Italian Kiwi the hottest

A New Zealander has topped the ‘‘hottest’’ looking rugby player list from the World Cup but he’s not from the usual suspects in the All Blacks ranks. Forget Sonny Bill Williams or Beauden Barrett, Italy’s versatile Kiwi

took the gong in a public vote organised by British outfit liverugbytickets.co. uk. The 32-year-old Hawera-born Hayward edged England star George Ford for the top honour. An All Black had to settle for another bronze medal with hooker

right, voted No 3 from the tournament in Japan. Taylor was the only All Black to make the top

20.

Hayward Taylor, Codie Jayden

The sporting genius of Beauden Barrett is not limited to the rugby field. The All Blacks playmaker’s fondness of golf is reasonably well known, but what about his ability to play wrong-handed? Thanks to the cheek of former national team-mate Israel Dagg, in a lighthearted interview during this year’s World Cup, the lid was lifted on Barrett’s true golfing gifts. ‘‘You love golf, some say you spend more time on the golf course than you do on the rugby field,’’ Dagg says. Is that a fair comment?’’ ‘‘Yeah, probably,’’ Barrett replies. A sheepish Dagg pushes Barrett to recall one stunning round in particular, where he was forced to play off his wrong hand. ‘‘So one day we played in Argentina and there were no leftie clubs, so I played right-handed. And we drew, didn’t we?’’ Barrett says. ‘‘You shot 84 off the right,’’ Dagg recalls. That’s freakish. I’m embarrassed.’’