Gone in 12 seconds - is Morley ultimate hard man?

Adrian Morley won 53 international caps with Great Britain and England

Mention the rugby league Ashes, and it's hard not to think of Adrian Morley, a brutal hit and a red card after just 12 seconds.

Whatever happens when Australia visit this October and November, the series is unlikely to start quite as explosively as that first Test in Wigan 22 years ago.

One of the most feared forwards in the game, Morley poleaxed Australia prop Robbie Kearns straight from the kick-off with a high tackle.

The Great Britain forward, who played his club rugby in the NRL for Sydney Roosters at the time, was dismissed by referee Steve Ganson with the words: "Adrian. Adrian. It's a real bad one. It's across the chin. You're off mate."

Morley's former Great Britain team-mate Jon Wilkin said: "He said that when he got sent off, he was back in the dressing room before the mascot had taken his head off.

"The mascot took his head off and said 'What are you doing back in here?'"

Wilkin, Jamie Peacock and Brian Noble have recalled the extraordinary incident for a new weekly BBC podcast which has its first episode released on Thursday - Rugby League Top 10.

In the first episode, presenter Mark Chapman sets them the task of ranking the sport's hard men.

Former Great Britain captain Peacock, who played alongside Morley in that 2003 series, said: "His brother got to the game late. He got to his seat about 20 minutes in, and said 'I think I'm going to put some money on. Has our Adrian scored?' And someone replied 'Well, you can ask him, he's sat there'."

Each week Peacock, Noble and Wilkin will discuss, debate and argue over lists of the best players, games, finals and iconic moments in rugby league.

But as Chapman pointed out, the lists don't cover the entire history of rugby league, "because we'd be here for hours", and nor are they restricted to the Super League era. Instead, "the cut-off point for these lists is roughly 40 years ago".

Morley, the first British player to win a Grand Final in both Super League and the NRL, is one of 10 hard men that the panel must rank - with the others, in alphabetical order, being: Stuart Fielden, Thomas Leuluai, Barrie McDermott, Terry Newton, Malcolm Reilly, Kelvin Skerrett, Gorden Tallis, Ruben Wiki and Paul Wood.

The Rugby League Top 10s team: Mark Chapman, Jamie Peacock, Brian Noble and Jon Wilkin

Former Wigan and Great Britain prop Skerrett makes the list, in part, for his infamous swing at Castleford's Andy Hay during the 1994 Regal Trophy final.

The incident took place in front of a Headingley crowd that included chat show legend Michael Parkinson - and much later went viral thanks to the fury it inspired in a club video commentator.

"I played with Kelvin and Kelvin could be violent," former Great Britain head coach Noble recalled.

"He's probably responsible for one of the great commentary lines of all time from Mick Morgan: 'I can't spake.'"

Leeds prop McDermott played with an arm guard and a glass eye - having lost his right eye as a teenager in an accident with an air rifle - and Peacock recalled the way he used to intimidate opponents.

"He used to swap his glass eye before a game," Peacock said. "So he had a normal one – his civilian glass eye – and he swapped it for his more intimidating glass eye.

"Its pupil was black and it also had a bit of bloodshot in there as well."

The first episode of the Rugby League Top 10 podcast will be available this Thursday, 21 August - listen on BBC Sounds.

England face Australia in the rugby league Ashes at Wembley on 25 October, Everton's new Hill Dickinson Stadium on 1 November and AMT Headingley on 8 November (all 14:30 kick-offs) - with all three matches televised live in the UK on the BBC.