Players / My World

Matt Stevens

/ Bath and England

Born in South Africa, Matt represented the Baby Boks at U18 and U19 level before joining Bath in 2002. He reached the final of ITV’s The X Factor: Battle of the Stars in 2006, although it still hasn’t dispelled his explosive reputation as a fearless front-rower.

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My idea of rugby happiness would be pure running rugby, exciting champagne rugby, the ball would be moving quickly across the field and I’d basically be winning – wow that’s deep.

 

My worst rugby fear would be to run onto the field naked.

 

If I could be any rugby player in history it’d have to be Jonah Lomu and you don’t really need to ask why.

 

I really admire guys like Steve Borthwick, Danny Grewcock, Lee Mears, guys that I’m playing with at the moment, they are all guys I look up to and have huge amounts of respect for because they are in big positive phases of their careers at the moment.

 

My worst trait would be that i’m not particularly tidy. I leave things lying around all the time, I’m not particularly careful with my possessions.

 

My best trait would be that I’m generally quite a happy and enthusiastic bloke.

 

I’ve definitely lied to further my career. When my coach asked me if I was injured I’ve often said no.

 

I wouldn’t want to meet Danny Grewcock down a dark alley. He’s fine after a couple of beers, it’s maybe slightly harsh, he’s a very controlled person, but I wouldn’t like to meet him down a dark alley if he had ill intention in mind.

 

I went over to Danny and asked him to punch me. Have you ever heard something so stupid in your life? I went over to Danny because I needed blood so we didn’t have to go to uncontested scrums. Danny is a dull instrument at the best of times, but he wouldn’t make me bleed, he’d knock me out, so it wasn’t the brightest thing I’ve ever done in my life.

 

The best thing about being a prop is the one-on-one contest. No matter what game you play, you know your always going to have a match up with your opposite opponent. And it’s a pure contest of strength.

 

My toughest game was when I was about 20 and I came up against Olivier Milloud against Bourgoin in the Heineken Cup and he gave me a good ruffing up that day but since then I’ve got my own back