Obstinate. It’s the only way to describe tighthead Jean-Pierre Garuet’s approach to the scrummage. France is a nation that adores the flat-backed, hairy brutes who relish tight exchanges and in…
The Greatest Players
Sandy Carmichael
Sandy Carmichael was the personification of stern-faced resistance to the established southern hemisphere stronghold of world rugby in the early 1970s, when British and Irish forward play reached its high-water…
Martin Scelzo
Playing at tighthead prop is rarely, if ever, a case of rocking up to a big stage for the first time, packing down and blowing everyone away. More often, playing…
Wilson Whineray
Sir Wilson Whineray was that rugby rarity, a loosehead who had scrummaging maturity beyond his years. The New Zealander’s star shone brightly from the day he made his Test debut…
Fran Cotton
Brain and brawn combined to make Fran Cotton an all-time great. The son of a good rugby league player, young Fran took up union at grammar school, was capped by…
Tom Smith
Size doesn’t matter. Just ask Scotland’s Tom Smith. Despite a lack of size or experience, he rocketed to prominence in 1997 after being picked for the Lions tour of South…
Craig Dowd
Props rarely get much glory but if they did, Craig Dowd would be among the most lauded of all because he was one of the foundation stones upon which the…
Syd Millar
To a younger audience, John Sydney ‘Syd’ Millar will be more familiar as an elder statesman of rugby administration, this recognition coming after a four-year stint as IRB chairman (2003-07) and…
The greatest blindsides of all time: Mike Teague
Major teams: Gloucester, Moseley, Cardiff Country: England Test span: 1985-1993 England caps: 27 (26 starts) Lions caps: 3 (2 starts) Test points: 15 (3T) His finest hour was the 1989 Lions…
The greatest blindsides of all time: Jean Prat
Major teams: Lourdes Country: France Test span: 1945-55 Test caps: 51 (51 starts) Test points: 144 (9T, 27C, 15P, 6DG) French rugby suffered an inferiority complex as international rugby’s ‘also-rans’…