England flanker, World Cup winner, and the small man who outlasted everyone
RugbyNeil Back was told for years that he was too short to play international rugby. It is one of the great ironies of the professional era that the flanker the selectors kept hesitating over ended up as one of the most decorated English players in history.
Back won 66 caps for England, was a cornerstone of the side that lifted the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Sydney, and played in the back row alongside Lawrence Dallaglio and Richard Hill that many former players still describe as the finest England has ever put on a pitch. At club level his record with Leicester Tigers is almost without parallel. Five consecutive Premiership titles, two Heineken Cups, and a reputation as the most tactically intelligent openside of his generation.
There is a Back story for every supporter of a certain age. The Peter Clohessy confrontation, the quiet discipline at the breakdown, the hand-swipe against Munster in the 2002 Heineken Cup final that he still laughs about today. What the stats can't quite capture is the way he reinvented the No. 7 role for the professional era, combining the pace of a back with the front-row's appetite for the hard yards.
Since retiring he has coached, run a business and taken up a regular place on the speaking circuit. Understated in person, fiercely competitive in argument, and generous with his time, Back is a popular draw on the sporting dinner circuit.
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