England prop Jason Leonard

Picking a greatest England team from the four World Cup squads to have reached finals

have had four teams in finals – 1991, 2003, 2007 and 2019 – with the 2003 side the only one to have become world champions.

Picking a team from those four England finalists is no easy task because the entire pool of players are legends in clubhouses throughout the land.

There is also the significant obstacle of comparing eras, with the 1991 England side that lost narrowly to Australia at Twickenham, still rooted in the amateur game, while the 2003 2007 and 2019 squads have all been professional.

This All-Star England World Cup selection is therefore based on a presumption of how good the 1991 side could have been, given the benefits of being full-time professionals, with the strength, conditioning and nutritional benefits, and specialist skills coaching it entails.

So, here goes, starting appropriately with the men wearing the No.1 jersey in the forwards.

Loosehead prop – Jason Leonard

The four contenders are Jason Leonard, Trevor Woodman, Andrew Sheridan and Mako Vunipola.

While World Cup winner Woodman is one of the fastest props to play for England, and Mako Vunipola has better footwork than most centres, the two leading candidates are the century man, Leonard (114 caps) and the giant 2007 strongman, Sheridan.

In a one-off big game it would be tempting to pick Sheridan, whose sheer size and power, as well as killer instinct, made him one of the most spectacular front row wreckers England have produced.

However, where Leonard learned the propping trade in his formative years as a youngster at Barking, Sheridan did not switch to the front row until he was 23, and as a technical scrummager there was none better than Jason.

Leonard played in two World Cup finals, 1991 and 2003, was part of four England Grand Slam winning campaigns (1991, 1992, 1995, 2003) and three Lions tours (1993, 1997, 2001).

Although he was good enough to play tighthead at Test level – for the 1993 Lions in New Zealand – he was a formidable loosehead when England had one of the best scrums in the world.

Hooker – Steve Thompson

The choice is between Brian Moore, Steve Thompson, Mark Regan and Jamie George. Moore was fast enough to be an auxiliary flanker, and he and Regan were as combative as they come, although as an all-round footballer George takes some beating.

Even so, the No.2 shirt goes to Thompson, whose sheer physical presence, set-piece accuracy, and powerful carrying in the loose, are unrivalled. At 6ft 2ins and a fighting weight of 18st 8lbs (118kg), the man is one of the biggest hookers England has produced – and was at the top of his game in 2003.

Tighthead prop – Phil Vickery

Phil Vickery, who was a World Cup winner in 2003 and captain in 2007, gets the nod ahead of and Kyle Sinckler.

's ‘Raging Bull' was a force of nature, who wore his passion for Cornwall and England as a badge of honour. At 6ft 3ins and 19st 10lbs (125kg) – four stone heavier than the arch technician Probyn – he was able to back up that passion consistently, whether at the scrum, or on the hoof.

Locks – Martin Johnson and Maro Itoje

The second row is full of great combinations, be it the towering constabulary combo of Wade Dooley and Paul Ackford in 1991, Martin Johnson, Ben Kay, and Simon Shaw in 2003-07, or the current crop of Maro Itoje, Courtney Lawes and George Kruis.

It is almost inevitable that Johnson, as the captain and uncompromising ultra-competitor at the heart of the 2003 push for glory, would be part of the second row pairing – and that Maro Itoje's prodigious work-rate, consistency and effectiveness, would earn him the other lock berth.

Back row – Mike Teague, Peter Winterbottom, Lawrence Dallaglio

The back row is also a head-scratcher with so many exceptional players in the mix. Mickey Skinner, Richard Hill, Martin Corry and Tom Curry at blindside, Peter Winterbottom, Neil Back, Lewis Moody and Sam Underhill at openside, and at No.8 Mike Teague (who was an equally good No.6), Lawrence Dallaglio, Nick Easter and .

My back row trio is Teague at blindside, Winterbottom at openside, and Dallaglio at No.8.

The most contentious area of this call is that it leaves out, Back and Hill, two of the outstanding 2003 World Cup- winning back row, as well as Underhill and Curry, who produced one of the definitive tackling and breakdown master-classes in the 2019 semi-final victory over New Zealand.

Teague was known as ‘Iron Mike', and lived up to it by knocking the onto the back foot for the victorious 1989 Lions. He was also a driving force in the England pack that, alongside Winterbottom, lost narrowly to Australia in the 1991 World Cup final, before going on to claim consecutive Grand Slams in 1991 and 1992.

England flanker Mike Teague
Blindside slot: Gloucester legend MIke Teague in action for England. Getty Images

Hill has rightly been hailed as a great pro, and a glue-man whose all-round skills enabled others to be effective. By contrast, Teague was a storm-trooper – and he edges it, because, while he was formidable as an amateur, as a professional he would have gone to the next level.

Winterbottom broke through as a whirlwind No.7 with a destructive tackling impact and the speed to hunt down his targets, and, as his career progressed, added a running-handling dimension.

Back was not as fast, nor as big, but was teak-tough – and as a former scrum-half had an impressive linking game. 

Dallaglio is on the front foot at No.8, easing past Nick Easter and Billy Vunipola, neither of whom can match him for consistency, mobility and durability.

Scrum-half – Matt Dawson

The contenders are Richard Hill, Matt Dawson, Andy Gomarsall and Ben Youngs.

Hill was the best passer of the quartet, with a whip-crack delivery from the base, with Gomarsall also handy, while all of them have had their successes breaking around the fringes. Yet, in terms of all-round generalship and match-winning attributes, Dawson is out in front.

He bossed his forwards, was a key backline organiser, and marshalled the defence – which is why he played such an important part in the 2003 triumph, illustrated by his T-Cup (Thinking Clearly Under Pressure) moment before Jonny Wilkinson's drop-goal clincher.

Fly-half – Jonny Wilkinson

There is only one winner, with Wilkinson not only still England's top points scorer, but 2003 golden boy – and for those who think he was just a fly–half with a boot, take a look at his contribution to Jason Robinson's World Cup final try.

Centres – Manu Tuilagi and Jeremy Guscott

The array of centres starts with the 12-13 pairing of Jerry Guscott and Will Carling in 1991, through to Will Greenwood and Mike Tindall in 2003, Mathew Tait and Mike Catt in 2007, and and in 2019.

The rub here is whether the inside-centre role goes to 1991 captain Will Carling, 2003 playmaker Will Greenwood, or the blockbusting Manu Tuilagi, while Jerry Guscott's pace and flair sees him fend off his rivals at outside-centre.

Although Carling was strong, Tuilagi is stronger – and no England back since Prince Obolensky has inflicted the damage he did on the All Blacks in 2012, and again in 2019. While Greenwood is England's second-equal highest try scorer (31 in 55 caps), Tuilagi is no slouch, scoring 18 in 43 caps despite his injury-hit hiatus. Nor has Tuilagi been the beneficiary of a World Cup-winning pack, and his ability to always get over the gain-line trumps Greenwood's finesse.

Wing – Jonny May and Rory Underwood

There is an embarrassment of riches among the finishers, with Rory Underwood, Ben Cohen, Josh Lewsey, Anthony Watson and Jonny May in the chase.

The most prolific of all is Underwood, England's top try scorer with 49 tries in 85 Tests. Underwood, who was not only rapid but reputed to be pound-for-pound the most powerful man in the 1991 squad, claims the right wing berth.

The battle for left wing is between Cohen, who is second-equal in the try-scoring table on 31 with Greenwood, and May, who has played a game fewer and is two tries adrift (29 in 56 Tests).

What they have in common is superb opportunism, but May nips in front of the more muscular Cohen as a virtuoso who can create something out of nothing with his blistering speed and changes of direction.

Full-back – Jason Robinson

At full-back Jonathan Webb and Elliot Daly are unfortunate to be in the same stall as one of the game's great thoroughbreds, Jason Robinson. Having left Rugby League as an all-time great, Robinson matched that in Rugby Union – where he also became a world champion.

Only eight of this England All-Star fifteen selected may have a World Cup winner's medal, but they all have world champion credentials.

NICK CAIN


Team in full: 15 Jason Robinson, 14 Rory Underwood, 13 , 12 Manu Tuilagi, 11 Jonny May, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 9 Matt Dawson; 1 Jason Leonard, 2 Steve Thompson, 3 Phil Vickery, 4 Martin Johnson, 5 Maro Itoje, 6 Mike Teague, 7 Peter Winterbottom, 8 Lawrence Dallaglio

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