Top 10 Players: Patty Jervey

Who are the best women's players to have ever played the game? We pick our Top 10 since the test game began in 1982 and today we pick former USA star Patty Jervey, who played in five World Cups, winning one title back in 1991.

Published by Alison Donnelly, November 5th, 2015

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Top 10 Players: Patty Jervey

Patty JerveyMajor teams: Atlanta HalequinsPosition: CentreCountry:USATest span: 1989 - 2006

A World Cup winner with the USA – Jervey was among the group of first women’s players to be inducted to the World Rugby Hall of Fame last year, and she is one of the most highly regarded players of her generation in the American game.Jervey’s 31-year rugby career spanned 40 international caps – a reflection of how little test rugby the USA played until recently – and she began it as a student at the University of South Carolina before moving to play at a higher level at Florida State University where her career as a centre and winger at the highest level started to take off.Remarkably she is still playing some rugby – she played a club game on her 50th birthday last year and her accolades in the US game are outstanding after her international debut in 1989.On the team who beat England 19-6 in the first Women’s Rugby World Cup in 1991, she appeared in four more World Cups in 1994, 1998, 2002, and 2006, and ended her test career as the highest points scorer for her country with 178.“Patty was an ideal teammate,” fellow ’91 Women’s Eagle Annie Flavin once said of her. “On field, a fiercely competitive worker - just knowing she was in the back line was always so reassuring, especially for a plodding tight-fiver.”In her club career, Jervey has also made a significant impact right up to recent years, as she’s helped Atlanta Harlequins win a Division I National Championship and she has coached the USA Rugby South Women’s All-Stars for a period.

Top 10 Women's Players Ever: List so far

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The top ten best women's players ever originally appeared in Rugby: The Greatest Players, from the makers of Rugby World magazine and was written by Ali Donnelly. Find out who the 130 best male players are, position by position, in the bookazine - on sale in WHSmith until 19  November in the UK.

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