THE GREATEST LIONS XV
13 JEREMY GUSCOTT
England, 8 Lions caps 1989-97
Guscott took centre stage for the Lions in series wins eight years apart. His first act, against the 1989 Wallabies, came in only his second Test. Ian McGeechan thrust the 24-year-old apprentice bricklayer into his Lions squad and Guscott rewarded his faith with a glorious winning try to turn the series, stabbing a grubber behind the Aussie midfield, stepping on the accelerator, gathering the bounce and scoring below the posts.
Three Grand Slams and fifth place on England’s all-time try list with 30 would give him superstar status even without his Lions heroics, which reached new heights with his winning drop-goal in Durban against the Springboks in 1997.
“That was Jerry, one chance, bang!” says Keith Wood. “He was an assassin.”
15 JPR WILLIAMS
Wales, 8 Lions caps 1971-74
It takes a special performer to become identifiable by three initials, but it was far more than ‘JPR’ that canonised this full-back into the legend of Welsh and Lions rugby. A full-blooded approach, allied to flowing hair and prominent sideburns, made the surgeon an unmistakable figure on the field, and he played in 29 games for the Lions, starting 27 of them, on the tours of the early Seventies.
In 1974, Williams was a core member of the ‘Invincibles’ outfit that
