By Jim Webster – World Rugby Hall Of Fame Committee

The only higher honour than having played for your country in rugby is to be selected in the World Rugby Hall of Fame.

That’s like receiving the Order of Australia or, if you live in other parts, being given a knighthood.

Those chosen for the Hall of Fame this year have now been announced.

Your writer knows the names, because he is the sole Australian on the judging panel and has just participated in this year’s selection process.

We were provided with a list of 21 candidates from each of five categories – modern greats, all-time greats, sevens greats, Olympic Games and women – and then had to choose ten of those candidates and mark them from 10-1 in order of preference.

We were made aware that for “obvious historic reasons” the all-time and modern greats were dominated by England representatives and that the judges “should take a balanced approach” in their choice of candidates.

The results have only now been returned to us. Many of the names you will know; some you won’t.

Without further ado, here are the newest members of the 2016 World Rugby Hall of Fame, in the order of preference as determined by the judges:

1 – Brian O’Driscoll, Ireland
2 – Jonny Wilkinson, England
3 – John Dawes, Wales
4 – Eric Rush, New Zealand
5 – Arthur Gould, Wales
6 – Daniel Carroll, Australia
7 – GPS Macpherson, Scotland
8 – Heather Moyse, Canada
9 – Jeremy Guscott, England
10 – Lawrence Dallaglio, England

Yes, Australia’s newest member of the Hall of Fame is Daniel Carroll, among the most fascinating players of Australia’s rugby past, an extremely fast winger with an unmatched record, topped by his having played for two countries.

Born in Melbourne in 1889, he then moved to Sydney, where he attended St Aloysius College and played for the St George Club while studying dentistry.

So impressive was he for his club and then NSW that he was chosen for the Wallabies tour of Britain and America in 1908-09 at just 20 years of age, the “baby” of the team.

On tour he scored 15 tries, including two against Swansea, which even had the partisan Welsh supporters cheering and applauding his performance.

In 1912, he returned to America with the Australian team on a 16-match tour. He settled in America permanently at the end of the tour and served as a lieutenant in the US Army during World War 1.

In 1920, he was coaching at Stanford University when selected as player-coach of the American team for the Olympic Games at Antwerp, where his team won the gold medal. He again coached the US which won another gold at the Paris Olympics in 1924.

Carroll later became one of the financial backers of a Hollywood film which starred “Snowy” Baker, the great all-round Australian sports star, against whom he had often played in Sydney.

He lived in New Orleans when he retired from Stanford University and died at the age of 68, with only the most dedicated Australian sports fans aware of his unique sporting record.

While Daniel Carroll made the list of Hall of Fame inductees, one player far better known to the Australian rugby community missed out.

Jason Little.

He received only a single-digit number of votes, while the first chosen, Brian O’Driscoll, received a whopping 81 votes from the judges and the last of the 10 new Hall of Fame members, Lawrence Dallaglio, received 26 votes.

Some of the others who missed selection were Adrian Stoop (England), Shane Williams (Wales) and WJA Davies (England) to but name a few.

Maybe when a few more from these parts, other than just your writer, are invited onto the judging panel then Jason Little might well be asked to step forward.

Jim Webster is a veteran rugby reporter who has made numerous Wallaby tours and covered in excess of 300 Test matches. He also assisted Simon Poidevin and Rod Macqueen in writing their books, and sits on the World Rugby Hall of Fame selection committee.