This week has been hard as the result against scotland has really affected the boys but we are a strong squad and training has gone well and we are looking forward to Ireland.  They have some big game players but the injury to O'Driscoll will have rocked them.

We just travelled across to Twickenham today from our base in Bath and did a bit of kicking and then I rested up on my day off, chilling out in my room and listening to some music.  Tomorrow there will be a team run and I'm looking forward to that as we have been looking sharp in training this week as well as a bit more kicking practice before chilling out and going over videos before the game to make sure we are all ready and prepared!

Game day will be exicting as usual.  I go through the same rituals and processes before a big game (I have to keep those secret though!) and hopefully we can end the tournament on a high.  I know all the boys are desperate for it so lets hope it all goes our way, in front of our home crowd.

I’m writing this as we are en route from our training base in Bath to Heathrow and then onto Paris.  Let’s hope the sun is shining over there this week end for some good rugby to take place! 

The week has gone really well and we have just been trying to change our point of attack to challenge the French defence – I can’t reveal too much before the game though!  I shall have some kicking practice later and then we will have a walk through late tonight to get us used to the very late kick off time (9pm local time).  It’s unusual to have a match kicking off so late and so we need to adjust our bodies to this new time – and the match day preparation will be different from usual – from when we eat, what time we wake up, etc.  Anyway I am looking forward to the game, the French have really been chucking the ball about in their last couple of games and they have one of the most dangerous back threes in the world so we have to stop them getting quality ball.  Right I must get off the bus...

Pre match is always an interesting time as there is always a lot of nervous energy around the team, but I just try and keep my head down and think about the process of the game - what needs to be done and how to put the team in the right places to play. The game itself went well for around 60 minutes and we were pleased with our performane and on a personal note it was fantastic to get across the white wash; mind you I didn’t do much!  Jonny’s great kick and Lesley’s take and offload were fantastic. However as Wales showed that is not enough as they put us to the sword with their hustling and all credit goes to them for doing that.
 

We had Sunday off so I spent that relaxing and travelling back to Bath and looking forward to putting things right that went wrong on the weekend! Again training was light in the first couple of days which is great from the coaches as I’m sure there are a huge amount of things going through their minds and wanting to put onto the training park but the time off is what we need to recover. I didn’t train too much during the week as a I had a slight tear in my right quad so my frst session was on Thursday. Being injured is always a difficult situtaion to be in as you don’t ever want to feel left behind but you have to trust the physios and as always they know best because as I trained on Thursday my leg felt great!