Tom Croft may just be the best international rugby player you cannot put a face to. Even in Kingsclere, his home village on the Berkshire-Hampshire border, he attracted barely a second glance as he wandered down to the local butcher's shop on Monday, 24 hours after being feted as England's man of the match against France. This is horse racing country, better known for its stables than two-legged athletes. Croft, not a horsey type, has a way to go before eclipsing the Balding family.

Nor is fame a game he is desperate to play. Tell him that David Steele, the England batsman of the mid-70s, managed to persuade a butcher in Northamptonshire to supply him with a free lamb chop for every run scored in his benefit season in 1975, and his eyes widen with touching innocence. He is not one of life's Del Boys, more a supremely coordinated ­Rodney: tall, gangling and the quickest thing to emerge from Kingsclere since Mill Reef. He is certainly the shape of things to come, the standard-bearer of a new age in rugby – whether he likes it or not.

Whichever way the International Rugby Board veer when they pronounce next month on the Experimental Law Variations, mobility is the way forward. Anyone who happens to be 6ft 6in tall, not far short of 17 stone and capable of outpacing any winger is a coach's dream.

Aaron Mauger, the All Black centre, now at Leicester, reckons Croft is quicker than any back-row in New Zealand. Nick Easter, England's No8, has seen the blistering evidence at first hand: "We did fitness tests in the summer over 40 metres and he beat quite a number of the backs."

The 23-year-old's rise to the national team last year was almost as swift. "Eighteen months ago he couldn't get in the Leicester second team," recalls Graham Rowntree, the Tiger now responsible for England's scrummaging. "He's an incredible athlete and he's now learning about the darker areas where he's got to be involved, in addition to his aerial and wide game. He's developing nicely and after last weekend's game, he's a Lions contender. He's a good guy and very coachable, too."

Coincidentally, he was also in the same year at Oakham School as Stuart Broad, the hugely promising England fast bowler. The pair remain good, if separated, friends. "We'll arrange to meet up when he's not on permanent holiday in the Caribbean," says Croft wryly. "I think his rugby was probably better than my cricket at school, but that's not saying much. I only made the 3rd XI."

It is a rare omission in an otherwise notable sporting CV. Croft, last Sunday's ceaseless whirl of energy, used to be a football goalkeeper and, famously, was once a member of the West Berkshire Youth Dance Group where he studied contemporary, modern and street dancing. His father is a geography teacher at Queen Mary's College in Basingstoke, while his mum teaches business studies at Park House School in Newbury, which he himself attended before decamping to Oakham, Rutland, an establishment with close ties to the Tigers.

So overnight success, Croft protests, was seven years in the making. "There were still things that went wrong against France, but it was almost the first time I've felt fully confident in myself at Test level and had some ball with which to go and do something.

"I've learned not to sit back on your heels waiting for things to happen. It's the same game you play for your club, albeit a bit quicker, and you've been selected because you're good enough.

"Having spent time on the bench, I did say to myself: 'You've been given this chance, don't just sit there and coast through, go and do something spectacular.' I think the French game has given all of us belief."

Heaven knows the impact Croft will make once he starts to feel fully at home. He might even have topped off his towering game with a try last weekend but for a couple of forward passes prior to his surge down the right touchline. He also seems to possess an enviable temperament, having also been man of the match in the crucial win over Wales en route to England's Under-21 grand slam three years ago. A spectacular 60-metre winning try for England Saxons against the NZ Maori two summers ago and another scorcher for Leicester in an Anglo-Welsh Cup final versus the Ospreys underlined the point.

"When I was young there was pressure to put on more weight, but I think they've now accepted I bring other things to the game. If I put on too much weight, I start to lose my speed."

There is, conversely, no evidence of fast living off the field, aside from a minor episode during the Under-21 World Cup in Vichy in 2006 when he and James Haskell "borrowed" a rowing boat. He did once articulate a desire to become a property developer, but has been regretting that admission ever since. "It would be nice to buy an old plot or a barn and convert it, but people seem to think all I want to do is be on Grand Designs."

Whatever house he ends up living in will have to accommodate a huge stack of awards and accolades. When Martin Johnson described him as a "hybrid" forward last week it was shorthand for 'hugely valuable.' Back in Kingsclere they will soon have to sit up and take more notice.

"There are friends of family who know who I am," protests Croft mildly. "The butcher says he wants to stick an England shirt up in the shop and may even give me a couple of steaks in return." Amid pork loins and bacon rashers, the first stirrings of civic pride are finally discernible.