Pieter-Steph du Toit on the charge in the 2019 World Cup final (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Springbok flank Pieter-Steph du Toit is one of eight nominees for World Rugby’s Player of the Decade which was published on Thursday.

Du Toit, the 2019 World Rugby Player of the Year, faces stiff competition in a list that includes double World Cup-winning captain Richie McCaw and fellow All Black Dan Carter.

Both players, who took New Zealand to World Cup glory in 2011 and 2015, are three-time winners of the World Player of the Year Award.

They have been joined on the list by the other winners between 2010 and 2019 – three other All Blacks in Kieran Read, Brodie Retallick and Beauden Barrett, Irish flyhalf Johnny Sexton and and former France captain Thierry Dusautoir.

Similarly, the Women’s Player of the Year winners since 2010, from Black Fern Carla Hohepa to England’s 2019 recipient Emily Scarratt, have been nominated for the Women’s Player of the Decade award.

There are also awards Try of the Decade and Sevens Player of the Decade.

For the sevens award, three South Africans – Cecil Afrika, Werner Kok and Seabelo Senatla – are among nine nominees.

The others are Perry Baker (USA), Mikaele Pesamino (Samoa), Tomasi Cama, Tim Mikkelson (both New Zealand), Samisoni Viriviri and Jerry Tuwai (both Fiji).

The vote is open to the public and will close on 25 October.

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