In the latest instalment of Team of My Life we caught up with former Ireland, Connacht, Sale Sharks and Leinster hooker, now an RTE pundit, Bernard Jackman.

We have partnered with eToro, the official investing and trading partner of Premiership Rugby, to bring you this series, Team of My Life, in which a famous face from the world of rugby recalls an ultimate XV.

The ex-Grenoble head coach has picked “one of the biggest front-rows of all-time” and decided to exclude Ireland’s best players in favour of more of a global flavour.

Bernard Jackman’s Team of My Life

15 Christian Cullen (New Zealand): He was a rock star signing by Munster at the time when he was a global superstar. Injuries curtailed his career, but, even then, he still showed glimpses of what he could do. Seeing him running back a kick or attacking back on the blindside was not a sight for the fair-hearted.

14 Jason Robinson (England): I made my debut for Sale Sharks on the same day that Jason made his rugby union debut, having been a superstar in rugby league. It was a lot nicer playing with him than against him as I had to do for the rest of my career. I still don’t think I have seen a player with his acceleration off the mark or side-stepping ability, although Cheslin Kolbe is a close match.

13 Will Greenwood (England): He was mainly an inside centre, but I am going to pick him at 13. He was up there with Conrad Smith as a really intelligent player that made big moments happen. Greenwood was the glue that held the dangerous backlines he played in together.

12 Yannick Jauzion (France): A Rolls-Royce of a centre, Jauzion won 73 France caps, two Grand Slams and three Six Nations Championship titles. Despite being regarded as one of the best in the world, he was perhaps still underrated. He was 6’4″ and 17st but he had soft hands, pace and footwork.

11 Jonah Lomu (New Zealand): He was past his best when he signed for Cardiff Blues, but what an honour and privilege it was to play against Jonah. A softly-spoken and mild-mannered man off the field, he changed the game when he burst onto the scene and he put the ‘P’ into power and pace.

10 Jonny Wilkinson (England): He wasn’t a natural playmaker or running threat like Dan Carter, but he did everything so well. Jonny could kick off both feet and get a backline purring. What stood out to me was that he was one of the first out-halves to bring real intent to defence. As a ball-carrying forward we used to try and find the opposition 10 to run at them. With Jonny, it was wiser to avoid him.

9 Mike Phillips (Wales): The Welsh scrum-half ended up in the Top 14 at Racing and Bayonne but we played him week-in, week-out in the Magners League in a Scarlets, Blues and Ospreys shirt. Bigger than most back-rows he was aggressive and fast. A wild man off the pitch but the best nine I ever played against on his day.

The forwards

8 Sebastian Chabal (France): I played against him in a Challenge Cup semi-final when he was with Sale Sharks and playing some of the best rugby of his career. I will never forget our Connacht coach at the time telling our flanker John Muldoon to pull his hair at the scrum (he played blindside on opposition scrum ball) as ‘he won’t like it’. Cue Chabal getting angry and being awarded the ‘man of the match’! Not the best call made.

7 Martyn Williams (Wales): The Cardiff and Wales openside is now the team manager for Wales. On the pitch, he was an exceptional footballer, who didn’t shirk the dirty work. He scored a lot of very important tries against me when I was at Connacht and Leinster. At a time when some Welsh stars didn’t play at their international level for their regions, Martyn was also Mr Consistent.

6 Lawrence Dallaglio (England): What a player! He had a presence and aura about him. He knew how good he was. He enjoyed huge success with Wasps and England in a distinguished playing career. He loved the big game and the special occasion.

5 Jim Hamilton (Scotland): He is now better known as a podcaster and media personality. We are good friends, but, when he played, he was tough, abrasive, a sledger and also a very good rugby player. He learned his trade in Leicester, going on to have a great career for Gloucester, Saracens, Montpellier and Scotland. I wasn’t the best lineout thrower. Hamilton used to give me nightmares with his ability to contest our throw.

4 Martin Johnson (England): The England World Cup-winning captain was part of a Leicester Tigers pack that was as good as any international pack and better than most. Johnno was the enforcer. In my first match against him, I came off the bench in Welford Road for a scrum. We packed down and Johnson slipped his bind and broke my nose with an uppercut. I had to go straight off for blood and spent the rest of my career trying to get revenge, failing miserably.

3 Julian White (England): He was an old-school tighthead for the Leicester Tigers. A farmer, he had agricultural strength. He loved to slip his bind and angle in against the hooker in the scrum and was a horrible nasty player. With White there was no sledging. If he didn’t like you or something you were doing you got a box, and he was fairly accurate.

2 Warren Gatland (New Zealand): I came up against him at the end of his playing career. He was player-coach for Galwegians when I came off the bench for Clontarf under Brent Pope Division Two of the All-Ireland League. For 20 minutes, I never experienced such a ‘screwing’ in the scrum. I didn’t know who he was. I certainly asked Popey after the game. Little did I know I had been scrummaging against my first All Black.

1 Andrew Sheridan (England): He was incredibly tall for a prop at 6’5″. Once the converted second-row got his head around scrummaging he was a nightmare to play against. He was one of the strongest players ever to play professional rugby and could have represented Great Britain as a powerlifter. He bench-pressed 225 kilograms and squatted 275 kilograms. That power was evident when he tackled, carried or scrummaged. On a bad day, you might see a prop under pressure be lifted up in the air in a scrum. I remember a Challenge Cup quarter-final against Sales Sharks with Connacht where Sheridan was so dominant that our whole front-row were six feet dangling in the air as he lifted us up and drove us back single handedly.

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