DESPITE his tender years, Mathew Tait has already survived the ferocious fall-out that follows a Six Nations defeat.

Last February, the 19-year-old's solitary senior international cap came as England lost 11-9 in Cardiff's Millennium Stadium. Just four days later Tait, from Wolsingham, County Durham, found himself unceremoniously dumped from the squad.

So, as he prepares in the luxury of a Melbourne hotel for this week's Commonwealth Games rugby sevens tournament, the hotly-tipped youngster can survey the inquest into last weekend's capitulation in Paris with the luxury of a wry smile,

By Friday evening, Tait could be the owner of a Commonwealth gold medal. With that around his neck, the multiple ills that have infected English rugby would seem a distant concern indeed.

"People have asked me what I've been feeling like, watching the Six Nations after everything that happened last season," said Tait, who has bounced back from his Cardiff disappointment with a series of eye-catching displays for his club side, Newcastle Falcons.

"To be honest, I've hardly had time to keep up with what I'm doing, never mind what's happening with England.

"What's gone has gone. I've never looked back to the past and I'm not about to start doing that now.

"I've done so much in the last year or so, but I'm definitely looking at the Commonwealth Games as another massive step in my career. My priority at the start of the season was to hold down a place for Newcastle. If I could add a Commonwealth Games gold medal to that, I would be absolutely delighted."

This week's tournament in Melbourne is almost certain to be his one and only chance. As its name implies, the rugby sevens tournament is a seven-a-side version of the senior game.

Played on a full-size pitch, it places greater emphasis on speed and handling skills, both areas in which Tait, as a centre, excels. But, increasingly, it is being seen as an alternative to the 15-man game, rather than an accompaniment. The bulk of England's sevens squad have devoted the majority of their season to the shortened form of the sport and, as a result, their involvement in the more physical full-size game has been restricted.

For a player as talented as Tait, it is not a situation that can be allowed to continue indefinitely.

"Rob (Andrew, Newcastle's head coach) has told me 'This is your last season for the sevens' and I've gone along with that," said Tait, who first honed his rugby skills at Barnard Castle school.

"There is a danger you can get pigeon-holed as a sevens player and that can be detrimental to the rest of your career.

"I heard a recent interview with Paul Collingwood in which he said it was nice to be thought of as a Test cricketer now rather than a one-day international. I know what he means. I don't want to be thought of as a a sevens player - I want to be thought of a rugby player who can play just as well in whatever form of the game.

"Rob goes along with that and, next season, wants me to be available for him every weekend. Despite everything I've learned this season, that can only be good for my career."

First though, Tait will devote all of his energy towards clinching England's maiden Commonwealth rugby gold.

This morning's opening ceremony promises to be an awe-inspiring affair - "there are going to be 110,000 people inside the stadium and, unless I get time to get to the shops, I'm going to be the only one without a camera" - before the real business begins tomorrow with the first of England's group games.

Coach Mike Friday's squad have been drawn with minnows Sri Lanka and Cook Islands and hosts Australia but, with the top two teams progressing to the quarter-final stage, they should make Friday's knockout stage. With Melbourne's cavernous Telstra Dome already sold out, that is where the real action will begin.

"If you look at our squad, the majority of us are what you would term sevens specialists," said Tait. "It's not radically different to the 15-man game, but its differ-ent enough to get people who are more suited to one than the other.

"The better sides will almost certainly be the ones that have been together and know how to play a sevens game.

"That probably means that Fiji will start as favourites. They've always had a proud tradition in sevens and the way they play the 15-man game reflects that.

"Australia have gone the other way and packed their squad with big-name internationals. That will give the competition extra spice, but it might not work in the way they want it to."

Despite everything that has happened this spring, a win over the Wallabies would surely be enough to put a smile back on the face of English rugby.