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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Jon Doel

Sam Warburton picked the best XV he played against and the New Zealand media are surprised he 'snubbed' All Blacks duo

Sam Warburton's greatest international team he played against has caused a bit of stir in New Zealand.

Warburton's selection, which he made in his recent book, Open Side, included six All Blacks, but two huge names were missing.

Stuff.NZ  reported the former Wales captain's selection under the headline "Warburton snubs Richie McCaw and Dan Carter" after the two legends were omitted.

Warburton went for David Pocock over McCaw at openside flanker, while Jonny Wilkinson pipped Carter.

He describes Pocock as "the single hardest player I ever faced", adding: "He  was not so much a thorn in the side of opposition teams as a human JCB."

As for Wilkinson, he said: "One of my all-time heroes. I wanted to be like him - I saw how hard he trained, and I modelled myself on that."

Plenty of All Blacks did make the cut though, including winger Julian Savea, centre Ma'a Nonu and number eight Kieran Read.

Sam Warburton talks about the red card

Controversial former Australia full-back Israel Folau, who was recently sacked for expressing his awful views on homosexuality, was named at full-back.

"If I were a club's director of rugby and solely selecting someone on rugby grounds, I'd choose him. He can do almost anything," Warburton added.

Sam Warburton's best international team he's faced: Israel Folau (Australia), Bryan Habana (South Africa), Brian O'Driscoll (Ireland), Ma'a Nonu (New Zealand), Julian Savea (New Zealand), Jonny Wilkinson (England), Will Genia (Australia), Andrew Sheridan (England), Bismarck du Plessis (South Africa), Carl Hayman (New Zealand), Paul O'Connell (Ireland) (c), Sam Whitelock (New Zealand), Jerome Kaino (New Zealand), David Pocock (Australia), Kieran Read (New Zealand)

Replacements: Guilhem Guirado (France), Cian Healy (Ireland), Tadhg Furlong (Ireland), Maro Itoje (England), Richie McCaw (New Zealand), Aaron Smith (New Zealand), Dan Carter (New Zealand), Stuart Hogg (Scotland).

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