Dream Team: Phil Godman – Newcastle & former Edinburgh and Scotland fly-half

1. Allan Jacobsen – Played with him for years at Edinburgh and he was certainly someone you’d want at the coalface. Always led by example, ‘Chunk’ was like a great big bouncing ball when he got into contact.
2. Bismarck du Plessis – A leader for South Africa and what a physical specimen. He has an all-round game with very few weaknesses.
3. Adam Jones – He’s just a consistently top professional whether it’s for club or country and you never hear a bad word about him.
4. Scott MacLeod – Him and Chunk are joined at the hip so you have to have them both. He played basketball for Scotland, so good in the lineout but built like a toothpick!
5. Scott Murray – Makes for an absolutely huge second row. One of the best locks in the world for a period of time and was the one who’d always be the practical joker off the pitch.
6. Roddy Grant – He’s normally a 7 but I’ve got to have him in just for his leadership, a guy you’d definitely always want running through walls for you. He’d form a good social trio with MacLeod and Chunk too.
7. Ross Rennie – He is a typical Australian No.7. He has come back from a bad injury two years ago, and if it was not for that he would be one of the world’s best.
8. Pierre Spies – I remember playing him in 2009 at Murrayfield and he was just an absolute brick. I made a break and you’d expect a winger to come chase you down, not this 6ft 5in monster.
9. Mike Blair – I played my first-ever game of mini-rugby with him when we were ten years old with Edinburgh. On his day he was certainly world class.
10. Stephen Larkham – I thought he was utter class, even more so than when I’d been watching him on TV. Everything came so naturally, it looked effortless.
11. Hosea Gear – Gear sticks out as such a clinical finisher, one-on-one he always beats a man. He was the standout player when I played the All Blacks, he just kept gassing us.
12. Ma’a Nonu – Now a perfect example of a modern day 12 having developed his kicking and passing game. And you never enjoy tackling him.
13. Tom Philip – His career was finished early by injury, but Tom was a wrecking ball in both attack and defence and was a big loss for Scotland. He got capped at only 21 in 2004 but was out of the game after a year – the sky was his limit.
14. George North – We all knew he was something special at 18. He is making a big impact wherever he goes and it makes you wonder what he’ll have accomplished by the time he hangs up his boots.
15. James O’Connor – He may be my most gifted selection, an unbelievable footballer. I can remember him speeding past me and I barely had time to try and get a side tackle in. He makes it look so easy.