Stevens' X-Factor keeps Vickery off stage

Matt Stevens has turned out to be so good as the stand-in tighthead that head coach Brian Ashton has named him three times in a row.

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The Anglo-South African, runner-up to former EastEnders star Lucy Benjamin in last year's reality TV programme, is beginning to be a hit where it matters to him most.

As well as an accomplished singer, Stevens writes his own lyrics, plays the guitar, studies politics and is an ambassador for the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, having met the former South Africa president after raising £125,000 for the charity through the TV programme.

He is also, as Vickery knows only too well, currently England's leading tighthead prop.

'I was hoping I would be in the team, not expecting to be,' said Stevens after retaining his place despite Vickery's return from suspension.

'It was a case of preparing yourself for the worst, but I would have been quite angry had I not made it. It's a massive compliment. I'm not blowing his trumpet here but Phil has been one of the props of the last five or six years as a modern front row forward. He's someone I look up to a great deal.'

As the anchor of the scrum, another immovable setpiece against Tonga tomorrow night will go a long way to ensuring Stevens' ultimate aim of making the position his own.

'I've got to think that way but in this game you daren't look beyond the next one,' he added.

Vickery's status left Stevens with the shortest of straws, having to topple the captain to get into the team.

'We were all disappointed for Vicks but, psychologically, you've got to back yourself,' said Stevens.

'You've got to think: "Well, you've got a mountain to climb here but you've got to think you are better than the captain".

I was always told by those selecting the team that if I did that I would be picked, no matter what. Fair play to them, they have been as good as their word.

'I do not want to let them down. Tonga are a good scrummaging pack so we're definitely not sitting back on any laurels. We expect a lot more of ourselves.'

Stevens, whose family run hotels and game reserves in South Africa, suffered a double-whammy with the Springbok blitz a fortnight ago.

'I played with a lot of those guys at school and at provincial level,' he said. 'I wanted England to shock the world that night because everyone thought we were going to lose.

'We felt we let England down but we've taken the responsibility on ourselves to come up with the goods.

'We haven't done that yet because you couldn't say last week's performance was a superb one, but it was definitely an improvement and you will see a further improvement now.'

Stevens spent more than a year out of the game recovering from two shoulder operations after slipping on stairs.

'It taught me that rugby is quite a short-lived career and that you must take opportunities when you get them,' he said.

'After the first op I was thinking I might not play again because I had to have a second one.'