Dream Team: Jebb Sinclair – London Irish and Canada flanker
2. David Paice – David is a phenomenal player, in my eyes he is one of, if not the most underrated player in the Premiership at the moment. He does everything well and is never afraid to put his body on the line.
3. Jannie Du Plessis – A fantastically strong scrummager, he anchored the strongest scrum I have ever played against.
4. George Skivington – Georgey boy has got to be in, he works so hard and is an incredible motivator to his teammates, that competitive edge is second to none, a real inspiration.
5. Jamie Cudmore – Jamie is a great buddy of mine and possibly a bit misunderstood. Off the pitch he is always willing to help the younger players and pass on his experience. But yeah, on the pitch he is an animal.
6. Samu Manoa – I played against Samu back in 2009 for Canada and even back then you could see that the guy was a bit of a freak. Now he has established himself and I face him more than anyone else in the world as we play USA every summer!
7. Deon Fourie – So fast over the ground, so good over the ball, Deon is everything you want in a true openside flanker. And on top of that he was a fantastic leader who inspired his teammates to follow him into battle.
8. Chris Hala’ufia – When Chris is on his day and is motivated, he is the most dominant powerful player in world rugby.
9. Phil Mack – My Canada teammate is a 7s super star. He reminds me of Danny Care in that he is always sniping around the fringes. making line breaks. With a bit more exposure he’d be one of the top 9s in Europe.
10. Peter Grant – Defensively so strong, but it is his goal kicking that gets him in. He is always up around 90 per cent and won us a lot of tight games at Western Province that we had absolutely no right to.
11. DTH van der Merwe – DTH plays in Scotland now and because he is often injured, people don’t realise how good he is! On his day, one of the best wingers in the world.
12. Jean de Villiers – Just to see his work ethic is phenomenal; he can carry with great effect but it is his defensive work that stands him out from the crowd. He puts his body on the line time after time.
13. Brian O’Driscoll – I don’t need to say too much about this guy. Cool, calm and collected, he is just THE man.
14. Bryan Habana – An absolute speedster who works so hard on the little things, day in day out. You may think it all comes naturally to him but it’s hard work.
15. Mils Muliaina – He played one of his last games for the All Blacks against us and he is a total legend. So down to earth and humble but I recall he still managed to roast us for a try or two.
