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Where are they now: A look at England's 2003 Rugby World Cup winners

By Online Editors
(Photo by David Davies/Getty Images)

When asked to name members of England’s 2003 World Cup-winning squad, the likes of drop-kick hero Jonny Wilkinson and inspirational captain Martin Johnson come immediately to mind. But the contributions of the whole squad in the last-gasp 20-17 Sydney success against Australia can often be overlooked. To mark replacement Iain Balshaw’s 41st birthday, here is a look at every member of England’s squad and what they have been up to since.

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Josh Lewsey

The full-back who made that thumping tackle on Mat Rogers became head of rugby at the Welsh Rugby Union in September 2015 – a position he held for just over two years. British and Irish Lion Lewsey retired in 2011 after stints with Bristol and Wasps. The 37-year-old climbed Mount Everest in 2010.

Jason Robinson

The rugby league convert is best remembered for his try in the World Cup final, but is now back in the league game as joint operations manager for the Jamaica national team after they secured a place in the 2021 Rugby League World Cup. Robinson retired after the 2007 World Cup final before taking on a coaching stint at former club Sale, then making a one-season comeback with National League Two side Fylde in 2010.

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England’s Mako Vunipola takes on Connacht’s Denis Buckley in the final of the RugbyPass FIFA charity tournament

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England’s Mako Vunipola takes on Connacht’s Denis Buckley in the final of the RugbyPass FIFA charity tournament

Mike Tindall

The last of the World Cup final squad to retire, Tindall won 75 caps and spent eight years at Bath followed by nine at Gloucester. Tindall – who married Zara Phillips, the Queen’s eldest granddaughter, in 2011 – has become a leading celebrity ambassador for charitable causes and is the principal patron of Rugby for Heroes.

Will Greenwood

The former Lions, Leicester and Harlequins centre is a rugby union pundit for Sky Sports and has worked as a columnist for the Daily Telegraph. Greenwood was a key figure in England’s World Cup triumph, scoring five tries on the road to the final.

Ben Cohen

England’s joint second-highest try-scorer – level with Greenwood – is chairman of The Ben Cohen Stand Up Foundation, launched to help combat bullying in the UK. He has also made a number of reality TV appearances. He featured on Strictly Come Dancing in 2013 and won Channel 4’s The Jump in 2016. Cohen retired in 2011 after two years at Sale Sharks that followed stints with Northampton Saints and Brive.

Jonny Wilkinson

Wilkinson, England’s record points scorer, retired after securing a Heineken Cup-French Top 14 double with Toulon in 2014. England’s World Cup talisman was plagued by injuries after dropping the winning goal against Australia in 2003 but shrugged it off to find success on the Mediterranean. The 40-year-old joined Toulon’s back-room staff as kicking and skills coach after retirement and is now a regular TV pundit.

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Matt Dawson

Matt Dawson has been a team captain on A Question of Sport since 2004 and works as a pundit for the BBC. He also finished second to former England cricketer Mark Ramprakash on Strictly in 2006. The former Northampton and Wasps scrum-half retired in 2006, with 77 England caps and six Test appearances for the British Lions.

Trevor Woodman

Loosehead prop Woodman was forced to retire prematurely at the age of 29 due to back injuries. The 43-year-old is now forwards coach at Gloucester, where he plied his trade between 1996 and 2004.

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Steve Thompson

Thompson has been based in Dubai since final retirement in 2011, working as an ambassador for the Christina Noble Children’s Foundation. The Northampton hooker initially retired due to neck trouble in 2007, only to reverse the decision and sign for Brive in France. Thompson continued his international career until the 2011 World Cup, winning 73 caps.

Phil Vickery

Combative tighthead prop Vickery runs successful sportswear firm Raging Bull; owing to his playing-days nickname. Neck injuries forced Vickery to retire in 2010 after stints with Gloucester and Wasps before he moved into coaching with a stint at Worcester. The 44-year-old won Celebrity Masterchef in 2011.

Martin Johnson

England’s talismanic captain moved into an underwhelming stint as national coach, culminating in a lacklustre campaign littered with off-field issues in New Zealand in 2011. The Leicester Tigers stalwart coached England from 2008 to 2011 but failed to transfer his feared on-field reputation into management. Johnson has not returned to coaching since, instead concentrating on media work and public speaking.

Ben Kay

The Leicester second row got away with bungling a sure-fire try by dropping the ball over the whitewash in the 2003 final against Australia. Kay has worked as a TV rugby analyst since retirement.

Richard Hill

England’s silent assassin blindside flanker “worked in the shadows” to help Clive Woodward’s side through a tough semi-final against France, according to opponent Serge Betsen. After retiring in 2008, Hill took up a coaching role in the Saracens Academy that he held for five years. Hill was added to Eddie Jones’ backroom staff in 2016 as England team manager.

Neil Back

The potent openside flanker retired in 2005 after 15 years with Leicester Tigers, moving immediately into coaching. Back has enjoyed coaching stints with Leeds Carnegie and Rugby Lions, with his last full-time role at Edinburgh ending in 2013.

Lawrence Dallaglio

The former Wasps number eight heads up the Lawrence Dallaglio Foundation, helping young people find opportunities through sport and also raising funds for teenage cancer trusts. The 47-year-old is also a commentator and pundit on ITV.

REPLACEMENTS:

Dorian West

Former Leicester Tigers hooker West retired straight after the 2003 World Cup, making an immediate switch to coaching with England Under-21s. The 52-year-old was forwards coach at Northampton Saints from 2007, helping the Franklin’s Gardens side claim their first Aviva Premiership title, and now has the same role at Sale.

Jason Leonard

The versatile scrummager won 114 England caps across 14 years, retiring the year after England’s World Cup triumph. Leonard founded the Atlas Foundation in 2014, which helps deprived children work towards a better future through rugby communities and initiatives.

Martin Corry

Corry has worked in sales and motivational speaking since his 2009 retirement from rugby. The Leicester Tigers number eight went on to captain England between 2005 and 2007 following the World Cup triumph, also featuring in the squad that reached the 2007 final.

Lewis Moody

Now running his own coaching company, Moody retired in 2012 after two years at Bath that followed 14 years with Leicester. The gritty flanker has spoken out about life with ulcerative colitis, to raise awareness of the condition. He also founded the Lewis Moody foundation.

Kyran Bracken

The former Saracens and Bristol scrum-half became the director of a construction company after retirement. Bracken quit the game in 2006 and then won the celebrity talent competition Dancing On Ice a year later.

Mike Catt

South Africa-born Catt has become a leading coach. He was England’s attack coach under Stuart Lancaster and is currently Ireland’s assistant coach under Andy Farrell. Catt retired in 2010 after stints with Bath and London Irish, and his last England match was the 2007 World Cup final defeat to South Africa.

Iain Balshaw

Balshaw was the penultimate member of the World Cup-winning line-up to retire, with knee injuries forcing him to hang up his boots just days before Tindall. The 41-year-old spent the final five years of his career at Biarritz after spells with Gloucester, Leeds and Bath.

COACH:

Clive Woodward

Woodward spent an unsuccessful year’s transition into football as technical director at Southampton, before switching to athletics in 2006. The former Harlequin and Leicester Tiger held the role of director of sport for Team GB for six years, culminating with London 2012. Now Woodward works as a columnist for the Daily Mail and a TV pundit.

– Press Association

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J
Jon 2 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

35 Go to comments
j
john 5 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

15 Go to comments
A
Adrian 7 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

15 Go to comments
T
Trevor 9 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

21 Go to comments
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