Dream Team: Chris Brightwell – Moseley & former Sale and Birmingham No.8
2.Dane Coles – I played with the All Black hooker back in New Zealand for Wellington ages ago but you could already tell he was going to get far. Great skills and speed for a hooker.
3.Karena Wihongi – The former Sale prop was a very mobile player who had a big hit on him too.
4.Tim Faleafaga – A great who always threw himself about on the Wellington club scene but he used to spend more time in the bin than on the pitch. A bruiser through and through.
5.Shaun Pammenter – I met him when I joined the Bees in the UK. A big South African who was good at the lineout and he always topped the tackle count at the end of games. A big sailor nowadays.
6.Kristian Ormsby – A big physical back-rower for Sale who carried hard for as long as he was on the field.
7.Mase Leuluniu – I played with him back in New Zealand and like all good opensides he was all over the ball at the breakdown and seemed to be popping up everywhere on the field.
8.Colin Bourke – A very skilful No.8 who played for the Chiefs and Hurricanes in Super Rugby. Scored a lot of tries and loved to take the conversions after he scored. Such a shame he was always overlooked by the All Blacks.
9.Sam Brown – My current Moseley scrum-half but I first met him at Birmingham when I moved over. A great trainer who loves to punch well above his weight during games.
10.Matty James – Another Kiwi with whom I played at Sale. Great skills and loved a show-and-go. His defence wasn’t so good though and we used to call him Superman for flying into the tackles but missing them. We made him a Superman t-shirt to wear at training!
11.Ben Cohen – A big fast guy who scored a lot tries for Sale.
12.Tane Tu’ipulotu – Played with the former Newcastle centre at club level in New Zealand and he was just a very solid player who rarely put a foot wrong. Shame he had to retire last season.
13.Ray Karauria – We used to call him Dog. He was a big dude who always put in huge hits. A monster for Hawke’s Bay in the NPC.
14.Simon Hunt – A try- scoring machine for Birmingham with over 30 tries a season. Ridiculously quick and a great finisher.
15.Reece Spee – My former Bees teammate was good under the high ball and a dangerous runner from the back with his outstanding foot work.
