Pure class.

David Pocock is one of the best rugby players in the world, hands down. The Wallabies flanker is an absolute human wrecking ball, and arguably the greatest poacher the game has ever seen.

But he’s also probably one of the nicest guys ever. He commands respect, but at the same time affords that same respect to everyone he comes up against. World Rugby identifies integrity, passion, solidarity, discipline and respect as the defining character-building characteristics of rugby. And Pocock is the perfect ambassador.

He spends his spare time carrying out humanitarian work, tirelessly trying to better the world we live in – and this is something that began for Pocock at a very early age. Just ask new Cardiff Blues head coach John Mulvihill.

The Australian recently spoke to Rugby Pass and recalled coaching an 18-year-old Pocock at Western Force. The teenage flanker won a man-of-the-match award while playing for the Aussie franchise, and with it a cheque for $1,000.

“What would you do with 1,000 bucks?” Mulvill rhetorically asked the reporter.

I for one can say if that was an 18-year-old me – that money was getting deposited behind a bar, or blown on some shiny new gadget. But David Pocock is different. He decided to go into a discount department store and buy 20x $50 sleeping bags.

“He threw them in his car, drove round Perth,” Mulvihill says.

“He got out of his car and saw a guy on the side of the street, and said ‘listen mate, I hope this will help you feel a bit more protected and safe and what-have-you’. He did that.”

By the time he decided to call it a night all 20 of the sleeping bags had been handed out to Perth’s homeless. What an absolute hero of a man.