CHRIS WOLFE-ELDER, THE FORMER WASPS ACADEMY, PLYMOUTH ALBION, LONDON WELSH, YORKSHIRE CARNEGIE, CHINNOR & RICHMOND FULL-BACK, CHOOSES THE BEST XV HE PLAYED WITH AND AGAINST….
1. Mako Vunipola – At schoolboy level, he destroyed our whole team whenever we (RGS High Wycombe) played Millfield. That dominance continued into the professional leagues.
2. Dylan Hartley – He was a nightmare to run into and seemed to be everywhere when London Welsh played Northampton. A legend of the game who lived up to the hype.
3. Marc Thomas – A teammate at Leeds, he never took a backward step and used good old-fashioned guile to take on some of the biggest names in the game.
4. Dan Leo – I used to play with Dan in my academy days at Wasps. He was an absolute enforcer and immovable on contact. Had a real rugby brain and always seemed to be three steps ahead of everyone else.
5. Josh McNally – One of the best athletes I have played with (at London Welsh). He is such a humble human and it's great to see him go from strength to strength.
6. Sam Jones – A former England U18 teammate of mine and we came through the Wasps academy together. A captain in all senses of the word. It was shocking to see such a talent having to cut his career short.
7. Chris Hala'ufia – I have never been so happy that someone was on my team (London Welsh) and not in the opposition ranks. His tackling ability was unmatched.
8. Opeti Fonua – At 150kg (23st 6lbs), you'd forgive him for needing a break, but he never stopped moving for London Welsh and it always took at least three defenders to stop him.
9. Piri Weepu – Another London Welsh teammate of mine. Seemed to play by telepathy, and had the ball under some sort of spell.
10. Ollie Barkley – I've gone for an Exiles half-back partnership, too. Olly could control an army if he wanted to. Has only got more impressive since stepping into a coaching role.
11. Christian Wade – We both went to RGS and came through the academy at Wasps together. No one is better than him at beating you in five metres of space. A try-scoring machine that I luckily never had to try and defend against.
12. Tom May – A born leader, and even in his A later years at London Welsh, he was as solid as a concrete wall. Metronomically reliabe but a great footballer too.
13. Elliot Daly – Another from my England U18 and Wasps academy days. His style is pretty much unchanged from when he was 15. Possesses a deadly boot and great feet.
14. David Lemi – An ageless talent that seemed to only get faster over his career. I had the pleasure of being his teammate at Wasps but also had the terror of trying to defend him on occasions too.
15. Jonah Holmes – When I first played with him at Wasps, he was an academy scrum-half, devastating in the open and fearless in the air. By the time I played with him at Carnegie, he had become a top-class back-three player. He never stops working to make himself better and is reaping the rewards with Wales.
