Every nation, every team has one - others more than just one.
Picking the tough nuts of rugby has taken up plenty of column inches and occupied many a conversation in pubs and clubs across the globe.
But there's no doubting the oval-ball sport is not short of the warrior who plays the game without fear, who looked his opponents in the eye and refused to take a backward step no matter what was unfolding in front of him.
And former Lions, England and Bath outside-half Stuart Barnes has rated his most frightening rugby players to take to the field for The Times.
Some he has played with and some against with painful memories of an early meeting with his No.1 choice - England and Bath prop Gareth Chilcott - when playing for Newport against the West Country giants.
His top 10 also includes two Welshmen in Lions legends Graham Price and Scott Gibbs.
He said of Gibbs, who is No.9 in his top 10: "Who will ever forget the moment the giant South African prop forward Os du Randt was put on his arse by the Wales centre playing for the Lions in 1997?
"Let’s say I got over-excited on commentary.
"Whether flattening would-be tacklers or levelling opposing runners, Gibbs was definitive in all he did."
Barnes does have some surprising choices in his list with Jonny Wilkinson third and former All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw in at No.8.
Tight-head prop Price - one third of the feared Pontypool front-row - makes No.4 on Barnes' list.
He said of the front-rower: "He played a Test against Australia with a broken jaw — but that didn’t stop him dominating his side of the scrum.
"A technical craftsman, he took all anyone could throw his way unflinchingly. Inscrutable, unflappable and awe-inducing."
Barnes knows his No.1 choice Chilcott all too well as an opponent in his early days at Newport and Bristol and later on as a clubmate at Bath.
"I confess he is a dear friend but, believe me, he earned top spot; the poet of the unseen punch and so much more.
"We met when Newport played Bath and he hurled a cocky teenage kid into the advertising boards.
"From the hardest men of Gloucester, to Mickey Mouse in Florida, he floored them all," he added referencing an infamous story surrounding a Bath rugby tour to Orlando, USA.
Stuart Barnes' greatest hard men of rugby: 1 Gareth Chilcott (England), 2 Gerard Cholley (France), 3 Jonny Wilkinson (England), 4 Graham Price (Wales), 5 Eben Etzebeth (South Africa), 6 Wayne Shelford (NZ), 7 David Pocock (Australia), 8 Richie McCaw (NZ), 9 Scott Gibbs (Wales), 10 Jim Telfer (Scotland).
