If anyone has looked likely to provide a flashpoint for club-country disagreement over the designation of specific positions for players in the new England agreement, it is Mathew Tait.

He has played both centre and full-back for England in the last few months and his lively display following Josh Lewsey's injury in the World Cup semi-final was a reminder that he is extremely useful on the wing as well. And he is so firmly established a feature of the England scene, with 24 caps, that it is easy to forget that he is still only 22, with the bulk of his career still to come.

Any such fears can now be stilled, and in a way that opens a new chapter in that career. He says, "The idea is that I'll play full-back, while covering other positions, for Sale and for England."

Such apparent certainty is welcome. Versatility is always a plus, particularly when it comes to picking Lions and World Cup squads, but it can be a block on the development of individuals - preventing them from nailing down a firm place in a team and its pattern of play as they are shuffled around.

There's a logic to it as well. Full-back is a problem for England, with Iain Balshaw copping a disproportionate share of the complaints thrown at their Six Nations performances and Michael Brown not fully convincing in New Zealand. Tait has the pace demanded of the modern 15 and played well in club outings such as Newcastle's victory over then-highflying Saracens last Christmas.

He says, "I'm very happy to do it. I enjoy playing full-back, but I also know that I need a good solid period of time there - there's a great deal to learn. There are similarities to playing at 13, but at full-back you work much more with the wings while at 13 you're on the end of that defensive line, the linch-pin of the defence really."

Still, it is clear that learning is something Tait positively relishes. The one drawback of his move from Newcastle to Sale has been that his biomedical science course at Newcastle University has had to go on temporary hold, "I am missing it. You've got to keep some balance in your life, do something outside rugby and keep your brain ticking over". Even now that urge to learn has him studying for his pilot's license.

As we spoke Tait was still chuckling over the sight of a group of team-mates taking an unscheduled bath as their dragon boat turned over at an event held in Kingston to mark O2's renewal of their England sponsorship deal. He gives the impression, though, that he's a little less amused by the quirk of fixture scheduling that takes him straight back to Newcastle for Sale's first match of the new Guinness Premiership season, "At least it gets it out of the way early and because it is September we might avoid some of the rain and wind you get in Newcastle."

Moving from Newcastle clearly was not easy for him. "I've still got a lot of friends there", he says. There was also a tough decision on choosing which of a number of offers from other clubs to accept. He says, "I chose Sale because I'd talked to Philippe Saint-Andre and could see from him the ambition there is here for the club. It is still pretty much in the north and of course the chance to play in the Heineken Cup was a really important reason."

The Heineken Cup will be yet another challenge in a season shaping up to be full of them - not least the battle for Lions selection at the end. Tait says, "We've got a really tough group - Clermont, Munster and Montauban - and we'll have to go very well to get through."

There is, though, a mood of 'unfinished business' at Edgeley Park. "There was a lot of disappointment about missing the playoffs, particularly the way it happened, losing out in the last couple of minutes".

And of course one of the many reasons why Sale signed him is that he's a pretty useful finisher.