Dream Team: Mike Blair – Newcastle and former Brive, Edinburgh and Scotland scrum-half

1. Tom Smith – The fact that he played six Lions Tests on the trot tells you everything you need to know about this man. Rock solid in the scrum and an underrated ball player.
 2. Schalk Brits – A game changer who can create something out of nothing every time he has the ball. He offers so much more than your ordinary hooker.
3. Adam Jones – I’ll need a solid scrum to unleash my backs and Adam is exactly the man to provide that.
4. Nathan Hines – He may pretend to be the ‘Enforcer’ of the team but really he is a bit of a gentle giant. A superb second-rower who loves an offload.
5. Scott Murray – The lineout king. I used to love playing with Scott – he was so talented at everything he tried, plus I need someone in the team that I can out bench-press too.
6. Todd Blackadder – The All Black had a massive impact on Scottish rugby when he came over to Edinburgh. He always did the simple things so well and was an inspirational leader. He can play lock as well but I’ll be having him in here on the blindside.
7. Ross Rennie – A former Edinburgh Academy pupil like myself, Ross was a dead cert. Always offloads in contact, steals a ludicrous amount of ball and never lets you pay for food or coffees.
8. Simon Taylor – Nathan may think he is my team’s enforcer but Simon is the real deal. He did the unseen work but had some great skills too.
9. Mike Blair – If this is my Dream Team then I definitely want to be out there playing, but only if it’s a sunny day mind!
10. David and Alex Blair – I was lucky enough to play professional rugby with two of my brothers at Edinburgh. David can play the first half and Alex can come on when things break up a bit in the second half!
11. Simon Webster – A good mate who helped so much in my career. It wasn’t till he retired that I realised how influential he had been as a running option for me.
12. Ma’a Nonu – He’s pretty much the complete player these days. He’s absolutely key to the All Blacks plans, even more so with his distribution now.
13. Tom Philip – My old mate, like Ross an Edinburgh Academy pupil, who was capped at 20-years-old for Scotland and due to injury only played one season before having to retire. A beast of a man. I have never seen anyone tackle head-on like him.
14. Julien Caminati – He’s crazy, but he’s some player. For Brive he attempted, and missed by only inches, a penalty kick from 5m outside our own 22 in one game. Always tries the ridiculous and more often than not it comes off.
15. Chris Paterson – Mr Reliable. I played almost my whole career with ‘Mossy’ at Edinburgh and Scotland – a terrific player and good fun off the pitch.
*This article was first published in The Rugby Paper on June 15.