DARREN EDWARDS, THE FORMER NEWPORT, SARACENS, LONDON IRISH & LEEDS SCRUM-HALF, CHOOSES THE BEST XV HE HAS PLAYED WITH OR AGAINST...
1. Andrew Sheridan – A freak of nature at the time; a massive, athletic prop. Sadly, I only ever played against him.
2. Steve Diamond – London Irish and Sale had real bad blood and I’ll never forget Brendan Venter chasing him around the pitch trying to fight him. Unbelievably competitive and horrible to play against.
3. Carl Hayman – Played with him for the Barbarians against England at Twickenham in 2003. Another big, fast, athletic tighthead. Broke the mould.
4. Martin Johnson – We beat Leicester up at Leicester and I’ll never forget Neil Back was lying all over the ball, killing it, and I was rucking him to bits. Martin Johnson came over and cuddles me and goes to Tony Spreadbury, who was the ref, “I know he’s a little passionate Welshman.” It was such a clever thing to do because it saved Backy from getting sent off.
For an hour or so after that game, we had Guinness on the pitch with the fans.
5. Nick Kennedy – A rugby genius and a good friend of mine from our time together at London Irish. Came from Uni rugby and excelled.
Would be the perfect foil to Johnno.
6. Jerry Collins – Going back to the Barbarians game, I didn’t know who he was. But it wasn’t long before I became aware of his destructive tackling. I was sweeping behind the line and boom, he knocks out Pete Anglesea. He was stretchered off and then he knocks out Phil Vickery, and I am like, ‘who is this guy?’ I’d not seen anything like it.
7. Richard Hill – A good friend of mine who I played with at Sarries and against a lot. A class act who quietly went about his business.
8. Rudi Straeuli – Played with him when I went on loan to Bedford. So good and so tough. I was on the pitch when he did his Achilles and I heard it go ‘pop’, but he still delivered the pass. Gary Teichmann, Tony Diprose, Pat Lam, Taine Randell …they all deserve an honourable mention.
9. Agustin Pichot – I’d never played against anyone y because it has had an effect o like him when he arrived in England. Skilful and charismatic. Dimitri Ya
