#2. OLLY BARKLEY
- Age: 39
- Caps: 23
- Position: Fly-half, Centre
The wonderkid won 23 caps for England between 2001 and 2008, and such was his early reputation that he featured for England before his club debut with Bath. A graceful left-footer able to play at fly-half or inside-centre, Barkley should have been a mainstay in the England midfield after the retirement of Will Greenwood.
The strange thing about Barkley is that it is hard to say where it all went wrong. Although he was never blessed with great pace, the playmaker kicked well from the tee and out of hand, was a fine distributor and hardly a weak player in defence. He is possibly the biggest mystery of English rugby from the 2000s.
After retiring, he revealed that his heart wasn’t always in rugby as he always dreamed of playing football.
“I didn’t really like rugby,” he said. “I didn’t want to play it.
“I wanted to play football all the time, but my sports teacher basically bribed me, which I don’t think was too PC for a 12-year-old at school.
“He said that I couldn’t play football in the winter term unless I played rugby.
“I played rugby for a couple of months, but I didn’t really like it, didn’t buy into it.
“I just wanted to kick the ball all the time because I played football, or bounce it because I played basketball as well.”
Barkley added: “After about a year, I was not too bad so I thought I would stick at it.”
Where is he now?