RUNNING THE NUMBERS

WE’LL NEVER know if Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain could have made it in rugby. But we can pinpoint the moment the Liverpool midfielder’s chance of being a London Irish great evaporated. “I never went to the trial!” he tells Rugby World. “We didn’t play football at my school (St John’s College) until sixth form, so it was all rugby and cricket.

“I played rugby until I was 15. That’s when football got more serious… And the size of the rugby boys got more serious too! Southampton (FC) weren’t too keen on me playing rugby at that point. But I came back for the Hampshire Cup final. I got Man of the Match from full-back!”

Football was destined to win. Still, a scrum-half who could also play full-back, Oxlade-Chamberlain knew how to put a shift in. Today, in front of the famous Kop, it is part of his job description to wear a deep furrow between