry (England), Harry Wilson (Australia).
2025 WORLD RUGBY AWARDS:
World Rugby Men’s 15s Player of the Year: Malcolm Marx (South Africa)
World Rugby Women’s 15s Player of the Year – in partnership with HSBC: Sophie de Goede (Canada)
World Rugby Men’s 15s Breakthrough Player of the Year: Fabian Holland (New Zealand)
World Rugby Women’s 15s Breakthrough Player of the Year: Braxton Sorensen-McGee (New Zealand)
World Rugby Coach of the Year: John Mitchell (England)
World Rugby Referee Award in partnership with Emirates: Hollie Davidson (Scotland)
International Rugby Players Association Special Merit Award: Dan Carter (New Zealand)
International Rugby Players Association Men’s 15s Try of the Year: Santiago Pedrero (Chile)
International Rugby Players Association Women’s 15s Try of the Year: Maia Joseph (New Zealand)
World Rugby Men’s 15s Dream Team of the Year:
Will Jordan (New Zealand); Cheslin Kolbe (South Africa), Huw Jones (Scotland), Len Ikitau (Australia), Louis Bielle-Biarrey (France); Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (South Africa), Cam Roigard (New Zealand); Ox Nché (South Africa), Malcolm Marx (South Africa), Thomas du Toit (South Africa), Maro Itoje (England), Tadhg Beirne (Ireland), Pieter-Steph du Toit (South Africa), Tom Curry (England), Harry Wilson (Australia).
World Rugby Women’s 15s Dream Team Of the Year – in partnership with Asahi:
Ellie Kildunne (England); Braxton Sorensen-McGee (New Zealand), Megan Jones (England), Sylvia Brunt (New Zealand), Joanna Grisez (France); Zoe Harrison (England), Justine Pelletier (Canada); Hannah Botterman (England), Emily Tuttosi (Canada), Maud Muir (England), Sophie de Goede (Canada), Abbie Ward (England), Alex Matthews (England), Jorja Miller (New Zealand), Kaipo Olsen-Baker (New Zealand).