Dave Strettle says he is relishing the challenge of trying to regain his place in the England team after missing the World Cup because of a broken foot.
After impressing in the Six Nations, the Harlequins back looked set for the World Cup until injury intervened.
“If I can go from Division One to Six Nations in a year, then trying to regain my shirt will be an honour not a chore,” the winger told BBC Sport.
“Even being in contention for an England shirt is a privilege.”
Strettle has enjoyed a remarkable rise through the ranks since joining Harlequins from relegated Rotherham in August 2006.
Just six months after moving to Quins, he made his England debut, scoring their only try in the 43-13 Six Nations loss to Ireland.
His performances in the tournament earned him a place on the summer tour of South Africa, where he was laid low by illness, and he looked sure to be in the World Cup squad until he broke his foot in training.
The 24-year-old, who has been signed up as one of the RBS’s ‘Young Guns’ working to promote next year’s Sport Relief campaign, admitted that even he was taken aback by the way his career had developed so fast.
“One of my mates told me to go and look at myself on Wikipedia, and when I read it, it made me realise what a rollercoaster it’s been,” he said.
“If someone had offered me this 18 months ago, doing everything I have and even missing out on what I missed, I’d still have taken it.
“I’ve been so lucky. Even if breaking my foot made me miss out on things, it made me sit back and realise just what I’d achieved.”
Strettle admitted that watching the World Cup from his armchair had been a bittersweet experience.
“The only time I ever felt a bit narked off was when England got to the final. I felt brilliant as soon as they got there and then I started thinking ‘you really have missed out’.
“Like most Englishmen I didn’t think they’d get to the final so when they did, there was a tiny bit of me that felt I was missing out, but because I’d got used to the idea it just took me a day or two (to get over it).
606: DEBATE
Where does Dave Strettle’s England future lie?
“If I didn’t know anyone in the team, I’d probably be bitter, but because they’re your best mates and people you work with, you think ‘they’ve got to win because soon I’ll be in a room and training with them and I hope to God they’ll have a winner’s medal with them’.”
With the retirement of Jason Robinson and Mike Catt from the England scene, places are up for grabs in the back division, and Strettle said he was hopeful his achievements last year would help his cause.
“It’s nice to know I’m not trying to prove to people what I can do, as they’ve seen it before,” he said.
“If I can keep up the form I had going into the Six Nations next year and carry on, things take care of themselves.”
Despite having made his name as a winger, recently he has been turning out for Harlequins at outside centre - but Strettle is not complaining.
“When you play for a Premiership club they pay your wages so if they tell you to play hooker, you do,” he said.
“If I am a winger and I’m meant to be an England winger, playing at centre or full-back can only make me a better all-round player.
“I can learn what a centre needs from a winger and vice-versa - you get a better viewpoint of the game.
“If people say I can play for England at number 13 after playing just three or four games there, it’s amazing that people can think that of me.
“But I’m not going to kid myself - you’ve got to put in the hours and learn a new trade.”
And having come so close to playing in the World Cup, Strettle said he felt he had set himself a standard he had to meet again.
“Having missed out through injury, you feel something has been taken away from you,” he said.
“You got there and it was taken away so you feel like you’ve already achieved something and if you don’t do it again, you’re lowering your standards.
“If I hadn’t achieved it and I’d been dropped, I’d always feel I never quite got there, but knowing I was going to be taken, it’s a case of getting back to that level.”
