The man with Lomu fixed in his sights

Mark Cueto's bid to become rugby union's local hero in the Commonwealth Games begins in the unlikely setting of Santiago next weekend.

Cueto's home club ground at Sale is no more than a hefty drop kick away from Man-chester's main stadium, where rugby sevens will take centre stage in August. But to earn selection for England – who are "going for gold", as the Rugby Football Union rather unoriginally puts it – the Workington-born wing must prove his worth in tournaments in Chile and Argentina. These form part of the World Sevens, an 11-round compe-tition little heralded in the UK, where rugby's abbreviated version is a forgotten art, but in which performances will count towards seeding positions in Manchester.

Six tries in 11 matches for Sale have earned Cueto a spot in England's élite development squad in his first season in the Zurich Premiership since signing from a junior Manchester club, Altrincham Kersal, last summer. Powerfully built, with a good turn of pace, his attributes for the shortened game are obvious, if a little different from the man he names as his rugby hero, the Fijian sevens doyen Waisale Serevi.

"I'll be missing two European Shield games for Sale while I'm in South America," said Cueto. "There are eight more tournaments, and the club won't want me away for all of them, so the idea is for England to rotate the sevens squad. They're looking at playing me at hooker, so I'm brushing up on my scrums."

England have selected a 25-man pool from which the Commonwealth Games team will be chosen by their coach and former league star, Joe Lydon. It includes Lawrence Dallaglio, Austin Healey and Dan Luger. "With the Games being in Manchester, and me being involved with the England squad, I've done a few promotional photos already," said Cueto. "I haven't actually been to the Commonwealth stadium yet, but I've seen some pictures and it would be awesome to be involved. Whether it's sevens or the full game, it's still an international representation."

Lydon's team finished third in the Durban Sevens a few weeks ago, but preparation for Chile has been necessarily brief. "We had a couple of training runs before Christmas," said Cueto. "When we get to Chile there will be time for a few warm-up sessions. It's probably less than we'd like, but it's all working towards the summer and there is a lot of competition for places. If you'd asked me in pre-season what my target was, it would just to have been in Sale's first team, and to be honest that's still the target."

Jonah Lomu, the All Black giant, is Manchester's rugby face of the Games. At 6ft and just under 15st, Cueto is a physical match for most and possesses a natural ebullience to make up any shortcomings.

Another star of Sale, the twinkle-toed Jason Robinson, is also on England's long list of 25, but whether he and Lomu will form a Little and Large double act in Manchester is a moot point – New Zealand have a 15-a-side date with Australia in Sydney on the same weekend in August.