Who the hell is Nick Easter?

"Who the hell is Nick Easter?" was my colleague's comment when the news filtered through to our office that Nick Easter the Quins backrower had been picked to replace the injured Joe Worsley at blindside flanker for England's game against Italy on Saturday.

I must admit to being a bit surprised myself given Nick only made the bench for the A game against Italy last week and has spent most of this season playing number 8 for Quins, but its fully deserved recognition. For those of you who haven't seen Nick play he's an abrasive lump very much in the Martin Corry mould. He's very sound defensively, and although he's no greyhound, his ability to make the hard yards both around the fringes and taking the ball up the middle will probably complement the English pack who have been lacking in ball carriers the last season or so. He also has a nice habit of scoring tries, going over the whitewash 19 times last season.