Talking about his Six Nations debut, 26 year-old Hzell said: "As you grow up you always watch the Six Nations and to be part of it is a great honour for me. Touch wood, I have remained injury free this year and that has really helped."
Hazell will be up against a strong Welsh side and he said: "Wales are on the up and they have a fairly new team, but with the team we have got we are more than ready for it."
An interesting fact it that the Gloucester back-row man hasn't always played at open-side. "I started playing rugby on the wing but I was pretty bored and kept flying in to tackle people so they moved me to flanker when I was about 14 at Severn Vale School. As a lad I used to go and watch Gloucester and my ambition was to play for them."
A few years ago it was reported that Hazell was eligible to play for Wales, but he was always keen to wear the red rose and white shirt of England.
"My granny is from Blackwood. Graham Henry rang me up and invited me to a training session which was nice at the time and it gives us a lot of confidence but it never really crossed my mind because I always wanted to play for England."
The last couple of seasons has seen Hazell as a regular for England's tours of North America, and he added: "It's really good because it is that next step up from club rugby and it makes that move into international rugby not so big. A lot of the guys, Mark Cueto and Jamie Noon, played in the Churchill Cup with me so you can see the benefit of the competition.
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