Greatest British and Irish Lions XV: Blindside flanker

James While

With the 2021 Lions tour to South Africa complete, Planet Rugby takes a stab at selecting the greatest British and Irish Lions XV of all time.

For the next 15 days, we will pick our favourite players from four nominations per position – if you don’t agree with us you can vote on social media for your dream team.

We have judged our criteria solely on contributions to the Lions in Test matches and there’s a few surprises in store.

With something like 120 years worth of players to choose from, it’s been a tough task but here we go with our blindside flanker.

Nominees

Lawrence Dallaglio (England)

Caps: 3
Tours: 3
Points: 0

Dallaglio was a one-club man, playing every first-class game of his career for Wasps. He took the reins as club captain in 1995 when Rob Andrew departed for Newcastle and made his England Test debut in November that year against South Africa.

In 1997 Dallaglio made his first appearance in a Lions shirt during the tour to South Africa, playing in all three Tests of the successful series. He would go on to be selected for two further Lions squads in 2001 and 2005, but on both occasions had his tour ended early by injury, forcing him out of the reckoning for a Test place.

However, his influence in 1997 was nothing short of definitive, playing at his optimum position of blindside before he bulked up and moved across the back-row to number eight. His defence, his linking and his carrying were absolutely career defining in performances that were the best seen from this all-time great of rugby.

As Wales Online summed it up: “If Dallaglio has ever played better, someone ought to tell us about it. Some of his defensive work that day in Durban was off the scale.”

Greatest Lions moment: Durban 1997; despite scoring three tries in the second Test, the Springboks suffered from some woeful goalkicking, whilst the Lions’ Neil Jenkins once again kicked five penalties to level the scores at 15–15 before a Jerry Guscott drop goal for an 18–15 lead for the Lions. The Lions then held off a ferocious South African fightback, Dallaglio putting in a magnificent try-saving tackle, to win the match and take the series.

Mike Teague (England)

Caps: 3
Tours: 2
Points: 0

Teague’s finest hour was the 1989 Lions tour to Australia, when he missed the first-Test defeat through injury but came back to wear the number six jersey to such great effect in the next two Tests that he was voted Man of the Series as the tourists achieved a come-from-behind triumph for the first and only time.

Teague had only established himself in the England team that spring. He won his first three caps in 1985, aged 25, but was then left out until the 1989 Five Nations. He responded by bulking up and taking his fitness to new levels with what Gloucester folk call “Mad Dog” training, involving hill running over all kinds of terrain, carrying rocks and logs.

The hard work enabled him to play his trademark physical game on what was, at times, a violent Lions tour and turn the tide in the visitors’ favour. Socks rolled down, a barnstorming Teague tackled everything that moved, was a driving force in the loose and a limpet in possession.

He won just five more England caps and played one more Test for the Lions, finishing with a 100%-winning record for the tourists after beating New Zealand 20-7 in 1993.

Greatest Lions moment: Third Test versus Australia 1989 – the scores are 19-18 to the Lions when Jeff Miller breaks down the blindside and is met by a Teague blockbuster that takes Miller into touch with two minutes remaining – a pivotal tackle.

Roger Uttley (England)

Caps: 4
Tours: 2 (plus one as assistant coach)
Points: 4

Uttley was a granite-like forward who made his name on that invincible Lions tour of South Africa in 1974, when he was taken as a lock but played all four Tests as a blindside alongside Fergus Slattery and Mervyn Davies in the back-row. He played all but one of the 17 tour matches and scored a crucial try in the final, drawn Test.

The Blackpool-born Uttley had been in England’s second-row throughout 1973 and 1974, playing in the wins over New Zealand in Auckland and Australia at Twickenham, two rare highlights in a poor period for English rugby.

Regular injuries were part and parcel of Uttley’s career, notably an ongoing back problem that first arose when he trod on some uneven turf during a training session in Scotland. He has a long back due to an extra sacrum vertebrae.

He was an assistant to Ian McGeechan as the pair plotted the Lions’ win over the Wallabies in 1989 and coached England to the 1991 World Cup final, alongside Geoff Cooke, where they were beaten by Australia.

Greatest Lions moment: Uttley was pivotal on the 1974 Lions tour, but none more so than in the final Test where his try secured a draw for the Invincibles.

Sam Warburton (Wales)

Caps: 5
Tours: 2
Points: 0

Warburton joined a very exclusive club during the 2017 tour to New Zealand, as he became only the second man to captain the British & Irish Lions twice.

He joined fellow Lions legend Martin Johnson in accomplishing that feat, but went one better than the former England lock, and stands as the only Lions captain in history to have avoided defeat on two tours.

Warren Gatland named him captain for the Lions tour to Australia and in doing so he became the first Welsh Lions skipper since Phil Bennett in 1977. Warburton made a slow start to the tour but hit form in time for the Tests with Australia, impressing in particular in the second game. However, injury ruled him out of the final Test in Sydney as the Lions wrapped up a 2-1 series victory with the Welshman becoming the first tour captain to taste victory since Johnson in 1997.

In New Zealand in 2017, he switched from openside to blindside where he put in two of the greatest performances of his career, his nuisance value at the breakdown in both the second and third Test being crucial components as the Lions drew the series.

It was hard to choose whether or not to nominate Warburton at six or seven but we felt his performances in 2017 were marginally better in a career that could have seen him selected on either flank for the Lions Greatest XV.

Greatest Lions moment: Warburton was selected as captain in the first Test in Brisbane, combining in the back-row with Tom Croft and Jamie Heaslip. The Lions won 23–21 with Warburton topping the tackle count with 14.

Our pick

The influence of all of our four nominees for blindside flanker on the history of Lions rugby is quantum and we apologise for leaving out a host of world class players like Jeff Squire, John O’Driscoll, Tom Croft, Courtney Lawes, Ronnie Lamont, Derek Quinnell and Bill McKay.

Do we go for the craftsmanship of Warburton, the skills of Dallaglio, the abrasion of Teague or the doggedness of Uttley? The question boils down to which of these incredible players had the single biggest influence on the pitch in their Test matches and we believe that, by the tiniest of margins, and the fact he was unbeaten on two tours and man of the series in one of them, the greatest Lions six is England and Gloucester’s ‘Iron’ Mike Teague.

by James While