I was sorry to read last week that Leicester's Tom Croft has retired from professional rugby on medical advice at the tender age of just 32.

Always a favourite of mine, Croft is a phenomenal athlete with serious pace but arguably it was only really Ian McGeechan, on the 2009 Lions tour, that ever properly extracted Croft's full potential as a ball-carrying blindside flanker (although I always thought that he would make a very decent number 8 in the mould of Kieran Read).

Enjoy your retirement Mr Croft.