When I was younger, I played football and table tennis for local teams. I also played mini-rugby at primary school - I was tall for my age - and Preston Grasshoppers wanted me, but I wasn't that interested in rugby. It was always going to be cricket for me.

Andrew Flintoff

I came from a rugby school and rugby nation, but I fancied giving football a go, and luckily, it paid off.

Aaron Ramsey

I started off playing rugby league as well as union. I switched between fly-half and wing, but I preferred to play fly-half. I liked to be at the heart of everything. I liked to be involved.

Aaron Ramsey

I was a good reader of a rugby match. I could kick, too.

Aaron Ramsey

I used to play rugby, polo, tennis, and cricket in school. It was only in the 1990s, when I used to live just opposite Harrods in London, that I started putting on weight. I used to have my breakfast there every day.

Adnan Sami

The scrum and the tackle are the two really contentious areas of the game. If you get those two aspects right, most rugby matches will work in your favour.

Alan Lewis

My senior school didn't play football. It was a rugby and cricket school, and as I was on a sports scholarship, I was forced to play rugby.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

I'm a huge Rugby Union fan, which is a bit like American football - but tougher.

Alexander Hanson

The home of Rugby Union is in Twickenham - just outside London in the suburbs, where I live. I'm mad for it. The trouble with being an actor and being in the theater is that you always miss the games.

Alexander Hanson

I wrestled before rugby league so I always had a pretty good wrestling background, a good base, and that helped with my football. It just meant my balance was always so good; a strong core, good hips and just things like that just really played a factor in how I ran the ball and tackled.

Alexander Volkanovski

I played rugby league, I probably played for about 10 years I think, and I wrestled before then. I did about a year of wrestling, and I think I got a bit tired of the tights, so I started to play football with the mates. I used to be a front rower, the big guys up front. I used to be 97 kilograms, which is like 210 pounds, or something like that.

Alexander Volkanovski

I used to wrestle when I was younger. It was soccer, wrestling, rugby league and now MMA.

Alexander Volkanovski

I just loved going fast. I still enjoy go-karting. I was also good at rugby, and my dad wanted me to be a sportsman, but I never thought I could do sports professionally.

Alfie Allen

I've got it all: I'm good-looking, I'm educated, I can sing, and I can play rugby. Ridiculous, isn't it?

Alun Wyn Jones

I never counted on playing rugby: I was just another fat kid chasing an egg. It has gone pretty well.

Alun Wyn Jones

A bugbear of mine is bragging rights in regional derbies: it would be a lot more worth to the regional game if we did something special in European rugby.

Alun Wyn Jones

Ultimately, we are professional rugby people, and we focus on the rugby. That's the easy bit. We are not politicians, so we don't have to delve too much into that.

Alun Wyn Jones

It really gets my back up when people start using business phrases - 'sustainability,' 'the brand,' etc. - about rugby.

Alun Wyn Jones

I'm thankful for the collaboration between the WRU and Ospreys, which will look after my best interests and enables me to play the best rugby possible.

Alun Wyn Jones

Welsh rugby has done its dirty washing in public. It's nothing new. We're a tribal bunch. If warring parties want to sway public opinion, they do it in the public arena.

Alun Wyn Jones

You do not have time in international rugby to stop and think, 'This is tough.' It's more a case of, 'Let's crack on.' Where's your next job? Fill a hole for someone who has just made a tackle?

Alun Wyn Jones