Leigh Halfpenny
Age: 26
Height: 1.78m/5ft 10in
Weight: 85kg/13st 5lb
Positionally excellent and the best goal kicker in the world but Delon Armitage is a superior attacking fullback. That's a trade off Bernard Laporte is willing to accept as he knows better than most - having lost at the 2003 and 2007 World Cups - the accumulation of three pointers is what wins semi-finals.
Delon Armitage
Age: 31
Height: 1.91m/6ft 3in
Weight: 93kg/14st 9lb
Brilliant, cranky, elegant, rugby player whose exchanges with Luke Fitzgerald will be captivating as both have the ability to conjure up opportunities with the merest hint of space. Accurate long-range penalty taker as well.
Mathieu Bastareaud
Age: 26
Height: 1.83m/6 ft
Weight: 120kg/18st 13lb
Him again. Basta will inevitably skittle blue jerseys, making it important for Ben T'eo and the backrow to be steeled for the his bowling ball carries. Grenoble coach Mike Prendergast believes his outside channel is Toulon's Achilles heel. That and their lineout.
Matt Giteau
Age: 32
Height: 178cm/5ft 10in
Weight: 85kg/13st 5lb
Toulon's key man. When the pack aren't horsing their way through opponents, the attack flows from Giteau's sleight of hand on the gainline. A wonderful player sorely missed by the Wallabies.
Bryan Habana
Age: 31
Height: 1.80m/5ft 11in
Weight: 94kg/14st 11lb
One of the great winger's going forward, not that he's a liability retreating, with 57 tries in 106 Test matches and still in his prime. A proven match winner at the highest level.
Frédéric Michalak
Age: 32
Height: 1.82m/6ft
Weight: 85kg/13st/5lb
His liability factor is lessened when Halfpenny was passed fit to play and place kick. Still susceptible to petulance if matters start to go wrong with a kicking game that Rob Kearney can capitalise on.
Sébastien Tillous-Borde
Age: 29
Height: 1.76m/5ft 9in
Weight: 87kg/13st 10lb
A patchy seven-year international career was revived this season but the selection musings of Philippe Saint-André are hardly a ringing endorsement. Doesn't so much direct traffic as get out of his pack's way.
Xavier Chiocci
Age: 25
Height: 1.8m/5ft 11in
Weight: 110 kg/17st 5lb
Baby in the pack, a decent loosehead who served his apprenticeship under Andrew Sheridan and for a shorter time Gethin Jenkins. That can only be of enormous benefit as he seeks to unhinge Mike Ross.
Guilhem Guirado
Age: 28
Height: 1.83m/ 6ft
Weight: 105kg/16st 7lb
Speedy, penetrative ball carrying hooker with the ability to offload like a centre as he showed for Maxime Mermoz's try in France's Six Nations defeat at Twickenham last month.
Carl Hayman
Age: 35
Height: 1.94m/6ft 4in
Weight: 120kg/18st 13lb
A masterful scrummager and easy choice to succeed Jonny Wilkinson as Toulon captain, he nears the end of a career that should have lasted longer with the All Blacks but instead he became the highest paid rugby player anywhere after the 2007 World Cup.
Bakkies Botha
Age: 35
Height: 2.02m/6ft 71½in
Weight: 124kg/19st 7lb
Another counting time before the boots are hung up, his gargantuan frame allied by aggression levels are yet to be matched, making him the ultimate enforcer and core of Toulon's maul.
Ali Williams
Age: 33
Height: 2.02m/6ft 7½in
Weight: 118kg/18st 8lb
Another retiring this summer, must ensure Leinster's defensive lineout doesn't disrupt Guirado's throwing. Admittedly crumbling knees and shoulders but still possesses the iron will of a world champion.
Juan Smith
Age: 33
Height: 1.96m/6ft 5 in
Weight: 112kg/17st 9lb
In his prime one of the game's great flankers, there remains a level of athleticism not deemed sufficient for a Springbok recall but every other nation would move mountains to utilise his creaking limbs to the end.
Juan Martín Fernandez Lobbe
Age: 33
Height: 1.93m/6ft 4in
Weight: 108kg/17st
Lineout option and restart gathering get him into the backrow ahead of Mamuka Gorgodze and Steffon Armitage. The Puma captain also brings leadership and a deep well of experience.
Chris Masoe
Age: 35
Height: 1.88m/6 ft 2in
Weight: 106kg/16st 10lb
Another old man still battling an unforgiving sea, like the others he must be dragged from pillar to post if Leinster are to have any hope. Will probably make way for Steffon Armitage around the 50-minute mark.
