It's time to flex some muscle

It comes to something when playing 80 minutes of rugby against an opponent as aggressively accomplished as Otenili Langilangi – or Nili Latu, as the captain of Tonga likes to be known – is the least of a chap's problems, but Tom Rees knew right from the start of this autumn international series that the demands on his mind and body would increase game on game.

Seven days ago, in the second match of the programme, he found himself mixing it with George Smith. Today, he has Schalk Burger on his case. Next week? That'll be Richie McCaw, then. Such labours as these might have persuaded Hercules himself to stay in bed.

Increasingly, rugby's chattering classes are talking of Rees as the next England captain, even though Steve Borthwick has spent less than a month in the role of current England captain. For two very good reasons, the open-side flanker from Wasps makes it his business to park the subject in the first available space. For one thing, he rather likes Borthwick's quietly assertive form of leadership. "You find with some captains who make a lot of noise that it's all about them," he said, sharply. For another, he has quite enough on his plate to be going on with, thanks for asking.

Latu, Smith, Burger, McCaw. There are those who believe that these four, in ascending order, are the most effective breakaway forwards in the world game, although David Wallace of Ireland also has his supporters. To face them all in the space of as many Saturdays – no one seriously doubts that Rees will be selected to confront New Zealand a week today, fitness willing – is a challenge above and beyond anything he could have anticipated when he first broke into the Test side during the 2007 Six Nations Championship.

He made his debut on Calcutta Cup afternoon at Twickenham, and had such a seismic impact on proceedings that an old school friend sent him a text message saying: "I saw your brothers in the crowd. Were you there as well?" These days, the 24-year-old Londoner tends to leave rather more of an impression; indeed, his performances against the All Blacks during the two-Test visit in June were courageous, resourceful and productive, despite the scoreboard's version of events. But until he puts one of his big-name rivals firmly in his place and sees his efforts rewarded with a major English victory, he will remain a challenger to the champion breakaways, rather than a champion himself.

"My aim is to be a part of the group we're discussing," he said this week. "I want people to bracket me with them, to see me as being in their class, to be unpleasantly surprised if I don't live with a Smith or a McCaw, rather than be pleasantly surprised if I do. That was my first game against George – I felt I did pretty well; certainly, I didn't leave Twickenham feeling I'd been taught a lesson or been blown away – and this will be my first against Burger, who is a difficult proposition in a very different way. Any match against South Africa is an important one, but I'm not sitting here thinking: 'If this goes well for me, I've made it'. A good performance this week will count for bugger all if I'm not up to it the next time. That's what sets Smith, Burger and McCaw apart. These people are good every week."

Rees has spent the last eight years being successful. He was selected by England at four age-group levels, as well as by the seven-a-side team and the second-string Saxons side. But sharing the Twickenham field with, and pitting his wits against, the mighty Smith was one of those "above and beyond" moments, for Australia's most decorated flanker – only three Wallabies, the great Gregan-Larkham-Campese triumvirate, have won more than his 94 caps – was something of a trailblazer to the younger man when he was making his way in the professional game as part of the Wasps academy.

"I wouldn't say I was in awe of him during the game," Rees remarked. "Awe would have been the wrong thing to feel, because it would immediately have put me on the back foot, which is the last place I needed to be against a player of his quality. I'm not going to get where I want to be by standing there thinking how wonderful my opponent is. I did feel respect, though. A few years ago, Neil Back changed my view of how a back-row forward should perform. George Smith was the next one to come along and take it to another level. I would have loved to have swapped shirts with him and spend some time talking, but the opportunity didn't arise."

Even had Rees been up against the four Marx brothers rather than four brilliant practitioners of his own trade, these would have been difficult times. Like all open-side specialists charged with winning the ball on the floor by hook or by crook, he finds himself at the sharp end of the International Rugby Board's determined attempt to unclog, clean up and clarify the tackle area. "We aren't talking about new laws in this area but a reinforcement of existing regulations about people staying on their feet, so on that basis, there has been no change," he said. "However..."

By way of making matters more complicated still, he is also at the heart of a new England side attempting to play an unfamiliar style of rugby. And to cap it all, he is attempting to make the best of himself as a Test player in the uncomfortable knowledge that his club are sliding ever closer to the foot of the Guinness Premiership. (Last weekend, while Rees and Smith were scrapping away in the rucks, Wasps were being run ragged by Harlequins in a one-sided London derby).

"It's not easy, hearing that sort of news," he confessed. "There is always a part of me that wants to be there at the club, especially when results are going badly and things need putting right. Speaking from an entirely selfish point of view, I can't allow it to hold me back. It's good for me to be in an England environment with lots of confident people who are there precisely because they are in form and flying high. But when someone tells me Wasps have lost, it's not a nice feeling." Particularly when they've lost to Quins, one assumes. "Exactly," he agreed.

Only one team gets a Wasps man's goat more than the south-west Londoners, and that is Leicester. As Leicester types now dominate the England hierarchy – Martin Johnson, John Wells and Graham Rowntree spent their careers at Welford Road, where they were briefly joined by another current red-rose coach, Brian Smith – is it not too much for Home Counties flesh and blood to stand?

"A lot of players may have wondered what might happen when the changes to the coaching team were made," he admitted. "Would the Leicester contingent say: 'Right, this was good enough for us, so it should be good enough for you'. That hasn't happened. They've made it very clear that when we get together, we're training to play for England, not for some makeshift Leicester team. England has to be something different to club rugby, something beyond, and it is. Since I've been involved with the national team, there has never been a really serious divide. But I'd say there is even less cliquishness in this camp than any of the others I've been a part of over the last couple of years."

The son of a Welsh psychiatrist – he has made two appearances against the land of his fathers, neither of them remotely glorious – Rees is among the least experienced members of the England pack charged with subduing the Springbok hordes this afternoon. Only Tom Palmer, the lock, James Haskell, the blind-side flanker recalled to the starting line-up after spending the first two autumn games among the bench contingent, and the injury replacement Tim Payne have won fewer caps, and even they are not far behind their fellow Wasp in the honours department. Yet Rees carries himself like a senior pro. If he has little of Haskell's supreme self-confidence, and still less of the smart-talking swagger that separates the other member of the back-row unit, Nick Easter, from the crowd, the knowledgeable money is on the least demonstrative member of the loose forwards to lead his country one day. Might that add a little extra pressure to the emotional mix?

"There's a possibility that it could, if I took any of this stuff seriously," he replied. "Really, I only hear about it from you media blokes. No one from inside the camp has ever said a word to me about captaincy. There are very few people in any sport who would say they didn't want to lead their country, but Steve is the man now and that's that."

My Other Life

"In international periods as intense as this, my down time is based around switching off and sleeping. I watch a lot of films, and I have to admit to an enthusiasm for computer games. I hope that doesn't make me sound entirely one-dimensional – my family live only a few miles from the team hotel, and I don't hit the computer when I visit them – but I have to admit that people get a little obsessive about it. I'm reading a book called 'The Economic Naturalist: Why Economics Explains Almost Everything', and another called 'Bad Science'. It's interesting stuff. I also have a biography of the explorer Shackleton (above) waiting for me. That will be a big read. It's about the size of one of the dumb-bells Andrew Sheridan lifts in the gym!"