Kings of the Jungle where wild beasts come to play
Brendan Gallagher continues his enthralling series by looking at rugby’s feared enforcers
1 Jacques Burger (Namibia)
The King as far as I am concerned. I never saw a harder, tougher, player on a rugby pitch – mentally or physically. Impervious to pain, aggressive, undaunted, remorseless, courageous – Burger spent his rugby life at the coalface dishing out pain and receiving it in equal measure and never flinched once.
Just look at that face for a moment, one of the great sporting portraits of modern times. Scarred, haggard, fatigued, sweaty, stressed, exhausted but triumphant. You knew exactly what you were getting with Burger and, if you were an opponent, what was coming your way.
He took the tough route to the top, but you would know that without reading his CV. Born and raised in Namibia who are minnows in just about every Test they play. A spell at Currie Cup whipping boys Griquas and then the resident hard man at Aurillac in Pro D2. His indomitable tackling and carrying caught Saracens’ eye at RWC2007, but he was committed to a spell at the Blue Bulls before he eventually made it to north London.
Signed for relative peanuts – many of Saracens best players were which only annoys their opponents even more – he immediately flooded the place with his positivity and warrior ways and the simplicity of his approach. He was arguably the catalyst for many of their great successes. Ultimately he saw rugby as merely a job of work, indeed he used to famously tweet ‘Let’s get to work’ on the morning of every shift, sorry, game.
At RWC2011 he was a wonder. Playing virtually on one leg after various injuries, he was still the best flanker on view despite appearing in a Namibia side that took a battering in every game. Without him they would have lost most games by a hundred points.
His body gave way. Naturally bowlegged, the strain and stresses caught up, his knee went pop as did various bones. He should have packed it in but he fought valiantly for 18 months before getting back on the pitch in time for some last glories.
There were those remarkable 27 tackles in 69 minutes in a Heineken Cup quarter-final against Clermont – most of them piledrives not just fleeting contacts that satisfy the statos – a European title with Saracens and finally another series of back-to-thewall heroics for Namibia at RWC2015. And then he was gone.
Limping, bloodied but always unbowed. He was on the losing side many times but this man was never defeated.
2 Ruben Kruger (South Africa)
Silent assassin type who never took a backward step in 36 Tests for the Boks. One of those hard cases who operated up to, but not beyond, the line. Incredibly disciplined in that respect. Arguably the Boks’ best player at RWC1995 when he both scored the vital try in their semi-final against France and made the match-saving late tackle on Abdelatif Benazzi. Their best forward also in the 1997 Lions series, he bowed out after RWC1999. Bravely battled brain cancer for a decade before finally succumbing in 2010.
3 Martin Johnson (Leicester and England)
Almost goes without saying that Johnson should feature in this roll of honour. Johnson was many things – a ferocious scrummager, quality lineout operator and an underrated presence in the loose – he could unquestionably have played Test rugby at No.8 – but above all else he was an intimidating physical presence who, every time he stepped over the whitewash, brought fire and fury to proceedings with his extraordinary intensity. Had the occasional brush with officialdom and the odd ban but over the long haul was pretty disciplined.
4 Bobby Windsor (Wales)
They bred them tough in the steelworks and coal mines of Wales and nobody epitomised that better than Bobby Windsor, the commander of the Viet Gwent up in Pontypool and a key man in the Lions pack of 74 that dismantled the Boks. He would banter, niggle and wind up opponents but always he backed it up with a scary ferocity and appetite for the fray. And the fires never dimmed. Long after he had officially retired he would answer the call at Pooler, often at prop, and still scare the living daylights out of callow faced opponents.
5 Michel Palmie (France)
Some hard cases are mad and some bad, but Michel Palmie was both. Not only did he look villainous, he was. He was the main enforcer for the extraordinary Bezier side that won six French Championships between 1974 and 1981. He was also a star man in that evil French Grand Slam pack of 1977, very possibly the meanest, most brutal Test pack of all time. A fine line-out operator as well, Palmie made only 23 Test appearances mainly on account of him being banned or injured after various scraps. Later, in a classic case of poacher turned gamekeeper, he became a distinguished committee man with the French Federation!
6 Colin Meads (New Zealand)
Was the roughest toughest All Black of his era and possibly all-time. He was, of course, also a magnificent rugby player, incredibly fit after years of clearing the 100 acre family plot of scrub and working on the farm, hard tackling and a natural ball handler who unquestionably would have played back row these days, but it was his brutal ferocity in contact the distinguished his play. Inflicted injuries, played with injuries, took his medicine if he was sent off, never backed down. A hard nut of the premier order.
7 Patricio Albacete (Argentina)
Hugely underrated enforcer and hardman who was the rallying point for the Toulouse pack during three successful T14 campaigns as well as a European Cup triumph in 2010. Much feared in France which is saying something. Was also a stand out for Argentina in three World Cups, not least their startling 2007 campaign. A talented all-round forward with good hands and skills, he nonetheless knew when it was time to get physical and put some stick about. Bowed out with Racing two years ago.
8 David Leslie (Scotland)
I refer you to Jim Telfer, a noted hardcase himself, for an appreciation of the former Scotland captain. “All really good sides need a nutter in their pack and when your nutter is also a Scottish public schoolboy you really are quids in because let me tell you they are the maddest of the mad, the bravest of the brave. David was posthumous VC material if ever I saw one. Pound for pound he was
possibly the best Scotland player. He could be too brave for his own good sometimes, it could be frightening to watch him put his body on the line. The battering he took but what a man to have in your team. He was as hard as nails but the thing about David is that he also had this Kamikaze thing going on. He was ferocious.” 9 Willie John McBride (Ireland)
You have to meet fire with fire if you are going survive five Lions tours, three to South Africa and two to New Zealand. It was a wild west saloon back in those days so the Ulsterman quickly learned to look after himself against the likes of the Meads brothers Colin and Stan, Frik du Preez, Johan Classens et al. If you really want to see how scary he could be look out for some amazing footage of the Lions tour to South Africa in 1968 when John O’Shea got sent off against Eastern Transvaal. As he leaves the field O’Shea is attacked by a big South African spectator but before the police can react and accost the interloper McBride – resplendent in his tour jacket and tie – has climbed out of the stands and, er, saves them the bother!
10 Jean Francois Imbernon (France)
Palmie’s partner in crime for France and what a formidable duo they were. Ibernon could be just as tasty as Palmie but on the whole was a tad more subtle. Played for Perpignan whose biggest rivals were Beziers just down the road and one of the
highlights of the French domestic season was twice a year when these two went head to head for their clubs. All powerful Bezier invariably won the match but honours were usually even between these two protagonists. In retirement ran a popular bar in Perpignan where punters tended to leave pdq when the proprietor announced it was time gentlemen please.
11 Fran Cotton (England)
Cotton, with one notable exception, never went looking for trouble but he could look after himself supremely well and was not somebody you would want to cross on a rugby pitch. Was naturally hard and durable and was a key man in two famous provincial wins over New Zealand for the North West and North, helped England to Test wins in Auckland and Johannesburg, the Lions to a series win in South Africa when, whisper it quietly, even the Boks appeared a little nervous of Fran. And the one time he started the nonsense? When he kicked a shocked Richard Paparemborde in the chest in Paris in 1980. He rightly got pinged – in fact he should have been sent off – but it set the tone for a famous England win.
12 Wayne Shelford (New Zealand)
Played all his rugby with massive intensity and moved around the field like a Sherman tank, shunting people out of his way or stopping them dead in their tracks if they were in possession. The first player to really ramp up the haka as it reflected his own approach to proceedings. The moment he is remembered for mainly came against a vengeful France in Nantes in 1986 when they raked him cruelly in a ruck and sliced his scrotum sack open. But did he come off ? Never. Not until his All Blacks side had beaten the French.
13 Kevin Skinner (New Zealand)
Renowned Kiwi enforcer from Dunedin who also won the New Zealand heavyweight boxing Championship in 1947. Had retired in 1954 after equalling Maurice Brownlie’s then record of 61 appearances for the All Blacks but was sensationally recalled for the last two Tests in the epic Boks series of 1956 with it poised at 1-1. Sorted out troublesome Springbok props Chris Koch and Jaap Bekker in double quick time with haymakers on his return and New Zealand went on to win the series 3-1.
14 Norm Hadley (Canada)
Alas left us a couple of years ago, ‘Storman Norman’ was a major 20 stone specimen who liked the rough stuff and was a go-to hard case in that extremely impressive Canada pack circa 1991. After joining Wasps famously sent two hooligans packing when they started terrorising older commuters on the London Underground. Had a distressing death after suffering from suspected Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) and associated depression for many years. Died in Japan in March 2016 with the Tokyo medical examiner deciding the cause of death was an overdose of pentobarbital.
15 Bakkies Botha (South Africa)
Textbook South African hard case, scrummaging powerhouse and enforcer from the High Veldt who dished it out remorselessly but in fairness took it without complaint. He finished his mighty career just before the TMOs started getting really hot which is probably just as well, but for a decade or so was the perfect foil for the much more law-abiding, athletic lineout ace Victor Matfield. Botha stepped over the line – not least with his crude wipeout of Adam Jones in the Lions series in 2009 – but off the pitch he was an affable enthusiast and made loads of friends. Hugely successful wherever he played – the Bulls, Toulon and the Boks.
16 Eben Etzebeth (South Africa)
A fantastic hybrid between the sheer physicality and brutish approach of Botha and the athletic rugby-playing prowess of Victor Matfield which is probably why he rates with Maro Itoje as the world’s best lock and arguably the most valuable player on present form. The guy can do it all and that includes pile driving tackles, huge clear-outs and taking massive retaliatory hits in the heat of battle. If there is a flare up Etzebeth is always on the case, first backing his colleague up and then, occasionally, as peacemaker. When Etzebeth says the fight it over believe me it’s over. Nobody contradicts him.
17 Mamuka Gorgodze (Georgia)
A remarkable back five player around whom Georgia’s rise up the ladder was largely based for a decade or more. Can’t remember any nasty foul play from Gorgodze, just hundreds of shuddering all-embracing tackles or powerful busts taking three of four opposition defenders with him. Like Burger he was remorseless. Sizeable without being huge he was a monster in the collision and tackle area. Nearly 300 T14 fixtures without taking a backward step or flinching. Four World Cups for the Lelos and, memorably, that MOM award when they played the All Blacks in 2015.
18 Peter Winterbottom (England)
Strawman they called him on account of his farming background in Yorkshire and blond mop, but never can there have been a more inappropriate nickname. Winters developed a wide range of skills as he got older but his physicality and pain threshold was always at the heart of his game. He was a man of iron. Was the Lions player of the series in adversity in New Zealand in 1983 and was back there ten years later putting his body on the line again for the 1993 team. 19 Al Charron (Canada) World class back five forward in all respects who would have commanded a place in any world XV of his time, Charron was nails pure and simple, seemingly impervious to pain and along with the likes of Norm Hadley, Gordon Mackinnon, Glenn Ennis and Eddie Evans formed the core of a formidable 1991 Canada pack that you needed to treat with care. Quality opposition might have too much class elsewhere and the Canadians would eventually be overhauled but in this era nobody can recall Canada ever losing a fight. Ask South Africa!
20 Robert Paparemborde (France)
The Basque muscleman and hard case from Feas on the Spanish border used to win all the local strongman and stone throwing competitions at summer fairs in the Basque region and the singing contests to boot. The rock around which France’s 1977 and 1981 Grand Slam winning packs were built. Didn’t have the size and bulk of fellow prop Gerard Cholley but was much more feared. Only once fazed in 55 Tests – see the Fran Cotton incident!