Rugby Union: Back on track for a berth in senior side: Steve Bale reports from Whangarei on the compact and courageous England B flanker who is primed for promotion

IF - or more likely when - Neil Back plays for England, it will be despite rather than because of Geoff Cooke, a noted sceptic. But, given the way things have gone in New Zealand, even the national team manager may presently come round to backing Back whatever his reservations about the Leicester flanker's size.

If he is to fulfil his ambition, Back dare not falter in front of Cooke and the England coach, Dick Best, in the second Test between England B and the New Zealand XV at Pukekohe on Sunday. It has not assisted him that they did not arrive until last week and so missed his stupendous contribution to the B team's victories over Southland and New Zealand Universities.

Back believes they should have been here right through, not least to see for themselves that sheer physique - England's tour literature lists him as 5ft 10in and 13st 7lb - is not everything.

It is not as if he is actually small but the compactness of Back's 23-year-old frame has, by Cooke's occasional inference, helped keep him behind Peter Winterbottom in the England pecking order.

Moreover, if the incumbent were to play on in the hope of facing South Africa in the autumn, Back's patience would probably be further tested. Winterbottom, after all, has been one of the outstanding players of this generation, and Back respectfully acknowledges as much.

Both have the fair hair that gets you noticed but their styles could scarcely be less similar: Winterbottom all power on the drive and in his crunching tackling, Back omnipresent and unsurpassed for his speed in support and to the tackle. But as these are the primary assets required of an open side, he cannot understand why his stature should be an issue.

'For the game I play my size is a massive advantage in that a bigger guy would have to be extremely agile to get up and down and make all the tackles that I get through during a game,' he said. 'I just can't see why this should place a question mark against my ability to perform at international level. You're either good enough or you aren't, and if you're good enough you're big enough. I'm on top of my game at the moment and all I need is a break.'

Even when England's loose forwards struggled to keep up in last year's Test in Australia Cooke refused to accept that a player of Back's speed and uncanny positional sense would have made any difference in exploiting the incisiveness of Will Carling and Jeremy Guscott. By way of refutation, in last Sunday's first B international in Hamilton the first man to the breakdown, whether in attack or defence, was invariably Back.

But then such has been the case ever since he played for England Schools and Colts. His perpetual- motion performance for England Under-21 against Romania in 1989 was a miraculous effort in 100-degree heat - the finest piece of sustained forward play Don Rutherford, the long-serving technical director at Twickenham, had ever seen.

On the B tour Back would have been a revelation if he had not already played this way in Bucharest and on countless other occasions. The prospect of Winterbottom's retirement may provide an additional incentive but, whatever the circumstances, Back would not have played any differently whatever the occasion.

'Whether it be an international, a league or cup game, or even a friendly, I approach it exactly the same,' he said. 'I'm confident in my ability, I feel I've been playing well over the past couple of years and gaining experience, and this tour is an unparalleled opportunity to stake a claim for a senior place regardless of whether Peter retires.

'I've been in the frame for a while now. But England's performance in winning two Grand Slams and reaching the World Cup final has made it hard for anyone to break into the team even though the B team kept the pressure on them throughout the season and I believe I'm playing well enough to get ahead of Peter whatever he decides.'

He may yet do it. This tour has confirmed what was already widely appreciated: that Back is among the bravest, as well as the most skilful forwards in English rugby. Last season's tally of 51 stitches - to ears, knee and around the eye - have been increased by only three since he has been in New Zealand but his gallantry in the face of flying Kiwi boots has at times been breathtaking.

Sometimes it hurts just to watch but Back has a stoic's disregard for his own discomfort. 'I honestly believe that when you're playing you don't feel pain - not until afterwards anyway,' he said.

'It may look horrific from the sideline but as a player you simply don't react as a spectator would. In any case in New Zealand you have to come terms with the way the game is allowed to be played.

'If you fall on the wrong side you know what to expect. When you turn your man your way in the tackle you're bound to be on his side, in which case they can kick you all they want and get away with it. That's not a complaint, simply the way it's played here. But back home some of the incidents we've seen would cause a sending-off.'

On tour the battered backs of Back and others less used to being doormats have borne discoloured testimony to the depredations of New Zealand studs - 'sprig-tickling' as the local argot has it. His head has been known to take a bashing, too, which explains the swept-back cut of those strikingly blond locks. 'It's why I keep my hair long,' he said. 'If I was a skinhead I'd look like a road- map.'

(Photograph omitted)