{"id":26112,"date":"2025-07-27T00:23:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T00:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/26112\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T00:23:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T00:23:12","slug":"david-flatmans-all-time-british-and-irish-lions-bald-xv-dallaglio-tindall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/26112\/","title":{"rendered":"David Flatman’s all-time\u00a0British and Irish Lions Bald XV: Dallaglio, Tindall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Bath and England prop, and now rugby pundit\u00a0extraordinaire, David Flatman, has listed his all-time\u00a0British and Irish Lions Bald XV.<\/p>\n

In conjunction with BLD BRO, a skincare product for bald men, Flatman has named a tough team consisting primarily of players from his own era, with the one \u201cnod to the modern game\u201d.<\/p>\n

The all-important front rowers<\/p>\n

Loosehead prop: Gareth Chilcott<\/p>\n

Flatman: \u201cI\u2019m a Bath man; he\u2019s THE Bath man. I wore a number one jersey for 10 years or so at Bath, but it wasn\u2019t my jersey, it was his.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hooker: Keith Wood<\/p>\n

Flatman: \u201cEasy, greatest of all time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tighthead prop: John Hayes<\/p>\n

Flatman: \u201cI couldn\u2019t think of many bald ones, so I went for John \u2018The Bull\u2019 Hayes; he played for Ireland about 700 times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Locks and loose forwards<\/p>\n

Second-row: Paul O\u2019Connell and Ben Kay<\/p>\n

Flatman: \u201cBen Kay, the World Cup winner, walks in.\u00a0The captain of that team is Paul O\u2019Connell<\/a>, obviously. Martin Johnson would walk in, but is he bald? He\u2019s not as bald as the other two. And also, because he\u2019s seven feet four, you can\u2019t actually see if he\u2019s bald unless you\u2019re upstairs and he\u2019s downstairs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blindside flanker: John Barclay<\/p>\n

Flatman: \u201cYou could say he\u2019s not bald. He ain\u2019t far off, mate. The point is, he ain\u2019t far off. <\/p>\n

\u201cI love him to bits 24\/7 to the moon and back, but he has a beard which makes him look really attractive. It does, and my wife agrees.\u00a0He\u2019s a very, very handsome man, unless you know the inside scoop, which is that he wears the beard to cover a weak chin. Could you ever really put all of your trust in a man with a weak chin?\u201d <\/p>\n

Openside flanker: Neil Back<\/p>\n

Flatman: \u201cIs he fully bald? Not sure, but not far off. I wanted to put him in because, for me, growing up watching the 1997 Lions tour, he\u2019s an icon. Backy<\/a> is the guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Number eight: Lawrence\u00a0Dallaglio<\/p>\n

Flatman: \u201cIf you put Lawrence in a jungle full of Silverback gorillas, I reckon within 15 minutes, they\u2019re all picking nits off his back. If you put\u00a0Lol\u00a0at a black tie dinner in between Mike Tyson and John Bones Jones of the UFC, they\u2019re two of the hardest men to ever walk the planet, they\u2019re asking Lol what the secret is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Life after Rugby: Lewis Moody on the \u2018catalyst for change\u2019 that gave England legend a \u2018deep sense of purpose\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

The bald backs<\/p>\n

Scrum-half:\u00a0Jamison Gibson-Park<\/p>\n

Flatman: \u201cMatt Dawson is close, because he\u2019s a legend. But, I want to go with Jamison Gibson-Park because I just love watching him play, and it\u2019s a nod to the modern game. There aren\u2019t many bald lads on this Lions tour, and you might say the game\u2019s gone because of it, then I think you\u2019d be right. But Jameson Gibson-Park is in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fly-half: Charlie Hodgson<\/p>\n

Flatman: \u201cCharlie Hodgson is a forgotten genius. He played at the same time as Jonny Wilkinson, which was a nightmare for him. Jonny\u2019s the big boss, the icon, but Charlie was so good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inside centre: Mike Tindall<\/p>\n

Flatman: \u201cHe\u2019s always been big and lean, I respect that about Mike. He doesn\u2019t eat carbs. I\u2019ve never seen him eat a carbohydrate; he doesn\u2019t eat meat, doesn\u2019t eat pasta. I respect it. I envy it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside centre: Tom Shanklin <\/p>\n

Flatman: \u201cOn his business card, he\u2019s got double British and Irish Lion, which is embarrassing. He did get picked for the second tour, but got injured in the last game of the season for Cardiff, so he couldn\u2019t go. So technically, he\u2019s a Lion, not a double Lion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Left wing: Keith Earls<\/p>\n

Flatman: \u201cThere\u2019s no \u2018funnies\u2019 about Keith Earls. I\u2019m sure there are, but in my mind, I just loved watching him play. Turns out that he\u2019s like the greatest bloke, and the most emotionally intelligent, open, and inspirational bloke ever. So he\u2019s one of my rugby heroes, nothing like me as a player, because he was like 100 caps, super fast, scored loads of tries, just a million times better. But yeah, one of my favourite players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right wing: Gareth Thomas<\/p>\n

Flatman: \u201cHe got 100 caps for Wales, which means amazing player, and came out as gay as, I think, the first. And there haven\u2019t been many rugby players\u00a0since to have done it. Whether there are loads of lads who haven\u2019t told anyone yet or come out yet? I hope there aren\u2019t, I hope everyone feels comfortable. But he paved the way. Apart from that, just wicked company, wild geezer, love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Full-back: Geordan Murphy<\/p>\n

Flatman: \u201cWhat I\u2019d say about Geordie, I say it from a distance, because he comes across as a nice guy, but when you really know him, he\u2019s very aggressive. He\u2019s a talented player, and actually, he\u2019s got some lovely hair, but he is maybe 12 to 16 months away from making a decision. He either bites the bullet in terms of doing what I\u2019ve done (gone bald), or he bites the bullet and books a flight on EasyJet (for a hair transplant). And I hope he goes my way, because he should own it. It\u2019d look great.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Australia v British and Irish Lions preview: \u2018Wounded\u2019 Wallabies to \u2018slay\u2019 tourists for the good of the series and Rugby Australia<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Bath and England prop, and now rugby pundit\u00a0extraordinaire, David Flatman, has listed his all-time\u00a0British and Irish Lions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[3481,16339,242,348,3482,50,5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-26112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-british-and-irish-lions","tag-david-flatman","tag-features","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}