Rugby’s all-star athletics line up

100M – CARLIN ISLES:

Warren Weir might have the quickest PB on paper but he hasn’t approached that 10.02 for a good while so I’m still opting for Isles (10.19secs) who seems to have lost little speed from his track days, indeed over 4050m he’s more explosive than ever. An underrated rugby player, Isles is so much more than pure gas, he has mastered the classic inside-outside swerve and also knows when to coast before hitting the accelerator.

200M – WARREN WEIR:

OK we can’t ignore Jamaica’s new Sevens wannabe, his 200m PB of 19.79 is still one of the fastest times ever recorded for the distance. A big shout though for Perry Baker who is a sublime runner and mover on the rugby pitch who could probably better his old 21.0 PB for 200m and Andrew Harriman who avoided the track, and indeed training, like the plague but once clocked 20.9secs running for Oxford.

400M – ERIC LIDDELL:

Rugby is spoilt for choice here but the Flying Scotsman is the clear front runner. Four tries in seven Scotland Tests before concentrating on athletics, a choice which lead in 1924 to his famous Chariots Of Fire gold medal in the 400m at the Paris Olympics and indeed a bronze in the 200m. Roger Black was an English schools rugby triallist before he got crocked and it was while recuperating that he decided rugby and athletics, alas, did not mix.

800M – BRUCE HUNTER:

Toss up between All Black wing Hunter who won the New Zealand 800m championship on three occasions or Danny Crates, an Eastern Counties wing aiming for the top when he lost an arm in a diving accident in 1994. Switched to athletics and won the 2004 Paralympic 800m gold medal, adding a world championship gold medal to his tally two years later.

1500M – KIP KEINO:

You might think rugby would struggle to fill the middle-distances, the domain of the skinny endurance athletes, but you would be wrong. The barrel-chested Kip Keino,

was the star scrum-half for the Kenya Police XV before he switched to athletics and won 1968 Olympic 1500m gold. right,

5000M – KEINO:

The great Kenyan, who spoke up strongly for rugby when the IOC debated the introduction of Sevens, doubled up in Mexico in 1968 where he took the silver medal in the 5000m.

3000M STEEPLECHASE – KEINO:

Yes, keep going Kip. Yet another chance for the remarkable Keino to shine. He did after all win the Olympic 3000m steeplechase title at the Munich Olympics in 1972.

110M HURDLES – NIGEL WALKER:

Won 17 Wales Rugby caps and was a classy 110m hurdler before that. He clocked 13.51secs to take fourth in the 1986 European Championships which over 30 years later would still earn him a place in the Great Britain line-up. His 100m PB of 10.38secs wasn’t hanging around, either.

400M HURDLES – GARETH EDWARDS:

The late, great Andy Ripley was a regular competitor at the AAA 400m hurdles but I’m taking a punt on Edwards,

right. As a 17-year-old at Millfield he beat future European and Commonwealth Games 400m hurdles champion Alan Pascoe to win the England schools 200m hurdles championship in a record time.

JAVELIN – DAVID TRAVIS:

Schoolboy rugby star at Hampton GS who was picked for England Schools on the wing one season ahead of David Duckham. Whatever happened to Duckham? Travis concentrated on athletics at Loughborough, won seven British titles and the 1970 Commonwealth Games gold. Personal best of 83.44m which most current British throwers can only dream of.

SHOT – VICTOR COSTELLO:

Huge Leinster lock who won 39 Ireland caps. Five times the Ireland shot put champion who competed for Ireland at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona where alas he didn’t do himself justice with a throw of 17.15m in qualifying. Finished his career with a very respectable PB of 19.93 and became a pilot with RyanAir. His father Paddy was capped at lock by Ireland and was also a former Ireland shot put champion.

HAMMER – GARY HALPIN:

Hugely popular prop and ‘character’ at London Irish and Harlequins, Halpin, left, won 11 Ireland caps and should have won many more. A very useful hammer thrower while being educated in New York, winning the American Indoor Collegiate Championships and representing Ireland in the inaugural IAAF World Championships in 1987. Only completed one legal throw of 63.68m nearly 9m down on his personal best and concentrated on rugby thereafter.

DISCUS – LAWRENCE OKOYE:

Schoolboy rugby star at Whitgift where he was considered as big a prospect as Elliot Daly and Marland Yarde before switching to athletics.Okoye, left, the European U23 champs in 2011 and qualified for the 2012 Olympic final with a rock solid 65.28 but couldn’t match that in the final finishing 12th and last with 61.03. Holds the British record with 68.24m. Still looking for the big breakthrough into American Football.

LONG JUMP – KEITH FIELDING.

Logic tells me there must be a rugby player out there who has a big long jump to his name but for the time being I’m struggling to find him. In the meantime let’s go with England wing Keith Fielding who, as Fran Cotton revealed in recently, wandered over to the long jump pit at Loughborough one day and casually landed a Commonwealth Games qualifier distance in his rugby kit. The Rugby Paper

TRIPLE JUMP – LARRY ACHIKE:

London and South East Schools wing who was mainly a rugby star at Worth School and missed out on schoolboy caps because of torn quad muscles at which point he decided that rugby was holding back his athletic career. Went on to win the 1998 Commonwealth Games title and came fifth in 2000 Sydney Olympics with a PB of 17.30m.

POLE VAULT – GEOFF ELLIOTT:

Eastern Counties and London wing Geoff Elliott was tipped for high honours before he quit rugby to concentrate on athletics, twice winning the Commonwealth Games title in 1954 and ’58. French Olympic gold medallist Renaud Lavillenie was a junior player at Clermont where he has entertained the crowd before games by vaulting over the nine-foot cross bar with a shortened pole.

HIGH JUMP – DINK TEMPLETON:

The Stanford Law graduate won a gold medal with the USA Rugby team in 1920 and had been one of the favourites to win the high jump but was banned from competing at the last moment when his Western Roll technique was deemed illegal. Switched instead to the long jump where he finished fourth.