Players / My World

Tom Rees

/ London Wasps and England

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I’m quite traditional when it comes to my favourite kits. I’m not a huge fan of the Stade Francais one, but I like the old-fashioned Auckland NPC shirt. The one with blue and white hoops.

 

I tend to look at any player at the top of his game for inspiration. When I started watching rugby, there was Richard Hill, Lawrence Dallaglio and Neil Back on the England back-row, and at least one of them used to be Man-of-the-Match while the others played well. If I see anything they’ve got, I try and leech it and incorporate it into my own game.

 

They are the best travelling support I’ve heard. Leinster came down in 2006 and when we were initially warming up, it felt like an away game. Our fans responded but the Irish teams travel very well.

 

I wouldn’t like to get on wrong side of him down a dark alley. Bakkies Botha, South Africa’s second-row is a very big and hard man. By the looks of him a lot of people would say Trevor Leota would be a fairly horrible experience, but he’s such a lovely bloke.

 

I just can’t get away from him Hask [James Haskell] is just one big bundle of energy and misguided enthusiasm. He’s got every sort of anachronism of a disease, ADD, OCD… I’m pretty sure he’ll say I’m dull and boring. We’re like chalk and cheese.

 

I’d change the weather and make it more of a summer game. I wouldn’t mind playing on dry pitches all year round it would definitely help the way I play, but then I’d be complaining it’s too hot, so I don’t think I’d change too much.

 

We were all wetting ourselves on the sidelines. Jonny O’Connor was running around like a mad man and was dragging the tackler around whilst trying to pull his shorts up. He fell and got them stuck and couldn’t pull them up over his cheeks. It’s was the funniest thing I’ve seen on a rugby field.

 

Food is my Achilles heel. I have a really sweet tooth, I love packets of wine gums, all the bad stuff, and I love trips to the cinema, bags of crisps and pick and mix. I have far too many dietary temptations.

 

There’s some other fella who’s got the name Tom Rees. He’s a bit of a fella about town and sometimes he’s mistaken for me. A few of the other boys know him and I hear some of them gossiping and he is certainly having more fun being me than I was.

 

I prefer to hang out in the pub with a few mates rather than go clubbing. I’d have a big meal, probably a fry-up breakfast, play a bit of touch rugby with my mates, followed by a big burger at lunchtime, and then just sit in front of the TV and watch a few films, play a few video games. That’s my idea of a perfect day…