Patrick: Afternoon Matt, how are you today?

Matt Stevens: Very well thanks, you?

Not bad thanks. Sorry to hear about your injury…

No it's fine, I've been injured for the last 6 months on and off now because of a recurring shoulder injury. I've just had open surgery done on it 9 weeks ago though, getting on 10 weeks now and it looks as though it's working out ok. Everything's going pretty good and the rehab's going well so I should be back in January.

So missing the Autumn Tests then unfortunately.

Yes.

I read that the first operation didn't go quite according to plan?

No it didn't. It was osteoscopic surgery and my bone in my shoulder was very hard and it sheared the actual anchor that they put it into your shoulder and it kind of, broke the screws when they were trying to put it in so that didn't work.

Painful?

The first operation wasn't painful but the second one was because it was open and they had to cut through all the muscles. It's ok now though.

Missing the latter part of the Six Nations last season, the Summer Tour and now these Autumn Tests, surely that must be frustrating from an England point of view?

Very frustrating and I hate watching my fellow team-mates play, and given the chance, playing for England again would be a great honour and I'd be very happy to do it; it's just one of those things you have to live with in rugby.

With the World Cup so soon you must be anxious to cement your place in the starting line up.

Exactly, and a lot of cementing is needed because there's a lot of good props in my position so I've got a lot of work to do. When I first got to Bath , I was playing as a 19 year old and they were playing me off the bench and slowly bringing me into it. Now that I've reached the ripe old age of 24 I feel like I've got the experience to take on the starting role and in the last Six Nations I can probably say that I was the starting tighthead prop. That's what I want to carry on with.

Great! I'm sure you've been asked this question a few times before but why England and not South Africa ? [question from Plymouth Pirate]

Why England… well my dad and grandfather's English so it was a choice that I had to make; also considering I lived in South Africa for 18-19 years it was a difficult one but one that I'm very happy with and that I'm glad I made.

In terms of England , what's been your favourite game so far, that you played in?

Wow, [thinks] probably my first game which wasn't even a capped one. It was against the NZ Barbarians but it was quite amazing because it was the first game back from the World Cup and I got to play with some World Cup winners. You're not really that presumptuous to think that you'll ever play in an international side and I was playing with the likes of Ben Cohen, Steve Thompson, Will Greenwood and Mike Tindall; just guys that I really looked up to and it was an amazing experience. I scored a try and we ended up winning the game which wouldn't have been a good one to lose straight after the World Cup! [laughs]

I know what you mean! I also thought you had a great game against Wales in this years' Six Nations. Yeah I really did enjoy playing in that game and obviously I ended up getting Man of the Match which was good, whether that was deserved or not… It was very deserved… Thank you. Well it was a coming of age for me that game because I really felt like I had stopped playing the youngster's role; although I was the youngster, I was playing a more experienced player's role and that's the role I want to play in the upcoming World Cup. I want to be up there and first choice.

Fantastic. Now, you just graduated I hear, congratulations; same here.

Good man! Well done.

Thanks, I'm sure the beer had some impact on my results though!

[laughs]

But what's it like mixing studies and your rugby career?

Very difficult because I was a full time rugby player and basically a full time student for most of my university career. The professors did give me some extra time to do stuff with the Lions tour, England and a hundred and one other practises I had to go to all the time but I didn't go to many lectures, I did most of the studying from tutorials with my tutors and professors and got through it that way. I just managed to scrape through in the end but it was something I'm very pleased I did.

Glad to hear it. I suppose some people might not consider a degree their top priority if they're doing so well in sport, though obviously not you.

Well that was never the case with me. I came to England to study first and I'm a big believer in balance and I think if I was just a rugby player I'd drive myself crazy. You need to do other things, especially in that younger stage in your life, for me at least. I think I need to go and do something with my sport and that was studying, I wanted to broaden my horizons, deepen my knowledge and make friends outside rugby. You tend only make friends in rugby if you play the game but now I've got diverse group of mates which is great!

Which player or players have influenced you the most would you say? [Andy R]

I'd definitely have to say some of the people here at the club. Danny Grewcock definitely, Mike Catt, Steve Thompson, Ben Cohen, Lee Mears. All those guys. My contemporaries, but my contemporaries are all older than I am and a lot more experienced than me.

Is Lee older than you?

Lee's much older than me. He's 26. 2 years… 26, 27? 3 years older than me. In rugby it's like dog years, it's a long time! [laughs] But he's also very experienced, he's one of the most capped premiership players. I look up to Lee, but I look up Danny more. And guys like Lewis Moody. All the England players I'm a bit in awe of. So yeah it's been an amazing experience for me.

Meeting all these players on the Lions tour must have been great?

That was just crazy, just meeting the likes of Brian O'Driscoll… well I could go on forever couldn't I but there's so many players I got to meet and play with. And when you play with people like that you generally improve as a player.

What about opposition wise, who are your most respected or formidable guys you come up against in the scrum? [Sheep Dipper]

Well it varies really because often you have players that are very good scrummagers but not necessarily that good around the park or vice versa. I think Phil Vickery would be one of my biggest rugby heroes. As a player, he epitomises to me what playing rugby is about. Strong, physical, very dynamic, fast; all those characteristics. And he's unbelievably competitive, that's what the modern rugby player is all about and it's something I aspire to. I think, there are a couple of props who are probably better scrummagers than he is but not necessarily better all around. Olivier Milloud is a brilliant scrummaging prop, same with David Flatman and Duncan Bell. So, there are a lot of candidates but I'd say Phil Vickery, oh and Os Du Randt is up there as well.

When you're with England , do the club players tend to stick together as opposed to mixing with others?

I suppose to an extent initially, but I think we're all good mates and I think Martin Corry has really built a good emphasis on team spirit; the boys really come together and feel like we're all mates. That's important in any team to have that feeling because when you go on the field, you're playing for yourself and everything else I mentioned before, but the person who's gonna be backing you up is the guy standing next to you so you need that kind of friendship.

What about with the Lions?

It's weird, the Lions is a very special tour because it transcends all that politics and I spent most of my time with a lot of the Irish and Welsh blokes to be honest. You obviously have your mates from England and you know them best but it's definitely good to know some of these different players. You end up forgetting about England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales and you really do think more about the Lions as a kind of culture, it's not about the other countries it's about being one.

Closest friends?

Well I suppose a lot of them are at Bath , Michael Lipman, Lee Mears, Mike Tindall, Danny Grewcock, he's a legend but he's also one of those very humble people that takes you under his wing and is a great bloke.

Let's talk about your time on the X-Factor! Why did you do it? [Lottie]

I was injured, I had nothing else to do, I like singing and it sounded like fun so I did it! [grins]

Any performances you particularly enjoyed? One of the singing coaches I was seeing was an opera voice coach, Yvie, she's a lovely girl and the other was Mark Hudson, he's that guy with the multi-coloured beard, very loud and… American. He really helped me with this one song, ‘Don't Want To Miss A Thing'. It's a very rocky song done by Aerosmith and the guy's voice is an unbelievable one, very high range. And I had to get this range and ended up getting it on the night. It might not have been that amazing to anyone else listening but for me it was great to be able to sing that song and not actually go off key.

Cool. So was that your favourite would you say?

Well that and I liked the swing numbers like Mack The Knife. I can do that in my sleep because I grew up singing those kind of songs.

What about Sharon , what was she like to work with?

Lovely, we still stay in contact and she's going to come watch a game, either one where I can take her to watch or one where I'm actually playing, and she says she's very keen. She's the next England rugby groupie!

Did you watch your performances afterwards?

I have watched them again in the past couple of weeks. It's funny because it's cringe-worthy watching yourself on TV. I was very impressed with the show and how well it was done technically though.

So what's your favourite type of music?

I'm really eclectic, but I do like to play Rock, blues-y stuff cause I play the guitar and like to do acoustic numbers and stuff like that. I also love anything to do with Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, any of that kind of stuff; either blues, jazz or swing. But I just love music. I was going to play something on my guitar on X-Factor but I ended up scrapping that idea because I didn't want to screw up the guitar.

Well well done anyway because I and everyone else on our message boards thought you were fantastic.

Ah thanks mate.

What do you think England 's chances are at the World Cup next year? There's obviously been a lot of doom and gloom about at the moment. [captainvontrapp]

It's weird cause I don't see it as doom and gloom at all. I'm really pleased that people are writing us off at the moment, it's a great position to be in. I'm quietly confident because I play with these guys week-in week-out and these are some seriously talented players. Without blowing anyone's trumpet I think England still have a very good chance. And all it takes is for us to click in the next couple of months and play a couple of good games and then who knows what happens after that. England have showed they can win it before and they've got some world cup winners in our side.

Less pressure because of everyone writing England off do you think?

To be honest with you it's a World cup and we're defending it so there's a huge amount of pressure in that anyway.

What do you think the problem has been and why do you think the results have gone the way they have?

We haven't had many good games and I don't want to make excuses, I'd rather just say to you that we're working on getting it right. I believe in this team, in the talent of this team and if we can sort out the mistakes that we are making and improving on the overall game then we have a good chance, especially with the coaching set up we have now. We've got some great players but we've also got a great coaching staff and I think we just need to believe in ourselves. The England supporters are the least fickle supporters in the World, they'll follow us everywhere and with them behind us, I think we've got a good chance.

This Autumn we've got two tests against South Africa , now considering they're in the same group as us again this World Cup, do you think that these Tests are more important than say, the New Zealand one. [cb2]

Well every game leading to the World Cup has huge importance but I think that yes, tactically speaking, playing South Africa now gives us an inkling into what, who and how to play these guys and I think it's vital for the England set up to take these South Africa games one step at a time, moving on from game to game. It's an old sporting cliché but it's a truism, taking one game at a time and really building up some continuity and solidarity in the team building towards the World Cup. We have left it late, but I think we've got what it takes to bring it back. There's still a lot of rugby still to be played.

Great. On a separate issue, I'm not sure if you've read in the news lately that Nike are developing a possible new kit for England in time for the World Cup. They look like long johns and supposedly are made from a material that makes it very difficult for the opposition to grab hold of. [laughs] I was actually supposed to go to that kit launch and I had something to do in London . But they just tried the stuff out, they're not necessarily going to go with it. We'll see. Good luck if it does go ahead! [laughs] There's been a fair bit of talk recently about making all scrums uncontested for safety reasons. Now I haven't heard a single supporter or player agree that this is a good idea but I was just wondering what your thoughts on the matter are.

I obviously don't agree with the idea, probably because I'm a prop and it's the biggest confrontational areas in the game and I think that rugby is a confrontational sport. I have no problem with the IRB trying to make scrums safer but I think a lot of that is down to getting the refs better coached. There seems to be a lack of understanding of the scrum and it's not as difficult as they might think, they just need to go through a few more scrummaging drills to see how it works. Go speak to the people who know what they're talking about. Ask Phil Vickery, Phil Keith-Roach and get them to sit down with you and take you through it. I think that Jason Leonard made a great point in the paper the other day. He said you're never going to get people to take away the confrontation in scrummaging because that's what scrummaging is about. We don't want to turn into rugby league.

Well that's another point, if you got rid of the physicality, why have big beefy props when you can have replace them with a couple of extra wingers?

Exactly. It'd change the nature of the game completely!

So do you think it will eventually happen?

No it definitely won't happen, not in my lifetime at least! There are compromises you can make. Making sure the gap is shorter, making sure that teams engage at the right height, and probably best to have them lowered to the ground, and just working on those different nuances.

Obviously you can play both sides, but which do you prefer?

I honestly don't have a preference. My reasons for liking tighthead are different for my reasons for liking loosehead. Loosehead is one of those positions where you can really dominate another prop. Tighthead is one of those positions where you can really improve the scrum as a whole. They're two completely different positions and for some reason I like both of them. As long as I get to play for England , I'll play bloody wing!

Although you're very young, but have you given any thoughts as to what you'd like to do after rugby? Any thoughts on continuing your music career? [groovybaz and taygus]

I've given it a lot of thought but I haven't made any decisions yet. I just want to be as active as possible. If it's something to do with rugby that'd be great. I like working with people and just enjoy myself really, but I haven't made a decision yet.

If you could play any other position apart from prop, what would it be? [Plymouth Pirate]

[thinks] Probably flanker, I've played there before and enjoy the confrontation.

There's been a lot going on at The Rec at the moment, what with the ‘Keep Rugby At the Rec' campaign. Any thoughts on that and the situation with regards to the Recreation Ground?

Well firstly you look at the location, it's superb. We don't want to leave this ground but there are a lot of technicalities surrounding it. I think it'll be a huge shame to see rugby leave; it really is the most unbelievable ground. I mean sure you can look at Twickenham, the Millenium Stadium and all that but in terms of club rugby there's no more beautiful ground in the world, surrounded by beautiful buildings, chapels and the bells ring at half time, do you know what I mean, it's just superb. Fingers crossed it'll all work out.

On the Bath Message board, ERE, they've been organising petitions and spreading word of mouth in an attempt to get more people aware of what is at stake.

That's great and it's hugely important to really get the word out and let the powers that be know where the fans stand. None of the players want to leave, we love it here.

Speaking of the Bath message board, a lot of supporters on there want to know what's up with the pink shirts you guys wear off the pitch.

I've actually got something to do with that, but I think they look alright. All I'll say is, it take a real man to wear pink!

That's what I thought! Finally who takes longest to get changed after a game in the changing rooms…

[promptly] Olly Barkley. Simple as that.

Thought so. Thanks very much for your time Matt.

Not a problem mate, cheers [smiles].

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