Players / My World

Matt Stevens

/ Bath and England

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My most treasured possession is a watch my father gave to me on my 21st birthday. It’s a Hauer watch, before Tag and Hauer merged, and it was what he bought himself on his 21st when he learned to fly.

 

If I could compete in any sporting moment from history I would love to have been Muhammad Ali against George Foreman during Rumble in the Jungle.

 

My favourite fictional character is Bilbo Baggins. I love the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It’s quite geekish I know.

 

If I could come back as any person, animal or object, it would have to be Frank Sinatra.

 

My motto is always be loyal to your mates and your team-mates and put your body on the line in every game

 

The most daring thing I’ve ever done was bunking out of boarding school after Sunday chapel. I caught an African taxi, which was like this rickety old van that transported you to and from work, to the beachfront in Durban and got on the lash. I was 18, and managed to get back at 6 o’clock and went straight to chapel on Monday morning.

 

I don’t think rugby needs changing just for changes sake, but if changes were made to make the game a better spectacle and more enjoyable to watch, and if those laws had a positive effect, then sure bring them in. I’m not one for being rooted in one particular format of playing, so I’m up for the challenge of the experimental law variations.

 

I love rugby because I really enjoy the competition. It’s hugely physically competitive and that physicality brings a special dimension to rugby what other sports don’t have. It’s like boxing and American football, massively gladiatorial sports that give you a certain kind of thrill, which you get from that kind of physicality that you wouldn’t get from any another sport.

 

I have lists of hundreds of dietary temptations but my top three would be cheese, chocolate and ice cream.

 

I’d like to think I would be a rockstar if I wasn’t playing rugby, but I don’t think that’s possible, not with this face. Possibly something in the hospitality business, I love entertaining and looking after people.