'Freak': Skelton names toughest team and best player he has faced

Barbarians lock Will Skelton has revealed the team that he finds the toughest to play against and the best player he has ever faced. The La Rochelle second row is in London this week to represent the Baa-Baas against England on Sunday after his club was knocked out of the Top 14 title race last weekend by Toulouse.

La Rochelle were hoping to complete a Heineken Champions Cup/Top 14 title double as they had defeated Leinster in last month’s European final in Marseille. However, they were defeated in the French league at the barrage stage by Toulouse, their nemesis on the double last season as they lost both European and Top 14 finals against them.

That record is a scar that weighs on the mind of Skelton as he now named Toulouse as the toughest team he has ever played against. “It’s so fresh,” he told RugbyPass Offload during a guest appearance on the show ahead of his representative game this weekend for the Baa-Baas at Twickenham.

“Toulouse has been a challenge for me in the last two years. We have played them six times and we have lost every game. (Antoine) Dupont, he’s a freak. For me, in the last few years, Toulouse have been the toughest.”

That answer was followed by another quick-fire question: Name the best player he has ever played against? “Owen (Farrell), he’s a freak. And then once you get to know him you see what makes him tick, how competitive he is, how driven he is. It makes the decision even clearer that he is one of the toughest I have ever played against.”

Skeleton became a teammate of Farrell’s at Saracens in winter 2016 when he came to London on loan from the Waratahs and he then went on to play three seasons at the club after penning a full-time deal in 2017.

The Australian is now part of a Barbarians XV that contains 14 starting players who play for Top 14 clubs. Ex-England lock George Kruis is the sole exception in the side named on Thursday evening by head coach Fabien Galthie.