Exclusive interview: Former England and Lions duo recall a different era for rugby and reveal why they will cycle across America next year
Ask Peter Winterbottom and Mike Teague, those two flankers of granite and iron, who were their toughest adversaries and the answers come as speedily as the ground was covered during their salad days on the English back row in the 1980s and 90s.
“Not Dean Richards!” Teague blurts, after having regularly ribbed his former back-row colleague throughout our chat. “No, that’s easy, Wayne ‘Buck’ Shelford.”
“Michael Jones,” says Winterbottom. “He was faster, stronger and tougher than me… so it was a bit of a struggle!”
Thirty years since the duo retired from the amateur game, however, and their most fearsome opponent might yet be to come – but more on that later. Right now, the rugby chat comes thick and fast.