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Legendary lock tops poll to join Itoje in Immortals XV engine room

(Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images)

The BT Sport Premiership Immortals XV has begun to take shape with five of the eight forwards now chosen by fans. Launched last Thursday as part of the TV broadcaster’s 20-year celebrations since the first-ever Premiership final, online voting has been taking place in the run-up to this year’s May 27 decider.

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Front row was the sector of the team initially filled, with imported Leicester props Marcus Ayerza and Martin Castrogiovanni topping the respective loosehead and tighthead polls with 35.9 and 34.9 per cent of the votes in their specialist positions.

Unlike those close-run tallies, Saracens’ Schalk Brits was a convincing poll-topper at hooker as he took 59.7 per cent of the votes cast for the No2 shirt.

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Attention then moved on to the second row berths and with Maro Itoje having beaten his current England coach Steve Borthwick and Ben Kay to the No4 jersey after garnering 46 per cent of that vote, it was announced on Tuesday afternoon that he would be joined in the engine room by the legendary Martin Johnson at No5.

The 2003 World Cup-winning skipper dominated his particular poll, taking 75.7 per cent of the vote compared to 14.1 per cent for Simon Shaw and 10.2 per cent for George Kruis.

With the fans having decided their front five, attention has now switched to blindside where James Haskell, Joe Worsley and Martin Corry are the candidates up for selection. The intriguing fan poll build-up to 2022/23 Premiership final will culminate in a round-table debate show on May 27 featuring Ugo Monye, Lawrence Dallaglio, Kay and Austin Healey.

  • BT Sport’s Premiership Immortals celebrates the greatest players in the history of Premiership Rugby. From May 4 until the Premiership final on May 27, fans will be able to have their say on who they think deserves to have a spot in the competition’s all-time team. Cast your vote btsport.com/immortals
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AM 38 minutes ago
'Freelancer' Izaia Perese shows the need for true inclusivity in Australian rugby

That's Cron's job though. Australia has had one of the most penalised scrums in international rugby for a long time. Just look at the scrum win loss percentage and scrum penalties. That is your evidence. AA has been the starter during that period. Pretty simple analysis. That Australia has had a poor scrum for a long time is hardly news. If bell and thor are not on the field they are woeful. So you are just plain wrong. They have very little time for the lions so doing the same old things that dont work is not going to get them there.


Ainsley is better than our next best tighthead options and has been playing well at scrum time for Lyon in the most competitive comp in the world. Superstar player? No. But better than the next best options. So that is a good enough guide. The scrummaging in the Prem is pretty good too so there is Sio's proof. Same analysis for him. Certainly better in both cases than Super, where the brumbies had the worst win loss and scrum pen in Super. Who plays there? Ohh yes... And the level of scrummaging in Super is well below the URC, prem and France with the SA teams out.


Nongorr is truly woeful. He's 130kg and gets shoved about. That just should not be happening at that weight for a specialist prop who has always played rugby cf pone with leauge. He has had enough time to develop at 23. You'd be better off with Pone who is at least good around the field for the moment and sending Nongorr on exchange to France or England to see if they can improve him with better coaching as happened with Skelton and Meafou. He isn't going to develop in time in super if he has it at all.


Latu is a better scrummaging hooker than BPA and Nasser. and he's the best aussie player over the ball at ruck time. McReight's super jackling percentage hasnt converted to international level but latu consistently does it at heniken level, which is similar to test level in the big games. With good coaching at La Rochelle he's much improved though still has the odd shocker. He should start the November games.

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