This year’s inductee into the PRA Barclays Fall of Fame is undoubtedly one of England’s greatest ever players and he is instantly recognised around the world as one of the outstanding players of his generation.
Having risen through the schoolboy ranks and following his time with King Country, New Zealand, when he represented the New Zealand U-21’s (I’m sorry we lost him), he returned to England to ignite a long and successful career which took both his club and country to the very top of the game. His international career started 1993 and he went onto win 84 caps for his country.
During that time he emerged as an outstanding leader whose no nonsense style endeared him to his fellow players and supporters alike. Under his captaincy, he led his club to back-to-back Heineken Cup victories in 2001 and 2002 and he won the Premiership title an incredible six times during his career.
His first international captaincy came in 1997 when he was made captain of the British and Irish Lions on the victorious tour to South Africa. In total, he toured three times with the British Lions, becoming the only man to have captained them on two separate tours
Amongst a host of silverware, tonight’s Hall of Fame indcutee also won two Grand Slams in 1995 and 2003, and took over the England captaincy in 1999. His international career famously culminated on that memorably night in Sydney 2003 when he led his players from the front to land the historic World Cup truimph.
He was awarded the CBE in the 2004 for his services to rugby.
