This game of pain and why I still love it On Jonny Wilkinson I've always thought of Jonny as a crackpot. It's the way he goes about things that sets him out of the ordinary. The lad was born with talent but his brilliance was achieved through dedication to his craft. He would switch off his brain to pain. His actions off the field, as much as his points scoring on it, had a profound effect on the people around him. You were amazed and a little frightened by his focus but damned if you didn't want to try and do better at the same time. On Chris Ashton Chris Ashton is not very good at the try-scoring dive. Ask Tom Daley if he ever makes a dive where his feet touch the water first. I bet he doesn't. That is my problem: Ashton bottles his dives. He is a diving coward. As he takes off you think it will be spectacular and then his feet break his speed and fall. You have to go all in on a dive otherwise it detracts from what you are doing. That is a huge shame for Ashton because he is a player doing things of which the rest of us can only dream. On Mike Catt The fire burning in his eyes - that is what I first noticed about Catt. It was the kind of fire that differentiates the warrior king from the talented athlete, the great achiever from the nearly man. England needed men like him in tough days, someone to pick you up by the bootstraps, to smile a cheeky smile, to get you back on the training paddock. Retirement means he hit the end of the road at the highest level. The brain is as sharp as ever and will continue to be for many years. It is just that I don't want to think of my Cattman as a coach. On returning to the pitch for Help For Heroes in December 2011 My, oh my, how times have changed. The first thing that shocked me was the colour of the boots. Mine arrived from a sponsor - they were white. I always hated blokes in white boots, but nowadays, unless your footwear is all the colours of the rainbow, you are very much yesterday's man. The next thing you notice is the quality of vehicles in the car park. Gone are the Maestros and Mondeos chugging and backfiring. Instead there are new Range Rovers and Mercedes. On 'the foreign legion' What defines Englishness? Do you need a sense of fair play? Should you be able to tell the difference between real ale and Dutch lager? Do these attitudes matter? One's place of birth has become a super-hot topic. Sports people such as Zola Budd, Kevin Pietersen and Mike Catt have all taken big decisions when it comes to their national ties. I can understand their motivation. They want to play at the highest level and need to make the most money they can in the shortest space of time. An England jersey helps you secure a safer financial future. On the tip tackle There needs to be a shift in how the tip tackle is viewed. It takes two to tackle, and the actions of the player being tackled is overlooked far too often. We only see the point of contact with the ground. Emotions and fear often cloud our judgment. They are not on a suicide mission but very often they are doing something that contributes to a spear tackle occurring through a willingness to protect the ball. A referee who sees what he believes to be an act of foul play but is not sure of its severity can highlight the incident to independent reviewers. After the final whistle they can then study each case to understand intent and any illegality. On Martin Johnson as coach Martin was the best captain I ever played with and I backed him for the job of England manager. I still think he was the right man for the job. But the skills and honesty that made him so good as captain ultimately meant that he could not carry on as manager. A man who was ruthlessly honest about his shortcomings was never going to tolerate the errors that he made. On the 2003 World Cup The World Cup is the tournament I grew up dreaming of playing in. When I got the chance to actually play in the final, I wasn't disappointed that my winning contribution was dropping to my knees and looking like a coffee table while Wilkinson kicked his now famous dropped-goal. All I wanted to do then was jump up and down and hug somebody. I turned around and there was England's hero, Wilkinson, and we were hugging away with the world's cameras on us and we were shouting 'World Cup, World Cup" over and again. On the Haka Stare into the eyes of an All Black during the haka and you see a deep cold darkness. What you glimpse is a man's soul and it draws you in. As the challenge of the haka is thrown down you find yourself tumbling into a stare like Alice down the rabbit hole. The crowd disappears and your mind fills with the deafening voice of a nation asking you one simple question: 'These boys will do what ever it takes to win. How far are you willing to go? In that moment, no matter how you got there, you have to decide. What are your limits, where do you draw the line, how much pain can you endure? Will Greenwood on Rugby (Simon & Schuster, £18.99), published on May 10, is available to pre-order from Telegraph Books at £16.99 + £1.25 p&p. Call 0844 871 1515 or books.telegraph.co.uk