Sean Fitzpatrick has included four English players in an impressive all-time World XV, which features a total of over a thousand international caps.
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The team also comprises eight New Zealanders, two Welsh players, and one Irish player.
Altogether, these players have accumulated 1,277 Test appearances.
One selection that stands out is Gareth Edwards at number 9. Fitzpatrick once said of him: “Gareth Edwards was my hero.
“My first rugby heroes weren’t All Blacks but British Lions — members of the 1971 team who played so brilliantly in New Zealand.”
BACK-THREE
15. JPR Williams (Wales) – It has to be JPR. That 1971 Lions team that he was part of made such an impression on my generation in New Zealand because they beat the All Blacks.
14. Jonah Lomu (New Zealand)
11. Jason Robinson (England)
CENTRES
13. Brian O’Driscoll (Ireland)
12. Ma’a Nonu (New Zealand)
HALF-BACKS
10. Dan Carter (New Zealand) – “Perhaps the best of all-time.”
9. Gareth Edwards (Wales) – “Gareth Edwards was my hero.
“My first rugby heroes weren’t All Blacks but British Lions — members of the 1971 team who played so brilliantly in New Zealand.”
FRONT-ROW
1. Jason Leonard (England) – “Jason was an iconic figure and has to be in. We’ll pick him at loose-head because I want Brown at tighthead.”
2. Dane Coles (New Zealand)
3. Olo Brown (New Zealand)
SECOND-ROW
4. Martin Johnson (England) – “he is an obvious second-row choice. He was a phenomenal leader.
5. Colin Meads (New Zealand) – “My hero growing up. He has to be in their two. That would be a proper second-row.”
BACK-ROW
6. Richard Hill (England)
7. Richie McCaw (New Zealand)
8. Zinzan Brooke (New Zealand)
Jonny Wilkinson’s ‘toughest opponent’ is sadly no longer with us
The legendary fly-half, who won a 97 caps for England and the British & Irish Lions between 1998 and 2011, went toe-to-toe with some of the greatest players to ever lace up a pair of boots during his stellar career.
DID YOU KNOW? Wilkinson followed Buddhist principles and teachings to help control his perfectionist tendencies, according to an interview he gave with The Times newspaper in 2009
#5. Christophe Dominici (France)
Dominici played 67 times for his country and won the French championship five times with Stade Français before retiring in 2008. In recent years he had worked as a pundit for French radio and TV before his death in 2020.
WILKINSON SAID: “His opportunism, his flair, his game reading, his sheer explosivity to really change a game is something that sticks in my memory.”
DID YOU KNOW? Dominci appeared in three World Cups for his country in 1999, 2003 and 2007, scoring eight tries over that time.
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