Sam James

Sam James played every minute of the 2018-19 Premiership season. No other player in the competition did. He made 236 appearances for one club across eleven years and was never capped by England.

Centre, full-back or fly-half at Racing 92, 1.95m and 94kg, and 32 years old.

He grew up in Manchester and was a ball boy at Edgeley Park before Sale signed him in 2012. His debut came at the end of the following season, and then nothing for eighteen months. His younger brother Luke is also a professional.

The breakthrough season was 2015-16: seven tries in twenty-four matches, a first cap for the England Saxons on tour in South Africa, and a four-year contract. England A used him against the Barbarians in May 2017 and the senior squad took him to Argentina a month later without playing him.

The honours came late. A domestic cup in 2020, beating Harlequins 27-19, and a place in the Premiership team of the season. In 2022-23 he scored twice in the final-round win over Newcastle that took Sale second, and came on for Manu Tuilagi in a final Saracens won.

He left at 29 after a semi-final defeat by Bath, with Pau, Racing and a Japanese club all interested, and chose the Top 14 and Stuart Lancaster, a fellow Englishman. His first match was a start at centre alongside Gaël Fickou.

A three-position back of long standing, and one of the better English players of his generation never to be capped.