Dream Team: Craig Newby – former Leicester, Blues, Highlanders & New Zealand flanker

1. Tony Woodcock – He has played 100 tests for the All Blacks and is my best mate. We played in the early days together and used to do a lot of fishing in our spare time.
2. Tom Youngs – He is a farm lad who loves tractors more than anyone I know and has a great work ethic and intensity. If anything kicks off he is one guy I would want in my team.
3. Carl Hayman – The best scrummaging prop in the history of rugby in my opinion. He would drink for a week, play for the All Blacks and perform better than when he was sober.
4. Ed Slater – Loves to carry the ball and hit people hard. An up and coming guy who always wants to get better.
5. Geoff Parling – Mainly for his lineouts – Geoff has skills that are second to none and had a great Lions tour. But he does have the worst body in rugby as well as the worst banter.
6. Tom Croft – Tom is probably my best English mate – he only just makes the top ten worldwide mates – and we used to do a lot of deer stalking together and he is a great forward who really should be a winger.
7. Craig Newby – I would be there to organise things socially – this team will be touring so I need to orchestrate the tour and the banter.
8. Wayne ‘Buck’ Shelford – He was my coach when I left school and an ex-All Black skipper. Fearless and inspirational as a captain. He played half a Test match with one of his testicles turned out so that shows how hard he was.
9. Ben Youngs – Ben would be in my side for the total opposite reason to Tom. He is a city slicker – cheeky, confident and gobby – everything you want from a No.9. He is a pain in the backside for the opposition.
10. Tony Brown – He was all about winning and sacrificing the body for the team. He was inspirational and loved team spirit.
11. Jonah Lomu – I played a lot of 7s with him and he was a colossus. He ran the 100m in 10.8 seconds, weighed 19st and was 6ft 5in tall. Just an amazing player.
12. Aaron Mauger – He was the brains and would always be a few steps ahead of the other team. He was a great tackler and was so skilful putting others into gaps.
13. Dan Hipkiss – Dan is in for two reasons; he scored the winning try in the 2010 Premiership final against Saracens and he is a fantastic cook who would add value by feeding everyone. He’s a liability on the drink but he was brilliant for a small guy and very powerful.
14. Alesana Tuilagi – He was known as ‘The Chief’. A  fierce competitor who just wanted to dominate on and off the pitch, whether that was in the gym or smashing people on the field.
15. Geordan Murphy – He was capable of producing something special on the field with extraordinary vision and skill. He wasn’t afraid to mix it up and was a typical Irishman in that respect by loving a scrap.