Four legends to be inducted into World Rugby Hall of Fame

World Rugby has announced that four players will be inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame in 2025, the first two of them at the final Test between Australia and the British and Irish Lions in Sydney on Saturday, 2 August.

The contributions of former Wallaby fullback Matthew Burke and England and British and Irish Lions flanker Richard Hill will be celebrated at a special event in Sydney, with two female players then inducted during Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 in England, at the Women’s Summit on 26 September.

Both players tasted victory in a Lions series, Burke kicking five penalties among a 19-point haul to clinch victory in the third and decisive Test of the 2001 tour in his native Sydney.

Hill was part of that beaten Lions pride in Australia, four years after helping the tourists claim a series victory in South Africa.

Outstanding contribution

Burke is one of Australia’s greatest ever fullbacks who combined pace, a strong defence, safe hands and an excellent kicking game, while Hill was part of England’s much-vaunted loose trio under Clive Woodward who helped secure Rugby World Cup glory on Australian soil in 2003. 

The World Rugby Hall of Fame recognises those that have made an outstanding contribution to the game of rugby throughout their careers, while also demonstrating rugby’s character-building values of integrity, passion, solidarity, discipline and respect.

This year’s four inductees will bring the total in the Hall of Fame to 175 since it began in 2006.

South Africa has 13 former players, two ex-Springbok coaches and even a former president in the World Rugby Hall of Fame.

They are:

World Rugby Hall of Fame 2025 inductees

No 172 – Matthew Burke (Australia)
No 173 – Richard Hill (England and Lions)

Matthew Burke (Australia)
World Rugby Hall of Fame – Inductee No 172

Matthew Burke was the outstanding full-back of his generation, accomplished in every facet of the game required to play the position. The Sydneysider had brilliant positional sense, was excellent under the high ball, hit hard in the tackle and had a great boot on him, which made him indispensable in defence. In attack, he had a good burst of pace and hit hard lines, while his goal-kicking made him a proven matchwinner in many of the 81 tests he played for Australia.

Burke first showed his international calibre as a member of the unbeaten 1990/91 Australian Schools tour to Europe. From there, he graduated to first-grade rugby, playing for Eastwood Rugby Club as an 18-year-old and then New South Wales.

Senior international recognition was not long in coming as Burke was selected by Australia to play in the inaugural Rugby World Cup Sevens in 1993. He is the third member of the team that lost the final to England to be inducted into the World Rugby Hall of the Fame after David Campese and Michael Lynagh. A few months later, Burke made his test debut for the Wallabies off the bench in a 19-12 win over South Africa in his home city.

Initially alternating between full-back and centre, Burke scored the first of his 29 test tries against Ireland in his fourth cap in 1994 and kicked his first points in the comfortable 42-3 win over Romania at Rugby World Cup 1995. Once Michael Lynagh retired after that tournament, Burke became Australia’s regular kicker and he went on to amass 878 points in green and gold, including 25 in the Wallabies’ 35-12 victory over France in RWC 1999 final.

Having started the 2001 British and Irish Lions series on the bench, Burke was named full-back for the remaining two tests as the Wallabies bounced back from defeat at The Gabba to win 2-1. Burke scored a try and kicked 20 points in Melbourne and was again key to victory in the deciding test in Sydney, kicking a further 19 points.

Burke appeared in one more Rugby World Cup on home soil in 2003 before retiring from test rugby a year later as a legend of Australia rugby. He signed off with a successful spell overseas with Newcastle in the English Premiership.

Richard Hill (England and Lions)
World Rugby Hall of Fame – Inductee No 173

Educated at Bishop’s Wordworth School, Salisbury and then Brunel University College, Richard Hill became one of English rugby’s greatest flankers and a member of the back-row trinity that helped England to win Rugby World Cup 2003.

While Neil Back was the link man and Lawrence Dallaglio the enforcer, Hill’s ability to do the often unseen graft of close quarter play and his innate positional sense won the respect of team-mates and opponents the world over, and the nickname, ‘The Silent Assassin’. Even the great Wigan Rugby League team of the 1990s made a move to sign him, but he stayed loyal to Saracens, his only professional club, making 288 appearances.

Initially playing as an openside, Hill made his debut for England in a 41-13 win over Scotland in the 1997 Men’s Six Nations and toured with the British and Irish Lions to South Africa later that year, starting the victories in the first two tests against the Springboks.

Hill won five caps in total for the Lions across three tours, having also made the trip to Australia in 2001 and New Zealand in 2005, and 71 for his country, scoring 12 tries, predominantly from the blindside position.

Battling back from two ACL reconstructions, nine operations and an illness that had him hospitalised for over a month, the indefatigable Hill continued playing until 2008, when he ended a journey that had begun as a five-year-old at Salisbury Rugby Club where he progressed through the minis and juniors before playing for the First XV. Since his retirement, Hill has worked for Saracens and the Rugby Football Union.

In 2014 he was appointed RFU Player Pathway Liaison Manager, identifying and mentoring young players. Two years later, he became England’s team manager under Eddie Jones, a position he still holds – but with a wider remit, which now encompasses talent identification and development and liaising with England’s top clubs.

Well deserved World Rugby Hall of Fame inductees?

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