BLACKBURN’S Will Greenwood was 31 when he won the Rugby Union World Cup with England in Australia nearly a decade ago now.

Millions watched around the world as captain Martin Johnson became the first player to lead a northern hemisphere side to the world title, Jonny Wilkinson’s dramatic drop goal ensuring victory just seconds from the end of an enthralling final in Sydney.

“I’ve never watched it again, I don’t think I’ve even got a recording of the final,” said Greenwood.

“People often ask me about my best sporting moment and it surprises them.

“I’m a huge Man City supporter and it was the 1999 Second Division Play-Off final.”

Manchester City trailed Gillingham 2-0 going into the last minute at Wembley.

Then Kevin Horlock scored. And, in the fifth minute of injury time, former Ewood striker Paul Dickov scored a brilliant equaliser to send the game into extra-time, with City winning on penalties.

“I went through every single emotion that afternoon – it was one of football’s greatest comebacks.

“You can keep the World Cup final, I would give my right hand to live that day again.

“When City lifted the Premier League title I was sat with my eight-year-old lad Archie, and that gave me more pleasure than winning the World Cup.

“As a fan you can enjoy the raw intensity of sporting emotion just as much as a player.”

When I nudge Greenwood back towards England’s greatest sporting moment since 1966, he draws breath and rolls back the clock to that golden night Down Under.

“At the time, you don’t realise the enormity of it all,” he said.

“It was just like any other changing room, lads who had lived their lives for eight pints, a curry and the enjoyment of the game coming together to achieve something incredible.

“People don’t believe me when I say that, but that’s what it was like.

“The jokers, the serious guys, Mike Tindall and Iain Balshaw arguing about what music to play on the bus.

“It was no different from playing at Preston Grasshoppers, but in a different environment.

“Perhaps the innocence of it all was why, perhaps, we managed to keep our nerve, because you don’t realise what you were going to miss.

“It was a real sliding doors moment, though.

“If Australia had nicked it, would I be a different person. No. Would my life be completely different now. Probably.

“People’s desire to listen to what I have to say was magnified by a multitude of 250 because Jonny Wilkinson’s kick flew through the middle of the posts.

“When we got back to England and the parade, when the open-top bus turned into Oxford Street and we genuinely imagined there would be a few hundred there to greet us. But to see 50,000 fans, that’s when it really sunk in.

“The confidence winning the World Cup gave me in my own personal life and on the rugby field was incredible.

“Yet I don’t remember it as this magnificent occasion that changed English rugby.

“I remember it as a good night out on the rugby field with my mates, doing what I loved doing at the highest level.”

When Greenwood was chosen for the British Lions tour to South Africa in 1997, he landed the call ahead of his first England cap.

Greenwood, though, believes the new British and Irish Lions captain Sam Warburton has the maturity to succeed in the Test series against Australia next month.

Warburton, 24, will be the youngest player to lead the Lions for 58 years.

“Sam’s appointment was a bit of a no-brainer,” added Greenwood.

“He’s quite a wise guy, an old head on young shoulders really.

“I also think that number seven is a good position for a captain; he’s right in the thick of everything and can keep a good steer on what’s going on around him.

“I was the same age as Sam on the Lions tour but was probably a lot more naïve than him.”

Greenwood grew up near Blackburn, attending Stonyhurst College, where his mother taught mathematics and father Dick coached at the famous Ribble Valley School.

“I lived in Smithy Row in Hurst Green. I walked out of the front gate, and the bowling green, cricket field and football pitches were right in front of me.

“Sport was always my life. Cricket, football, rugby, golf. The old man (Dick Greenwood) and a few of his mates helped set up Stonyhurst Park Golf Club.

“They still had sheep on the course in those days.

“People ask me if I have any regrets in life? Just one, that I never wore the Hurst Green Football Club shirt. Really. That’s how much it meant to me.

“I was always looking over our garden fence going, ‘Go on give us a shout – pick me.’ Greenwood learned his trade with Preston Grasshoppers before turning professional with Harlequins in 1994, eventually winning 55 caps for England.

“I loved it at Hoppers,” he added. “I’ll never forget playing in a fourth team match against Vale of Lune.

“There was this big old, fat lad, a giant of a fly-half, with more tape on his head than an Egyptian mummy.

“He saw me and thought, ‘There’s lunch.’ He hit me so hard I didn’t know what day it was.

“I was only 17, but he didn’t know my father was playing at number eight at the ripe old age of 49.

“My old man chased him across the field – it was like a wacky Benny Hill sketch – caught him, put two fingers up his nostrils and slapped him around the chops.

“He didn’t hit me again.”

* Will Greenwood was speaking in partnership with Microsoft who have launched a series of school lessons for teachers to promote greater term work among pupils.