“There aren’t many better tradesmen in the game than Michael,” he said.”He is something that all your young back-rowers should aspire to be – not just a tradesman, but a master tradesman. He does all the little things right and has the confidence to make the right decisions at the right time.”Perhaps not every career decision has been as incontrovertible. Given his time again, Forshaw might not have been as eager to leave his beloved home-town club when he despaired of becoming a Wigan regular and he might have given his baffling little stint with Saracens a miss.Since joining Bradford in 1997, however, he has become a classic, late-blossoming success story. Initially regarded primarily as a second-row grafter, he has reinvented himself as a creative loose forward, with the result that it now strikes few people as odd that the Great Britain No 13 shirt, heavy with the symbolic sweat of the great players who have worn it, is in his possession rather than Andy Farrell’s or Paul Sculthorpe’s.For all their outstanding qualities, it has been Forshaw’s off-loading that has arguably given the Kiwis the most trouble during the current series.

Like most things he does on the field, it is well thought out.”If you shift the ball, they can struggle. They’ve got so many big players and we have people with the agility to take advantage. The point is that we can’t match them in collision all the time.”They have a reputation for off-loading the ball, but at times we’ve beaten them at their own game. Wigan is the best environment we could have for the third Test and the best thing about it is that we know we can still improve.”It will, he feels, be a perfect way to leave an international stage that, at some junctures of his career, he could barely have imagined stepping upon.”I’ll be 33 by the time Australia come here next year and I can’t imagine being picked.

There are so many good young back-rowers coming through that if I’m in the side something has gone wrong.”Waite disagrees, urging him to keep his options open, but, if this does turn out to be his swan-song, he will have few regrets. “It’s all a matter of your form, but if, after this, it’s all a matter of playing well for Bradford, I won’t be disappointed.”It is typical of Forshaw that his probable last Test on Saturday could be overshadowed by the simultaneous departures of O’Connor and Connolly, two players who arrived at Wigan after he had been discarded.Connolly is being put out to grass at Orrell, which Forshaw considers regrettable on two counts. “It’s a shame he’s leaving the game because he’s shown in this series that he can still step up a level.”Seeing the way he’s played, I wonder whether Maurice Lindsay might be having a few second thoughts. He’s been a fantastic player and I thought it was a shame that he just retired at Wigan without any publicity.”Terry O’Connor is a real 100 per cent player. He was knocked out about four times in the second Test, but he just kept coming back for more.”Prop is still the toughest position in the game and he obviously thinks it’s the right time to go. But if he has an injury-free season next year he might get itchy feet again.”Mike Forshaw should know. He has suffered from that affliction before and, if David Waite has his way, he could have a recurrence next autumn..

Jason Leonard, proud owner of 98 England caps and looking forward to a 99th when the Springboks come knocking on Twickenham’s door this weekend, received his MBE at Buckingham Palace yesterday. (The sight of two fantastically gruesome cauliflower ears put the tin lid on a fairly rough month for his hostess, for they are not a pretty sight at the best of times, let alone within an hour or so of the royal breakfast). Yet the real joy was felt by Phil Christophers, who has made precisely 97 fewer international appearances than the Harlequins prop. As Christophers is a specialist left wing, Ben Cohen has been shifted the width of the pitch and will start on the right. Otherwise, England go in with the formation that did for the Wallabies, albeit by a single point, last Saturday.Christophers is armed with a sharp mind – certainly, he is bright enough not to be carried away by one illness-induced call-up. “I think we need a reality check here,” he said, a few minutes after learning of Clive Woodward’s decision “I’m playing because James has dropped out.