Jonny Wilkinson picks his dream XV - and it’s as fearsome as you’d expect
Rugby NewsSunday, 24 October 2021 at 12:38
Jonny Wilkinson famously won the World Cup for England with a drop goal in 2003, but if he had to pick a non-English Dream Team, who would he choose?
Fullback: Serge Blanco - France
"Serge Blanco typified French rugby at its best with his audacity, ambition and flair. He was most famous for his scintillating counter-attacks, frequently running the ball out of seemingly impossible situations."
Wing: Christophe Dominici - France
“His opportunism, his flair, his game reading, his sheer explosivity to really change a game is something that sticks in my memory”
Outside Centre: Brian O'Driscoll - Ireland
“The ability to change the game in a second, a heartbeat, with his movement, with his skill, his game reading but also his leadership.”
Inside Centre: Tim Horan - Australia
“A guy that knew how to win, knew how to play the game. His body language suggested he didn’t really know how to fail or what mistakes were, what under performance was.”
Wing: Jonah Lomu - New Zealand
“The guy is quite a remarkable rugby legend and deserves to be so. No Rugby World cup team would be complete without him.”
Fly-half: Lynagh, Carter, Larkham, Stransky, Fox
“This is the key position for any World Cup winning team. You need guys that are going to lead and continue to do so right to the final seconds when it gets very, very tough. I can't just pick one."
Scrum-half: Gary Armstrong - Scotland
“The sheer aggression and resilience of the guy, his sheer character meant that anything, any ball that wasn’t good enough to go out to the number ten was never going to go out to the number ten. He would deal with everything himself and that meant control of the game”
Prop: David Sole - Scotland
He was seen by Wilkinson as “someone who inspired and brought energy to the game” with impact.
Hooker: Keith Wood - Ireland
“You need someone here in this position who can bring you the set piece control but at the same time I think they need to be aggressive, be someone that runs hard, someone that doesn’t stop, never gives up,”
Prop: Craig Dowd - New Zealand
“As with all tight heads what you want is someone who doesn’t take no for an answer, someone who is maybe a little quieter but someone you just don’t mess with”
Lock: Bakkie Botha - South Africa
“Someone incredibly fierce but very very down to earth” and “at times he’s exactly what a team needs,” according to Wilkinson.
Lock: John Eales - Australia
Eales was described by Wilkinson as “intelligent, another massive leader, gets himself around the park and brings another angle of goal kicking”.
Flanker: Francois Pienaar - South Africa
“Approaching a World Cup in our own country I think people can understand the pressure on the home team and to think about the pressure on the home captain - think about what this guy must have been going through in South Africa at that time. To see how he dealt with it I think is a lesson to all of us”.
Flanker: Richie McCaw - New Zealand
“A guy that stood the test of time and has remained at the best, the highest level of the game for that time”
Number 8: Pat Lam - Samoa
“Pat Lam was one of the most creative, instinctive players as well as bringing his own brand of leadership and the way he saw the game.”
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- Jordie Barrett over Damian de Allende is far from being correct. The hype around Dupont is also overreaching, he's probably 4th in the world and has been since the 2023 WC. He also avoids certain matchups which is strange. The rest of the list is pretty good apart from minor subjective biases.JasonMarlow16-09-2026
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