LIST: Famous rugby players who started out 'On the tools', including Guscott and Russell

Whether before, during or after their careers, the players we worship on a Saturday afternoon’s bread and butter is sometimes earned away from the beautiful game.

So, here are our pick of the players that you probably didn’t know could turn their hand to a field that isn’t covered in grass and painted with white lines.

This is the picture that illustrates the heights Williams has scaled to reach international rugby, starting off as a scaffolder. It wasn’t work for the faint-hearted, with Williams rigging scaffolding “over the top of a blast furnace, 300 feet from the ground” back in Wales.

The props lengthy career straddled both the amateur and professional eras and he had a job as a carpenter.  He began playing for his home club, Barking and his school teams as a youth, and as his playing talents became recognised, interest was shown by London club Saracens, where he later moved. Later still, he moved to Harlequins, where he stayed until his professional retirement in May 2004, making a total of 144 appearances and ending on a winning note as his team won the European Parker Pen Challenge Cup. 

After secondary school, the Scotland star pursued an apprenticeship for three years as a stonemason, in a business owned by a family friend, whilst his rugby developed. Pocketing £300 per week, supplemented by £50 in his hand from Falkirk Rugby Club, Russell is now one of the pre-eminent stand-offs in world rugby and certainly one of the most exciting.

The 'Prince of Centres' was originally a bricklayer, briefly drove buses for Badgerline in Bath, then worked for British Gas in a public-relations role before the game turned professional

Before securing a professional contract, the future England superstar served an apprenticeship under his Granddad as a painter and decorator. The 24-year-old, who likes keeping busy, hasn’t ruled out a return to the trade when his rugby days are done.