The reluctant prop idol with Cornish credentials

Trevor Woodman has proved to be the perfect partner for his fellow West Countryman, Phil Vickery.

It should come as no great surprise that the twin engines firing England's World Cup-winning pack hail from Cornwall. It is both a big county and a big rugby county, and one day soon they will be fast-tracked into the Zurich Premiership by some slow-to-catch-on type at the RFU. For now, Trelawny's Army are content to glory in the feats of the respective sons of Liskeard and Barnstaple, Trevor Woodman and Phil Vickery.

The pair propped together for England Under-19s in the 1994-95 season, when their hooker was Phil Greening - and all three were soon to band together for Gloucester when Woodman, (at Christmas 1995) moved from Bath, and Vickery joined from Redruth. The latter has since enjoyed the higher profile, playing for the 2001 Lions, captaining England in Argentina in June 2002, and gaining more than a few backers to get the job again in the recent race won by Lawrence Dallaglio. But Woodman, five months younger than his Cornish mucker, has been catching up fast. A couple of head-turning, match-changing tries for Gloucester since he returned from Australia have helped; consistently good performances in the gloomy recesses of the scrum, all the more so.

A few days after the World Cup final, Woodman - having played all 100 minutes in the climactic tussle against the Wallabies at Telstra Stadium - was back at Gloucester for some press interviews. "You're up there with Alex Parks," said the chap from BBC Radio Cornwall, who, engagingly, was more excited than a middle-aged man had any right to be. "Who?" said Woodman, having failed grievously to keep up with Fame Academy during his spell Down Under. Even now, notwithstanding an MBE, the Freedom of Gloucester and a civic reception together with Vickery in Truro, he says he is no prop idol. "I don't think it's changed me, anyway," Woodman says.

He is happy talking rugby, although this 27-year-old beast from the edge of Bodmin Moor - 17st packed into a 5ft 11in frame - jokes that he would rather retire than calculate the physical forces passing through his neck at the moment of the scrummaging "hit". He plucks figures from the air such as each forward pack weighing over 800kg, then invites you to mentally position yourself at a leading edge of the confrontation, and allows your imagination to do the rest. More or less, this is why, at least once a fortnight, Woodman sees a specialist trainer, Don Gatherer, at a gym in Aylesbury.

"It's basically to strengthen the four sides of the neck," said Woodman. "I wear a leather head harness, attached to weights - it's easier to do, than to explain. Don understands my body quite well, now, and if I do have any niggles, he puts me right. He probably saved my career with his knowledge on the neck, and the way he strengthens it. I expect I'll be seeing him until I stop playing rugby."

For a while it seemed that Woodman's career would not reach beyond yeoman club duties, initially sharing the loosehead's No 1 jersey with the likes of Tony Windo and Adey Powles. His first England cap was as a replacement against USA in 1999; his first start, against New Zealand at Twickenham only 15 months ago. The "saving" by Gatherer he refers to kicked in soon after the All Blacks Test. "I popped a disc in my neck," Woodman said, "which put pressure on a nerve that controls your left arm. I couldn't use my left hand properly, and I had to get it operated on. That was in early December 2002, and I came back in the first week of March 2003, so it was three months of rehab."

Woodman's run to the World Cup final quickly gathered momentum. Gloucester topped the league and won the Powergen Cup. He toured with England Down Under in June, displaced Graham Rowntree for the victory over Australia in Melbourne, and never looked back. Some chap called Jason Leonard, with 113 caps, was another to make way. Since coming home with his Webb Ellis Cup winner's medal, Woodman has played every weekend for Gloucester - scoring tries against Northampton and Harlequins, and helping his side to the Heineken Cup quarter-finals - save for England's non-cap match against the New Zealand Barbarians.

The chicken-and-egg question is whether Woodman has prospered because of Gloucester, or the other way around. Woodman, with the humour-laced seriousness seemingly shared by all props, offers thanks to a combination of English virtues and, intriguingly on the eve of the Six Nations, a particular foreign influence. "I know I'm only in this position because of Gloucester," he said.

"When I first went there, it was traditional Gloucester - if you were from Cheltenham you were an outsider. For myself and Philip [Vickery], coming up from Cornwall, it was strange. We always deferred to Andy Deacon, a stalwart of the club. And he wouldn't speak to us for a few years. Now he speaks to us every day, because if he sees us with a bit of kit, he wants it. Richard Hill [the former coach] was bringing youngsters through, but he also brought Richard Tombs and Terry Fanolua from overseas, which was a big step at the time. Philippe Saint-André came in after Richard, and he brought more overseas experience with the likes of Ian Jones and Jason Little. And when we had two more Frenchmen here - Olivier Azam [at hooker], and Laurent Seigne coaching - myself and Phil learnt a lot off them. Gloucester's always had a strong pack, but we put only 10 or 20 per cent emphasis on it then. The French put massive emphasis on scrummaging."

Every match, says Woodman, is a chance to learn something new. Not only does this dovetail with England's philosophy of never looking too far ahead; his own background and experience suggest it is the correct approach.

"I still see myself as having a lot to prove. You can watch the video as much as you like, and do your analysis on a scrummaging opponent - whether he goes in, or goes down a lot, there's so many aspects - but you just don't know until the day. From one scrum to the next, you should do something different. And I suppose that's what turns you from a good player into an international player."

ENGLAND FACTFILE

Head coach: Clive Woodward

Captain: Lawrence Dallaglio

Coach: Andy Robinson

Assistant coach: Dave Alred, Phil Larder

Fitness advisor: Dave Reddin

Team manager: Louis Ramsay

Ground: Twickenham (capacity: 75,000)

Anthem: God Save the Queen

Triple crown wins: 23 (1883, 84, 92, 1913, 14, 21, 23, 24, 28, 34, 37, 54, 57, 60, 80, 91, 92, 95, 96, 97, 98, 2002, 03)

Grand Slam wins: 12 (1913, 14, 21, 23, 24, 28, 57, 80, 91, 92, 95, 2003)

Biggest win: England 80 Italy 23 (2001)

Biggest defeat: England 6 Scotland 33 (1986)

ENGLISH MEMORY - TIM STIMPSON (Debut 1996, 23 caps)

The Perpignan full-back's first Five Nations season in 1997 was, unsurprisingly, something of a curate's egg. Beaten at home by France, the English travelled for their final match at Cardiff Arms Park - before the bulldozers moved in - in an odd mood.

"That game was a personal favourite of mine," Stimpson says. "Jonathan Davies, Rob Andrew and Will Carling were all playing their last games, and they all walked off together at the end, which was a very poignant moment. I remember Mike Catt was playing well at No 10, but they brought him off to give Rob 10 minutes. I remember feeling very sorry for Catty. But it was a nice finish, and Jonathan did very well in a rearguard action for the Welsh. And Jerry Guscott made a nice try for Richard Hill." And on that afternoon Guscott was content to play provider to Stimpson, too, setting him up for a dive into the corner at the start of a four-try second-half performance. "And I had another try disallowed, too, thanks to some Martin Johnson 'indiscipline'," Stimpson says.

It would have been a great try in the closing minutes of the closing match at one of the greatest rugby stadiums in the world, to seal a 34-13 win, and England's fifth Triple Crown in seven years. But, unfortunately for Stimpson, Johno had indeed biffed some opponent back down field, and referee Joel Dume called play back.

The glint in Stimpson's eye grows sharper when he thinks back to those 80 minutes on the Arms Park stage. "I grew up in the '70s and '80s when we had a hiding every time we played the Welsh at home or away. The Arms Park was part of that. So to win there that day was massive."

Martin Pengelly