Greatest Team Ever !!!
This featured in the Sunday Times this weekend;
Peter Winterbottom's Greatest Team!!
Spot the obvious mistake!!
Full-back: Serge Blanco (France) Had something special and could make things happen. Unpredictable, fast and played with real panache.
Right-wing: John Kirwan (New Zealand) A great try-scorer. Big, athletic and aggressive, with all-round skills.
Outside-centre: Danie Gerber (South Africa) I played with him for the Barbarians and against him for England, and he was a different class. Very abrasive, with explosive pace and power.
Inside-centre: Will Carling (England) Never played a bad game for England – tough and a good defender.
Left-wing: Rory Underwood (England) A great finisher who would score where others would not.
Fly-half: Jonathan Davies (Wales) I could never catch the little sod. Electric pace, phenomenal sidestep, great kicking game and always had time on the ball. Complete package.
Scrum-half: Nick Farr-Jones (Australia) An outstanding character and competitor, who made the basics look easy and was always a threat on the break.
Loosehead prop: Jason Leonard (England) The rock of ages, a reliable, incredibly durable prop, who missed only a handful of tackles in his whole career.
Hooker: Sean Fitzpatrick (New Zealand) Played on the edge and had a mental toughness that others could not match. His lineout throwing and scrummaging were second-to-none and he was a strong ball-carrier.
Tighthead prop: Graham Price (Wales) Unbending, and even on the 1983 Lions whitewash in New Zealand never went backwards. An early prototype of the mobile prop.
Lock: Martin Johnson (England) A brooding giant who punched his weight. Outstanding all-rounder, great scrummager, good lineout technician and a fine tackler.
Lock: John Eales (Australia) Stole an early lineout off Wade Dooley in Sydney in 1991 and proceeded to win every lineout in the match as well as two World Cup winners’ medals.
Blindside flanker: Mike Teague (England) “Iron Mike” was player of the series on the 1989 Lions tour of Australia. Fearless.
No 8: Dean Richards (England) A freak of nature in two respects: incredible anticipation and phenomenal grappling strength.
Openside flanker: Michael Jones (New Zealand) An incredible athlete who was so fast to the breakdown, as well as being a brilliant support player.
Peter Winterbottom played openside flanker for England and the British & Irish Lions
3 comments:
More than half the team from the home nations(!), so with the historical record of poor showings against Southern Hemisphere teams it must be a made up of his coice of individuals rather a proposed "greatest Team" to beat all-comers.
May be a bit dated, but I saw a table showing a historic win/loss record for teams before Lions 2005 tour showing England with 53% winning record, France 55% and Wales 52%. This compared with Australia 51%, South Africa 63% and NZ 73%.
So how come only 6 from down under??? So, so unlikely... but then I wouldn't like to put my neck out and argue the toss cos my list would most likely be biased the other way!
Be interested to see your list Will(!)
If someone from Rucku is going to be in, it should be Zinny!!!!
Somemone like O'Gara or Farrell cuold tak eyour place!!
tony p,
**** off !!!!
You are going to get a sly punch to your ribs at our next meeting!!
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