Rugby is a game for all shapes and sizes, and in moving on to the forwards we start with players who can look short and squat and yet do a magnificent job for their team. Naturally both props must be expert scrummagers, lift in the line out, make their tackles, and hit rucks and mauls until they drop. The loosehead, however, scrummaging as he is against one player not two, is expected to do more around the field – think Cian Healy and Mako Vunipola. In the scrum, the loosehead tries to stay upright and help his hooker get a clean strike of the ball – easier said than done when a behemoth of a tighthead is bearing down on you.

Ian McLauchlan

'Mighty Mouse' Ian Mclauchlan made a mockery of those who doubted he could mix it with bigger opponents in Test rugby. The Scot is one of the best prop forwards…

Gethin Jenkins of Wales

Major teams: Pontypridd, Celtic Warriors, Cardiff Blues, Toulon
 
Country: Wales
 
Test span: 2002-2016 
Wales caps: 126 (90 starts) 

Lions caps: 5 (5 starts) 

Test points: 20 (4T) It seems that…

Sir Wilson Whineray was that rugby rarity, a loosehead who had scrummaging maturity beyond his years. The New Zealander’s star shone brightly from the day he made his Test debut…

Brain and brawn combined to make Fran Cotton an all-time great. The son of a good rugby league player, young Fran took up union at grammar school, was capped by…

Size doesn’t matter. Just ask Scotland’s Tom Smith. Despite a lack of size or experience, he rocketed to prominence in 1997 after being picked for the Lions tour of South…

Props rarely get much glory but if they did, Craig Dowd would be among the most lauded of all because he was one of the foundation stones upon which the…

To a younger audience, John Sydney ‘Syd’ Millar will be more familiar as an elder statesman of rugby administration, this recognition coming after a four-year stint as IRB chairman (2003-07) and…