Greatness beckons for Rees

Tom Rees has been tipped as a potential England great as he prepares to make his delayed pre-World Cup arrival on Saturday.

Wasps flanker Rees, 22, is the youngest forward in the world champions’ 30-man World Cup squad, where he finds himself surrounded by experienced, revered figures like Lawrence Dallaglio, Martin Corry, Phil Vickery and Mark Regan.

But the openside specialist is set to have a huge impact on the World Cup campaign if he produces performances England’s coaching staff believe he is capable of.

Rees has shrugged off two frustrating injury setbacks – a knee problem, then hamstring trouble – to feature in Saturday’s final warm-up game against France.

And while England face a fearsome task trying to topple the French in Marseille - a city where they almost never – Rees’ mere appearance is worth celebrating from an English perspective.

Forwards coach John Wells said: “Tom got big applause when he came on to the training pitch for the first time this week.

“As a coaching team, we think very highly of him, and the players do as well. We are hoping his injuries are behind him – he is a quality player who will add something to this side.

“Tom has had good players and coaches around him at Wasps. His defensive game is very good – the last six months of last season you saw more rounded performances from him.

“He has the potential to go on and be one of England’s greats in that position.”

Rees will have openside back-up at the World Cup from Lewis Moody and Joe Worsley.

Yet, despite his relative lack of Test experience, he could develop into one of England’s most priceless players.

Wells added: “We’ve gone for one genuine seven and two guys we know have had experience of playing international rugby at seven.

“Lewis Moody has won a lot of man-of-the-match awards playing seven, and Joe has showed he his capable of playing there against good opposition.”

For now though, the attention is all on Rees, and he admits it has been frustrating finding himself sidelined.

He said: “I had hoped to be part of the first France game last weekend, but I tweaked my hamstring at the end of training.

“It was beginning to be a bit of a comedy of errors.

“The knee was really frustrating because it hadn’t bothered me in the time off (after the Heineken Cup final). It was fine when I got back into training with England, so to tweak my hamstring was so annoying.

“There were times with the knee when I sat there thinking ’this isn’t getting any better. Am I out of the running?’

“But there had been a lot of talk about mental toughness, so it wouldn’t have been right if I had sat there whingeing the whole time.”

As for the expectancy surrounding his return to action, Rees added: “There’s not much pressure is there?

“The hype has grown because I have not been around.

“Obviously, there are things I can bring to the team, and I need to make sure I go out and do that.”

The England spotlight will not just be on Rees at Stade Velodrome, where England lost by a point on their last visit just before the 2003 World Cup.

Number eight Nick Easter’s display will also command close attention, especially with squad colleague – and rival – Lawrence Dallaglio lurking on the replacements’ bench.

Easter scored four tries during England’s record romp against Wales 11 days ago, but Dallaglio also shone against infinitely tougher opposition – France - at Twickenham on Saturday.

Wells said: “Lawrence showed up well last week against a very good French team, and he did what we asked of him very well.

“It was difficult to judge the two (Easter and Dallaglio) because of the way the two games against Wales and France went.

“Nick has got to show the qualities that brought him into the side – his ball-carrying ability, his support play, his use of his hands, his offloading game – that could maybe make a difference against the better teams.

“In terms of the World Cup back-row selection, we’ve gone for experience and big game knowledge at this moment in time.

“We made a progression from the Welsh game to the France match last Saturday, and we have now got to make another progression in terms of how we use the ball and the balance of our game this weekend.”