Quiet man Rees takes hooking job for Wales in his stride

Some players just get on with their job with minimum fuss and you don’t realise how important they are until they are missing.

Matthew Rees, the Scarlets, Wales and Lions hooker, has become one of those players.

Rees is not the type of bloke, let alone player, to get carried away with anything.

He has a job to do and he does it. For him, it really is that simple.

But the 34-times capped Welsh international, who made his debut against the USA on the 2005 tour to North America, has become the glue for the Welsh pack.

Rees would never admit it but he, not Gethin Jenkins, was the player Wales missed most the most during the 30-17 defeat to England at Twickenham.

While Jenkins and Adam Jones are feted as world-class props, and rightly so, Rees’ contribution as the man who binds them together usually goes unheralded.

The 29-year-old played in all three Lions Tests in South Africa last summer and, unlike Jenkins and Jones, managed a victory in the final showdown against the Springboks.

Rees’ contribution may not be widely acknowledged but he is the first to admit his experience with the Lions has had a major impact on him.

“The Lions was massive for me,” he said. “To be able to say I have been on a Lions tour and played in three Tests there is just amazing.

“It has given me real self-belief and self-confidence. I respect what I have done but I am determined not to rest on my laurels.

“I want to use the Lions experience but I don’t want to be big-headed about it.”

That is Rees all over. Like any man of the valleys, he is determined not to appear carried away with himself. It’s hard to think of the former Pontypridd and Celtic Warriors ever becoming a ‘big-time Charlie’ and he is quick to point out that hard work is the key to his success.

“I do pinch myself sometimes but you only get things out of life through hard work,” said Rees.

“I am big believer in the old adage, you only get out what you put in. I have always worked hard and, touch wood, it has paid off.

“I am glad people have started to recognise what I do, but I have always been my own man and have just got on with things.

“I am not one of those players who gets above himself. I just graft and go from there.”

But the Tonyrefail-born front rower is being modest.

While Rees has been hooker, the Wales line out has not been a problem.

It was the second best line out in last season’s Six Nations, only behind Ireland, who had a certain Paul O’Connell running that facet of play for them.

Warren Gatland, a hooker by trade and nature, made a point of talking about the success of the Welsh line out in the autumn.

Until his groin injury in the final Test against Australia, Rees wore the No 2 jersey during that campaign.

There is no doubt that he, along with Jenkins and Jones, are widely regarded as one of, if not THE, best front rows in the business.

They were the first all-Welsh front row to be selected for a Lions Test since Billy Williams, Bryn Meredith and Courtney Meredith on the 1955 tour to South Africa.

Not even the legendary Pontypool front row of Charlie Faulkner, Bobby Windsor and Graham Price, managed to play together in a Lions Test match.

Phil Vickery, who packed down alongside Rees in the Lions third Test, recently described the Welsh trio as the best in the world.

“I take that as a compliment,” said Rees.

“Vicks is an experienced player. He has won the World Cup with England and is highly regarded as a fellow professional.

“For him to say that about the Welsh front row is really good. Gethin, myself and Adam know the damage we can do and it’s just a shame that we haven’t played together since the Lions tour.”

Rees, who is back in training after recovering from a niggling groin injury, is hoping that front row will be reunited for the visit of France on February 26.

In his absence, the Wales lineout went haywire at Twickenham. To the untutored eye, the hooker is always too blame if that happens.

But these days there are so many different factors in the lineout jungle.

You have the hooker, the jumper, the dummy jumper and the four lifters. Even the scrum-half has a role to play in a successful lineout.

Rees is quick to defend Gareth Williams, the Blues hooker who replaced him in the Wales side, from the Twickenham fall-out.

“It’s always the hooker who cops it if the lineout doesn’t function,” he said.

“Everybody points the finger at you and I felt sorry for Gareth because he is new to the squad and the line out didn’t function.

“But we have looked at the game and Alun Wyn Jones held his hand up for what happened there.”

Nicknamed ‘Smiler’, Rees is as removed from the normal picture of a hooker as possible. Garin Jenkins, Jonathan Humphreys, Robin McBryde and even Mefin Davies, Wales hookers to a man, were all a bit different and had a masochistic streak.

Gatland is pretty much in the same mould and loves the physical and mental battle of a scrum.

It’s almost a test of your manhood and mental and physical strength.

The idea of crashing your head and shoulders, with no protection at all, at the point where the power of 16 men collides only appeals to a very small minority.

“You cannot afford to be too crazy these days,” said Rees. “It is a hard position but in the professional era you cannot afford to be a loose cannon or give away cheap penalties.”