Dream Team: Victor Ubogu – Former England, Bath and Moseley prop
2. Graham Dawe – The strongest hooker I’ve played with. He had a fantastic engine and just kept going. It was an armchair ride with him as my hooker. Known for the odd cheap shot.
3. Olo Brown – Faced the big Kiwi in my second Test in 1993 and despite winning 15-9 it was a tough day. His scrumming was relentless and gave me no time to think.
4. Martin Johnson – Quite an obvious one but Johnno let his physical game do the talking and truly led from the front. He loved statistics and would focus on them for hours.
5. John Eales – He was so dependable for the Wallabies, it seemed that everything went through him. His lineout ability, unseen work in the loose and his goal-kicking made him a great player.
6. Jon Hall – A Bath legend who combined his physical attributes with a no-nonsense attitude to tackling. If Jon tackled you, you would know about it for days afterwards, even in training.
7. Andy Robinson – A hard-nosed, uncompromising player. He was 110 per cent committed to everything and no matter how much physical pain would be inflicted on him, he would keep coming back for more.
8. Ben Clarke – A player ahead of his generation who excelled in every back row position. The ‘Prince of Darkness’ was very popular with the ladies.
9. Joost van der Westhuizen – He complemented lightning acceleration with the strength of a back rower. It’s really sad to see that the bona fide Springbok legend is currently suffering from a serious motor-neurone illness.
10. Mark Ella – On the Wallabies 1984 Grand Slam- winning tour I came up against him when I was playing for the England Students in a warm-up fixture. He oozed class and subsequently tore us apart that day.
11. Adedayo Adebayo – As good as Jonah Lomu was on the pitch, Ade was as good off the pitch. He was a fantastic touring companion and loved his time in any drinking establishments. And I’ve never seen a player finish a try like he could.
12. Philippe Sella – Habitually broke the defensive line whenever he got the ball. He created so much in attack when I played against him for France and Saracens.
13. Jeremy Guscott – Jerry was such a sublime runner and his turn of pace was incredibly deceptive. I have to say he knew how good he was and so did everyone else.
14. Jonah Lomu – He single-handedly destroyed us in the 1995 RWC semi-final. His power and speed made him a stratosphere above anyone else. No one had ever seen anyone like him.
15. Émile Ntamack – It seemed whenever I reappeared from a scrum I would see him sliding past our defenders. He was such a silky runner.
