JOSEPH WOODWARD

The Leicester Tigers centre is blooming following a breakout season under Michael Cheika

- JOE ROBINSON

NOT MANY up-and-coming centres can say they've learned from a two-time World Cup-winning fly-half.

Nor can many say they have picked up valuable insight outside a halfback who has played more than a decade at the top in France, England, New Zealand and Australia. Yet 22-year-old Joseph Woodward has done both.

“Handré Pollard is an amazing player, a double World Cup winner, but he was very relaxed, which is something I picked up off him,” the Leicester centre tells Rugby World.

“You don’t need to be really rigid like a robot. He is on it, intense, but also relaxed when he needs to be. When mistakes happened, he wasn’t on your case, he pumped you up with confidence. In the heat of the moment, like a Premiership semifinal, he was so calm. It was the biggest lesson I learned from him.