What has been your best rugby experience? Winning the 2003 World Cup - I have never felt under as much pressure and never put in as much hard work. That was the moment.

What about your worst? Losing 36-0 to South Africa in the 2007 World Cup was certainly hard to swallow. In rugby league I got dropped for the first time before the 1994 Challenge Cup final for Va’aiga Tuigamala - I was not even on the bench despite scoring three tries for the reserves in the previous game. I was immature but he was such a lovely guy and talked to me to make sure there was no animosity.

When did you first realise you had a gift for rugby? I was about 15 before I was offered my first contract. I was really tiny when I first started, I didn’t weigh more than a bag of sugar but I loved the physical side of it and after playing everything - football, tennis, cricket and golf - I realised it was rugby league for me.

What ambitions do you have in your life after sport? I want to work with kids. Whenever, as a kid, anybody came to help us it was a great encouragement. The HSBC youth rugby festivals initiative has given me the chance to go all over the UK and Ireland - and to South Africa - and encourage the next generation.

Which sportsmen did you most admire as a child? Ellery Hanley and Garry Schofield. I was really into rugby league and seeing other black men like Hanley involved in the game was a great boost.

Which figure outside sport impresses you most? I don’t really have one. Someone who has made a massive difference to me is Va’aiga Tuigamala because I have such respect for the way he lived. He changed the course of my life because I was in a right mess. I admire and respect him - he walked the walk and didn’t just talk the talk. I admire people like Muhammad Ali and Lewis Hamilton who have committed themselves and achieved such a level of excellence, and, above all, been so consistent. Jonny Wilkinson is another, he was so dedicated.

Can you relax when you are watching rugby? Now I am not playing it’s a lot easier. When you’re playing you want to get on and change things. I can see the skills and be happy for players like Delon Armitage. I’ve got contentment now.

What music do you like? A lot of it is Christian music. With modern music there’s a lot of twaddle out there, a lot of it is not worth listening to. I would not want my children to repeat the lyrics. Music plays an important part in being a Christian. If you listen to the old hymns the lyrics are powerful.

What would you have done if you had not found rugby? I would have been a bricklayer. I’d been offered a job after going to building college but when it came down to either laying bricks or rugby, I think I made the right choice.

What is your most embarrassing sporting memory? Playing rugby league against Castleford. They kicked into our in-goal area and as I went to kick the ball dead it hit the point and bounced backwards. I missed it completely, lost my balance and ended flat on my back. One of their players scored and then the rest of them came over and patted me on the head.

Jason Robinson is an ambassador for HSBC, sponsors of the 2009 British and Irish Lions