![\"Jack](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/aHR0cHM6Ly9ldS1pbWFnZXMuY29udGVudHN0YWNrLmNvbS92My9hc3NldHMvYmx0YTkwZDA1YWQ0MWE1NGE3MS9ibHQ5Njk5MWI0.webp\"\/)
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Updated 19:29 18 Feb 2026 GMTPublished 19:21 18 Feb 2026 GMT<\/p>\n
La Rochelle star Jack Nowell has named the England man who he could not select among his favourite rugby players ever – for a unique reason.<\/p>\n
Former England international Jack Nowell would be the name on many fans\u2019 lips when asked who their favourite rugby player is – or be on the Mount Rushmore social media trend.<\/p>\n
The 32-year-old was in attendance as England<\/a> won their opening Six Nations fixture at Twickenham against Wales.<\/p>\n Nowell, like most rugby fans, has those players that he loved to watch growing up, but he has also had the pleasure of playing with and against some of the best in the sport.<\/p>\n Ahead of England\u2019s dismantling of Wales, the La Rochelle star took the time to talk to ITV about who his favourite rugby players were and who would be on his Mount Rushmore.<\/p>\n Sale Sharks stars S\u00e9bastien Chabal and Jason Robinson were named among the four players the former British and Irish Lion named as his favourites, partly due to supporting the club as a child.<\/p>\n Nowell believed most people would be surprised by who he named as the third player that needs to be selected for this social media trend, Nic White.<\/p>\n The former Australian international was a teammate of Nowell\u2019s at Exeter Chiefs, and he clearly made an impression on the winger on and off the pitch.<\/p>\n Ronan O\u2019Gara was named as the fourth and final player on this Mount Rushmore for a unique reason, as Nowell joked that he would love a new contract at La Rochelle.<\/p>\n The 32-year-old\u2019s contract at the French club is set to expire at the end of the 2027 season, and so he may have hoped his compliment to the Irish legend may help him get an extension, as he appears to be loving life on the Atlantic coast.<\/p>\n Nowell did name the one player that he would never put among the top four players to play the sport in his opinion.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cHonourable mention to Luke Cowan-Dickie, but there is no way I would put him up there, as he would never let me hear the end of it.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to say it. Ronan O\u2019Gara, he is my coach, so maybe another contract.\u201d<\/p>\n Featured Image Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n Topics:\u00a0England<\/a>, Rugby<\/a>, Rugby Union<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated 19:29 18 Feb 2026 GMTPublished 19:21 18 Feb 2026 GMT La Rochelle star Jack Nowell has named…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,1208,760,2633,85],"class_list":["post-488691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-england","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-union","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Sebastien](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/aHR0cHM6Ly9ldS1pbWFnZXMuY29udGVudHN0YWNrLmNvbS92My9hc3NldHMvYmx0YTkwZDA1YWQ0MWE1NGE3MS9ibHQyODIwM2Rj.webp\"\/)
Sebastien Chabal (L) of Sale has a disagreement with his captain, Jason Robinson during the EDF Energy Cup Semi Final match between Leicester Tigers and Sale Sharks (Getty Images)<\/p>\n