Society Insider: Who are the most successful Rugby World Cup

The All Blacks’ 2011 coach, Sir Graham Henry, and 2015 coach, Sir Steve Hansen, were there, as was former Prime Minister Sir John Key, who famously had an awkward three-way handshake with captain Richie McCaw and International Rugby Board chairman Bernard Lapasset at Eden Park after New Zealand won the Webb Ellis Trophy.

McCaw was in attendance, as were most of his former teammates, including Dan Carter, Keven Mealamu, Aaron Smith, Hosea Gear, Ali Williams, Brad Thorn, Aaron Cruden, Colin Slade, Conrad Smith, Kieran Read, Beauden Barrett, Israel Dagg and Piri Weepu.

Among the partners in attendance were Dagg’s wife Daisy Dagg, Barrett’s wife Hannah Barrett, Slade’s wife Emma Slade, and Read’s wife Bridget Read.

Society Insider is told that the reunion celebrations at the All Blacks Experience included checking their players’ rankings and checking out the 2011 and 2015 World Cup paraphernalia over plenty of beers.

Inspired by the reunion, Society Insider looks at 15 of the most successful All Blacks from those winning sides, both on and off the field.

When Mealamu, 47, retired in 2015, he had played 132 tests for the All Blacks and also held the record for most appearances in Super Rugby and the NPC at 384.

Since retiring, Mealamu has run his own South Auckland gym, FIT60, with his wife of 27 years, Tai Mealamu.

They converted the premises of a former panel beater in Takanini, and their clients range from top athletes to beginners.

Mealamu served as a member of the Papakura Local Board from 2019 to 2021, then in late 2024, he was announced as a new member of the New Zealand Rugby board, specialising in the people and culture committee.

At the same time, Mealamu, who has a lifelong love of art, was appointed to the board of Creative New Zealand.

As well as Fit60, Mealamu is also a director at insurance and financial services firm Protect for Life and has interests in his brother Luke’s company, Mealamu Security.

Last month, Mealamu was welcomed into the Pasifika Rugby Hall of Fame.

McCaw, 45, retired after captaining New Zealand to the back-to-back World Cup wins, but his career off the field has gone from strength to strength.

He famously turned down a knighthood in 2011, but was appointed to the Order of New Zealand in 2016.

His autobiography, The Real McCaw, was published in 2012, and the biopic Chasing Great premiered in 2016. A year later, he had the wedding of the decade when he married former Black Stick Gemma Flynn in Wānaka.

A keen helicopter and glider pilot, McCaw and his father, Donald McCaw, are part-owners of a Cessna-leasing business called Cessna 172.

He has other varied business interests – he’s been an ambassador for Westpac for nearly 20 years, is a director and shareholder of Camp Hill, a property development company creating a subdivision between Albert Town and Lake Hāwea, just outside of Wānaka, and, with former teammate Dan Carter, is a minor shareholder in Retirement Income Group, a fund manager that manages $1 billion in assets.

Richie and Gemma McCaw built a multimillion-dollar house in Wānaka two years ago and made the permanent move there with their three daughters at the end of last year. The move came after selling their four-bedroom home in Fendalton for an undisclosed sum, thought to be well over $3.8 million.

After the 2015 World Cup, Carter, 44, and his wife, former Black Stick Honor Carter, and their growing family relocated to Paris, France, where Carter played for Racing Metro. The transfer deal saw him become the world’s highest-paid rugby player at the time, with a reported salary of up to $3m a season for three years. He followed that up with two years at the Kobelco Kobe Steelers, in Kobe, Japan, reportedly earning more than $2m a season.

Carter has released five books and is an in-demand public speaker and, as one of the world’s most famous former players, has formed lucrative partnership deals with a swathe of local and international brands, including Louis Vuitton, Adidas, Mastercard and Chemist Warehouse.

Carter has his own men’s fragrance line, DC10 Signature, which usually retails at $49 for a 100ml bottle. He also has the DC10 Fund with Unicef, the iSport Foundation for youth sport, which he founded alongside Richie McCaw and Ali Williams, with Williams no longer part of the organisation.

He also has minority shareholdings in event management company Urban Events with Ali Williams and Israel Dagg; men’s clothing delivery company Asuwere, with former New Zealand captains Kieran Read and Sam Cane; and in luxury department store Faradays, alongside wife Honor.

The Carters, who have four sons, have owned a Remuera mansion since 2018, estimated to be worth more than $10m. Two years ago, they purchased a 325sq m waterfront residence in Tern Point, Mangawhai, for more than $3m, bordering the Tara Iti golf course.

While still an All Black, Ma’a Nonu did a brief stint with the Ricoh Black Lambs in Japan at the end of 2011.

Last year, he signed a one‑year contract extension with Toulon, a club he had returned to earlier in the year after first featuring for them from 2015 to 2018, with a shorter stint from 2020-2021. Last season, he was the oldest player to score a try in France’s Top 14 professional rugby union league and, impressively, is still playing at the top club level at 43.

Between his stints with Toulon came a season with the Blues in 2018 and two spells with the San Diego Legion in the US, in which he became a part-owner last year.

With Nonu’s original contract with Toulon set at more than $1m a year, he is regarded by many to be one of the most successful global professional players. In 2019, he was reported to be in the top 10 earners in the sport.

He and his wife, Andrea Nonu, who have three children, have two properties in Wellington – one in Miramar and one in Hataitai.

Ma’a Nonu bought a shareholding in Peak Physio Miramar, in his hometown of Wellington, in 2024.

Ali Williams, 44, played his last game for the All Blacks in Rome, Italy in November 2016.

The following year, he and his then wife, Casey Green, started a five-year stint in France, with their two daughters, with Williams playing for Toulon for two years.

After retiring from professional rugby and a brief stint living in London, Williams was recruited by Racing 92 in Paris in 2015 as an ambassador to represent the club at functions, as well as a special advisor for Dan Carter. That led to Williams playing with Carter at Racing 92 in Paris from 2016.

In April 2017, Williams was fined $2300 by a Paris court on charges of buying cocaine and lost his job with the French side. He also resigned from iSport, the children’s charity he co-founded with Dan Carter and Richie McCaw.

The Williams family returned to Auckland in late 2017, only to separate in late 2018.

In 2018, Williams started working in commentary for Sky Sports and began a property career with Ardmore Group.

In 2019, Society Insider revealed Williams had started dating Zuru co-founder Anna Mowbray. The rest is history, with numerous headlines dedicated to the demolition of their $23m Westmere property and the wrangling over helicopter landings.

In 2024, they announced they were co-owners of Auckland FC alongside American billionaire Bill Foley and later that year held their lavish three-day wedding at Fiji’s Kokomo Private Island Resort.

That same year, property records show that a company jointly directed by Mowbray and Williams purchased an office building on College Hill in Freemans Bay, which has a CV of nearly $20m. It now houses Mowbray’s recruitment firm Zeil, as well as the Ardmore Group.

Victor Vito, 39, retired from international rugby after the Rugby World Cup in 2015 and spent the next six years earning an estimated $1m per season for La Rochelle – becoming one of the highest-paid players in the Top 14 professional rugby union league in France.

He retired from professional rugby in 2022 and he and wife Amber Vito and their three children are now based in his native Wellington. In 2023, he was welcomed on to the board of governors of his former private school, Scots College. The Vitos are expecting their fourth child.

Victor Vito has been managing director of Mamana Energy for the last two years, a Pacific-led renewable energy consultancy that he established in 2024 with the help of a team of experts, aiming to help solve energy challenges in the Pacific.

The Vitos have been good friends with rich-list property developer Kurt Gibbons for some years and own a number of investment properties with him in Wellington, estimated to be worth more than $5m.

Kieran Read, 40, took on the All Blacks captaincy from Richie McCaw in 2016, and that year became the first player to break the $1 million salary per season for New Zealand Rugby (NZR).

He left the All Blacks after their 2019 World Cup loss, released his autobiography Straight 8 and went to Japan to play for Toyota Verblitz, earning more than $1m a season in 2020.

Since retiring from the sport in 2021, Read has worked as a leadership consultant through his business, Kieran Read Human Endeavour Leadership Suites.

He often makes public appearances, from providing analysis at the 2023 World Cup to appearing on TV, radio and podcasts talking sport.

Christchurch-based, Read is also a brand ambassador for South Island property developers Wolfbrook Residential.

He and wife Bridget Read, who have three children, have a minority shareholding in Asuwere, alongside Sam Cane and Dan Carter.

The Reads took ownership of a stunning 12.66ha rural property on Coutts Island on the outskirts of Christchurch last year, understood to be for just under $3m.

Brad Thorn, 51, a league and rugby champion, was the oldest player to play in the final of a Rugby World Cup and win it, then aged 36 years and 262 days.

Thorn went to Japan to play for the Sanix Blues in 2011 and then played for Leinster in Ireland, a team that won the 2012 European Cup. That win saw Thorn become the first player to win a European Cup, an RWC and a Super Rugby title.

After Leinster, Thorn played for the Highlanders in New Zealand in 2013-2014 and headed back to the UK to play for the Leicester Tigers in 2014-2015.

In 2015, Thorn, his wife Mary-Anne Thorn and their four children made Australia home and he started his coaching career in Queensland. He began as development/forwards coach of the Queensland Reds and was the team’s head coach from 2018 through to the end of the 2023 Super Rugby Pacific season.

Appointed as an assistant head coach of the Brisbane Boys’ College First XV in 2024, Thorn took a break to make his coaching test debut as the new forwards coach of the Malta national team in 2025, before returning to the college to coach last year.

He released his book, Champions Do Extra, at the start of this year.

Conrad Smith, 41, retired from international rugby following the 2015 World Cup, taking up a contract with Pau in the South of France.

Retiring in 2018, he joined Pau’s coaching staff as a defensive specialist before returning to New Zealand in 2021.

Smith and his wife of 13 years, Lee-Anne Snowdon, and their two children moved to New Plymouth to a beautiful house in Merrilands, complete with a tennis court, with an estimated value of $2.7m.

Smith is championing the development of a new community lodge at the Taranaki Outdoor Pursuits and Education Centre.

A qualified lawyer, Smith is a strong advocate for player welfare, having worked with the New Zealand Rugby Players’ Association and, more recently, the International Rugby Players’ Association.

Israel Dagg was part of the winning 2011 team but didn’t make the 2015 World Cup because of persistent injuries. A knee injury saw him retire from rugby in 2019, aged 30.

Since then, he has carved a successful commentary career on Sky Sport and, more recently, Sport Nation, where he currently co-hosts the breakfast show with veteran broadcaster Scotty Stevenson.

Dagg and his World Cup teammate Stephen Donald teamed up for a couple of reality TV shows, including Clubhouse Rescue in 2022 and the following year, timed for the World Cup in France, they starred in Izzy and Beaver’s French Connection.

In 2017, Dagg had a hair transplant by Dr Vikram Jayaprakash, and the pair went on to create hair transplant clinic Identity by Israel Dagg, with locations in Melbourne and Auckland.

Dagg and his wife Daisy Dagg count a number of rich-listers in their circle, including property developers Kurt Gibbons and Mark Francis, all of whom are shareholders in events management company Urban Events.

The Daggs recently sold their rural Canterbury home in Waimakariri for an estimated $3.7m and now split their time between Christchurch and Bay of Plenty. They own several investment properties in Wellington but are looking to permanently base themselves and their two children in Mount Maunganui or Ōmanu.

Dagg is now working with uber-wealthy entrepreneur Israel Whitley at labour hire company ALH Ltd. The chairman of ALH is business titan and former Air New Zealand CEO Rob Fyfe and, as of this month, Dagg has become a director alongside Whitely, Fyfe and Jason Bloom.

After famously taking the penalty kick that secured New Zealand’s 2011 World Cup win, Stephen Donald became the breakout rugby star and New Zealand hero of the competition.

In 2014, The Kick became a New Zealand TV movie dramatising Donald’s redemption story.

Donald played professionally in the UK from 2011-2013 and Japan from 2014-2019, with stints at the Chiefs back here during his time in Japan.

Like his reality TV co-star Dagg, Donald has had a successful commentary career with Sky Sport and, more recently, co-hosting the YouTube After Match Show with broadcaster Kirstie Stanway.

Waiuku-based, horse racing-loving Donald has had a horse breeding company, Sydney Industries, since 2018.

In 2021, Society Insider reported Donald had started RTD company Grins with current All Blacks Damian McKenzie and Anton Lienert-Brown.

Society Insider revealed last year that Donald and his wife Alex Donald had separated, with Donald confirming they had split two years prior.

“It hasn’t been easy, we have three children and they are my priority,” Donald told Society Insider.

Beauden Barrett, 34, returned from the 2015 World Cup as the A-list All Black, with invitations to fancy events about town.

Leaving his beloved Hurricanes in 2020 to join the Blues, he has also had two sabbaticals in Japan, playing for Suntory Goliath in 2021 and Toyota Verblitz in 2023. His time with Suntory Goliath helped Barrett to be named among the world’s top 10 earning rugby players in 2021.

Barrett has worked as an ambassador for local and international premium brands including adidas, Defender (Land Rover New Zealand), luxury watchmaker Tudor, Italian fashion brand Replay and New Zealand’s Lightforce Solar.

At the start of the All Blacks’ northern tour last November in the US, Barrett was the star player chosen by team management to dine with the new sponsor, Chicago-based Gallagher Insurance, a global firm with a US$72b market cap and 70,000 employees, including in New Zealand.

Society Insider revealed last year that Barrett had established a side-hustle, with the launch of his fine wine company, Beau Jour.

Barrett is also understood to be in business with rich-list property developer Kurt Gibbons in a residential company called The Triangle Limited.

In 2019, Williams’ earnings from rugby, league, boxing and sponsorships were estimated to reach $28 million by the time he finished his $10m, two-year contract with the Toronto Wolfpack in Canada.

Williams, 40, only played five games for the Wolfpack before the club’s collapse; he then had a subsequent short-term stint back in the NRL with the Sydney Roosters. In 2021, he retired from rugby and league to focus on his boxing career.

Earlier this year, UK rugby site Ruck reported Williams as the richest All Black since the team went professional in the 90s, with an estimated net worth of more than $60m.

Williams and wife Alana Raffie are based in Sydney with their four children. He is now in his second year as pro chancellor at Malaysia’s Albukhary International University.

Earlier this year, Williams and Raffie opened their own hospitality venture together in Sydney called Sonny’s Eats.

Jerome Kaino, 43, retired from test rugby in 2017 and after more than 100 games for the Blues, joined French club Toulouse in 2018. There, he won two Top 14 titles and a European Rugby Champions Cup in 2021, before retiring from playing.

That same year, Society Insider reported Kaino starting an underwear business, MINTWEAR. The business is understood to be on hiatus, with its website saying it was set to relaunch this year.

After he finished playing for Toulouse in 2021, Kaino became the club’s skills coach and academy assistant coach, before becoming head coach of the Under-21 squad last year.

He lives in southwestern France with wife Di Kaino and their three children.

Sam Cane, 34, continued as an All Blacks and Chiefs player after the 2015 World Cup and went on to captain New Zealand through their heartbreaking final loss in 2023 against South Africa at Stade de France in Paris.

In May 2024, it was announced that Cane had been released a year early from his NZR contract to sign a multimillion-dollar, three-year contract with Japanese club Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath.

Cane became captain of the Japanese club team last season.

Cane and his wife, Harriet Cane, who have a 3-year-old son, invested in a rural family home in Waikato’s Horsham Downs in 2024 for more than $2m. In their living room is the antique Louis Vuitton trunk that Society Insider reported they had purchased in 2018 from Baron de Bordeaux. Trunks of that kind can sell for between $3000 and $10,000.

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