Modest Rees shares the plaudits

12 April 2012

Tom Rees has raised a glass to England's "piano shifters" after a champagne performance on his full Test debut.

Despite helping to tame France with a blistering man-of-the-match display Rees believes any praise should be evenly distributed.

He said: "I wanted to play my part, and the way I was going to achieve that was by doing the things that got me selected in the first place. But the tight-five forwards did a lot of the piano shifting for me, which does tend to make life a lot easier."

He added: "It was a fantastic response to the defeat against Ireland at Croke Park, and it is a step in the right direction. We can start moving on."

The 22-year-old Wasps openside flanker is set for a mouth-watering individual tussle with Wales' magnificent number seven Martyn Williams in Saturday's RBS 6 Nations finale at the Millennium Stadium.

And he is hoping for a more successful experience than on his last trip to the Welsh capital five months ago, when Williams ruled the roost as Cardiff Blues crushed EDF Energy Cup opponents Wasps 36-20.

"I remember that every time I picked myself up from a ruck in that game, Martyn Williams seemed to either have the ball or be near it," added Rees.

"I noted how well he read the game - he was always in the right place at the right time. But you want to test yourself against the best in the world, and Martyn is consistently one of the top performers."

Rees is set to be named in an unchanged England pack - head coach Brian Ashton could announce his starting line-up later on Tuesday - but there will be at least one alteration behind the scrum.

Centre Mike Tindall, whose sparkling second-half try sealed the win against France, was admitted to a London hospital on Sunday evening with a suspected infection of his left knee. He underwent an arthroscopic wash-out, and will remain in hospital for the next few days.

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