Guest targets England honours

Tom Guest is confident that one day he will be joining former Maidenhead Rugby Club team-mate James Haskell in the full England squad.

Speaking after starting for the England Saxons on Saturday during their 68-10 Churchill Cup win over USA, Harlequins star Guest revealed that he is adamant full international honours are not too far away.

“You’ve got to back yourself to make it at a higher level,” he told the Advertiser. “I’ve had a good season with Quins and am sure that I can keep on improving. And if I do that then who is to say what will happen.

“Obviously playing for England is the long term goal and I’ll continue to work really hard for that.”

Both Guest and Haskell learnt their rugby as juniors on Maidenhead’s Braywick pitches and the Harlequins flanker hopes that one day he will be reunited on the pitch with the Wasps star.

“I see James from time to time and it’s fantastic the progress he made,” he said. “It would be great if one day there were two former Maidenhead boys playing on the same pitch for England.”

Guest was only called upon to play 11 minutes in the Saxons’ comprehensive win and despite being in direct competition with Saturday’s man-of-the-match, Jordan Crane, for a starting place, he remains hopeful that he will be able to force his way into the side.

“Obviously Jordan had an excellent game on Saturday but I’ll be looking to start and I’m sure I will have a bigger role to play in the next game against Ireland A on Saturday.

“We’ve got a very talented and young squad this year and there’s lots of competition which is always a good thing.”

Guest is currently enjoying his first tour as part of the Saxons set-up although he does have some gripes against his room mate and captain, Will Skinner.

“We know each other from Quins and we’re both quite messy,” he joked. “And he’s always on the phone to his girlfriend so he’s not the easiest person to get hold of.”

Keep up to date with Tom’s Churchill Cup progress at maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk