Almost immortal, almost invisible. Why England worship their prop of ages

Jason Leonard interview: He has been a rock in the hardest place for longer than anyone, and he loves it more every day. Tim Glover meets him

With every appearance, the career of Jason Leonard looks all the more astonishing. Yesterday he won his 99th cap for England, a mind-boggling statistic for any player; but Leonard is not any player. He's a prop forward. In the world of rugby union, members of the front row are the first to go over the top, the first to fall.

Only two rugby players, Philippe Sella and David Campese, have reached a Test century and they were blazing a different orbit. Sella, the flamboyant Frenchman, was a centre; Campese, the audacious Australian, a wing. As artists they were expected to dazzle, score tries, win matches and make headlines.

And then comes the artisan, blinking into the dawn after a lifetime of trench warfare. "You know what you're going to get with me,'' Leonard said. "It's not about peaking all the time. You try to hit a tempo and sustain it, which is very hard to do nowadays, what with the length of the season and the game getting bigger, faster and harder.''

Last Tuesday morning he and his family were at Buckingham Palace, where the Queen presented him with his MBE. "It hasn't really sunk in. I tried to make a joke about my ears. One of them's splitting and it's not a pretty sight. I think she laughed. I thought, 'What the bloody hell am I doing here?' I looked around me and there were far more deserving people. I only play rugby. Whether or not I received an honour I'd still be playing rugby.''

When he emerged from the ballroom he was reunited with his sons, Harry, who is three, and Jack, 20 months. "Their faces were covered in chocolate and Harry was wearing a policeman's cap. There'd been plenty of bribery to keep them quiet.'' Chips off the old block.

Leonard, the son of a carpenter, a trade he later dovetailed into with his father, did not exactly emerge from a classic rugby background. An East Ender, he went to Warren Comprehensive, primarily a football school close to West Ham. At 14 he walked into Barking RFC one Sunday morning; 20 years later he's at Buckingham Palace, the most decorated prop in the history of the game. At 15, by which time he had left school, he was in the Barking Under-19s, celebrating the lifting of the Essex Cup. "I started to take rugby seriously. It was one activity to which I was totally devoted. I wanted to be fitter and stronger than everyone else.''

Therein lies a key to an old-fashioned LP, a long player who embraced the game and its amateur traditions, a favourite one of which was drinking gallons of beer after working up a thirst. There are thousands of them all over the country. There is, however, only one Leonard.

What has made him unique is that he not only survived the amateur era, when making ends meet was as difficult as winning Test matches, but has also prospered in the professional game, when many people expected him to join his contemporaries in a retirement home for worn-out pit props. "I know hundreds of people who absolutely hate going to work. They have to battle through traffic and then they're stuck in an office.''

Leonard, on the other hand, "absolutely loves'' his work. "I wake up on a Monday morning thinking I have the best job in the world. This is something I want to do. Then there's the financial gain. When I talk to kids I tell them that in the old days we didn't get paid anything and they look at you as if you're making up a story. It must be the soccer thing.''

It is Thursday morning in the five-star Pennyhill Park Hotel in the Surrey commuter belt. Leonard is in no hurry to leave his four-poster bed and join the rest of the England squad for breakfast. It is their day off. Some will stay on the complex and use the hotel's golf course; others, like Leonard, will drive home. They may not have the earning power of professional footballers but they are handsomely into six figures and it's getting better every year.

Where the hotel arrangements of most international teams have two players sharing a room, England's élite have a suite to themselves. "I shove a towel at the foot of the door so it's open,'' Leonard said. "If anybody wants a chat they're free to pop in.'' Pennyhill Park (£10 for a glass of Portuguese red) is where the Red Rose squad went on strike a couple of seasons ago. It was led by Martin Johnson, the England captain, and his shop stewards were Matt Dawson, Lawrence Dallaglio and Leonard. Given his cockney persona as a diamond geezer, the Henry Cooper of rugby, some were surprised at the prop's stance, but he can be as stubborn, as well as as strong, as a mule. After sharing in England's Grand Slam success in 1992, for the second year in succession, Leonard had played 19 Tests in 19 months and it took its toll. He could barely move his right arm, a scan revealing serious damage to his neck, where a disc was pressing on a nerve.

When told by a specialist he would need an operation, Leonard said: "I was in so much pain he could have told me he needed to cut my arm off and I would have agreed.'' The disc was replaced with one fashioned from bone taken from his pelvis. "There were two operations, one to get the bone from my pelvis, the other to insert it into my neck. The surgeon had to go through the front of my neck, either side of the throat.'' Leonard was unable to work for seven months.

In his autobiography, Jason Leonard, he writes: "As I worked as a freelance carpenter I had no income at all. The RFU had no insurance policy to help me. Apparently the premiums were too expensive. The RFU claimed that because it was an amateur sport they couldn't pay for the time I'd had to take off. This was an extreme attitude. I was one of England's best players, injured in the line of duty and found myself out of pocket by about £10k. I couldn't work because I could hardly lift a hammer, let alone hit anything with it.

"I desperately needed support but the RFU were more worried about protecting amateurism than one of their players. Finally they agreed I could have a one-off payment. It was a cheque for £800 towards my medical expenses. If I hadn't needed the money so much I would've torn it up and thrown it in their faces.''

No surprise, then, that when it came to "industrial action'', Leonard, who is nothing if not streetwise, was in the front line. In one sense he was fortunate. There was no England tour that year and he didn't miss a single Test, resuming his international career against Canada in October, maintaining a sequence that brought him 40 consecutive Tests between 1990 and 1995.

"There was a danger from the injury that I would never play again but the desire and the passion has always been there. I can't describe the feeling of representing your country. Whether it's one cap or 99 it's never diminished. I've also been very lucky.''

He says the latest example of his good fortune came a few weeks ago. Trevor Woodman was the first-choice loose-head against New Zealand. "He was one of our best players,'' Leonard said. "He was close to being man of the match and then he picks up a knock in training.''

Leonard regained possession of the No 1 jersey against Australia last week, his 98th Test. To put Leonard's achievement in perspective, Jeff Probyn had been England's most capped prop with 36 appearances. Johnson is still going strong with 70, but otherwise the LP chart is dominated by backs – Rory Underwood, Will Carling, Rob Andrew and Jeremy Guscott.

Probyn, incidentally, was technically the best prop Leonard has ever played with or against. "He was only 15-and-a-half stone but he was so strong and flexible. He would often have his opposite number looking at the second row behind him. They used to cut their sleeves off so he couldn't get hold of them and still he'd beat them. Olo Brown had everything and with Sean Fitzpatrick and Craig Dowd that All Blacks front row was probably the best I've faced. I'd be absolutely buckled afterwards but they'd be the first to come over for a beer and a chat. The most bruising was Pascal Ondarts. When we play the French I know I'm going to be involved in a torrid, bloody battle. It's almost like a scene from Gladiator, with bodies strewn everywhere and massive brawls going on. Ondarts was physically the toughest tight-head.''

Leonard now has to wait until 15 February, when England play France at Twickenham in the opening match of the Six Nations' Championship, to see if he can reach the century. He has left Fitzpatrick (92 caps) and Serge Blanco (93) in his slipstream and only Campese (101) and Sella (111), both of whom have long since retired, are in front.

"I tend to look at everything in the short term,'' Leonard said, "but I can't not think about the ton. Like moving from nine to 10 or 19 to 20, I always want one more cap. So many people want me to get to 100. I get scores of letters saying they would love to see me do it. I just want to play.''

If and when the great moment arrives, photographers licking their lips in anticipation of "Jase the Ace'' balancing 100 caps on his head should think of another angle. He has only one cap, awarded after his debut, a baptism of ire, post Falklands War, against Argentina in Buenos Aires in 1990. However, England players who reach the half-century receive a silver replica of their cap. "I haven't got a clue what will happen if I get the ton,'' Leonard said.

It was against Argentina, at Twickenham in 1996, that Leonard captained his country and scored his only try. "The back line wasn't going that well so in the last 20 minutes I said we'd take it in the forwards and that's when the try came. We had a lineout, we drove forward and all of a sudden I came round and found my hands on the ball, I had Mark Regan at my side and we drove for the line. As I'm not one to celebrate – I'd never jump up and down or anything like that – the cameras got it wrong. I scored and Mark picked the ball up so everyone thought he'd scored. When we came in the press were asking who'd scored. I said it was me but Mark said it was all of us, a forwards try. Sorry, but I can't let that one go. It was me – I had my hands on it.''

Leonard is reluctant to admit it but the prospect of playing in his fourth World Cup, in Australia next autumn, has crossed his mind. Only one player, Gareth Rees of Canada, has played in four. "I just look at the next game,'' Leonard said, and his diary tells him that next Saturday it's Harlequins against his old club Saracens.

"After that I've no idea. I can say that if I make it to the World Cup it will be my last international appearance.'' He knows that England have a great chance down under and it would be the perfect finale.

"My worst moment was losing to Australia in the 1991 World Cup final. It still rankles. To this day I can't watch the video of that match.''

Biography: Jason Leonard MBE

Born: 14 August, 1968, in Barking.

Height: 5ft 10in.

Weight: 17st 2lb.

Position: Prop.

Clubs: Barking, Saracens, Harlequins.

International career: England: Debut: 28 July 1990 v Argentina; 99 caps; one try. Lions: 1993, 1997, 2001 tours; 5 caps.

Honours: Awarded the MBE in 2002. 1991, 1992 & 1995 Grand Slams with England. World Cup runner-up in 1991. 1990 Division Two champion with Saracens. 1991 Pilkington Cup winner and 1992 runner-up with Harlequins.

Also: Is the most capped forward in international rugby and the third most capped player in any position ever.