Steve Thompson's Blog by Steve_Thompson

Hi everyone! Hope you are well. Sorry it’s been a while since my last blog and so much has happened. A week of warm weather pre-Six Nations training in Portugal… not really. It turned out to be cold and wet - you could tell the English were there. It was a great week for the squad to get some good time together though and for us to prepare for the Welsh game. It was a low contact week as we had a lot of battered and bruised lads after the European round of games. It was good to be able to train without the pressure of a game that weekend. We flew back on the Friday and were back in camp on the Saturday evening because of the Welsh game being on the following Friday. The training week went really well and you could feel the intensity building as the week went on. I love playing at the Millennium Stadium and it’s even better winning there too!!!

After the game I drove straight back to Northampton as I had my little one for the weekend and my mate was opening a new shop; it’s called “Pampered Soles”. It’s one of those places where you put your feet into a tank of fish and they eat the dead skin off them!!! As I suffer from bad psoriasis, the standard joke with my mates is I should be having a full body bath! But I must admit I put my arm in and it worked on that. The fish came straight up to a patch and within a few minutes had eaten the affected area till it was smooth. There was a great feeling in the camp after the win in Wales, but we knew the Italians were going to give us a tough match especially after the way they had chucked away their chance of beating Ireland. I think we knew we had it in us to beat the Italians by a few points, but did not think we would put 50 odd points on them.

There has been a lot said about the Ashton dive and my own opinion is as long as he keeps scoring tries at the rate he is, he can do what he wants. I’m just jealous that I can’t dive that high and if I could, I would break something once I hit the ground!!!! I’ve been back at Leeds this week, to get some game time (more on that next time). Then it’s straight back into the England camp to hopefully be involved against the French. That is going to be a battle and a half at Twickenham this weekend.

Hello all. Happy New Year to you. I hope you all had a great Christmas. I had an interesting day on December 27th. I met up with the Leeds team to travel to the game at Newcastle at 9am, so we travelled 2 and a half hours on the coach. We had our pre-match meal and were just about to leave for the game, when we were told it had been called off. That was quite a low feeling. I had really been looking forward to that match, as it was going to be massive for both clubs as we were 11th and 12th in the league. So, it was back on the bus for another two and a half hours to go back to Leeds. Not an ideal situation really.

But we did manage to play on New Year's Day against Gloucester and we earned our first win of the season. It was a fantastic feeling, because it was staged as a double header, with our game first and then the league team - the Rhinos - playing straight after us. It was great because the crowd was good at the start, but just got better and better as the game went on and more of the Rhino’s supporters arrived. I think the last 30 minutes were played in front of 12,000 people. It was an amazing atmosphere and it was a great boost to get a win on the board. It really has been hard to get good team training in, when all the pitches have been frozen. It’s amazing what snow and cold weather can do to a country!! For us, one of the problems is getting the big lads running around and doing line-outs on a 3G rubber crumb pitch, which takes its toll on ankles, knees and backs. So we can’t have long sessions on it. Mind you, we have even turned up to find that pitch has frozen too.

So to keep our fitness levels up, we have had to do rowing, bike and cross training sessions. One of my favorite sessions is on the bike and it goes as follows: 10 secs on level 25, as fast as you can. I try to do over 180 reps; then 30 secs easy; then 10 secs fast; 30 secs easy; 10 secs fast. Then 20 calories burn on level 12, or as fast as you can on the cross trainer. Then 10 secs on the bike again followed by 10 calories burn by going as fast as you can on the cross trainer again. Then 10 secs hard on the bike; 30 secs easy; 10 secs hard; 30 secs easy; 10 secs hard. Do all of that four times with one minute’s recovery between sets. This is a good leg and heart burner!!! (Although you might see you breakfast again…) We are getting close to the Six Nations now. So I have to put in some good performances to keep myself in the mix for that. Fingers crossed I keep playing well for Leeds. And to answer your question, Simon Doyle, I don’t know of any players who have been sent off on purpose to get a Christmas holiday. Personally, I think it’s a great time to play as we tend to get great crowds that time of year. Have a great weekend. More next week.

Sorry it’s been a few weeks since my last blog, but I’ve been trying to settle myself back into normal life. Coming out of the cocoon of life in the England camp is quite hard: having the whole day scheduled for you, all delicious and healthy meals made for you and clean washing left all pressed and ironed in a neat pile on your bed! What a life! The first week of training back at Leeds was hit really hard by the snow: we were having to find alternative places indoors to train. It’s hard to keep fitness levels up, as you spend a lot of time driving around and you're not able to do exactly what you need to be doing. I try to get to the gym and do extras every morning on the bike or the cross trainer to keep me topped up.

The weather has hit our fixtures too. The game against Northampton was called off, which was a shame, because I’ve haven’t played them yet. But in the last couple of weeks we have played Parma home then away. It’s been good for us to get away from the Premiership, just to try and get some confidence back in our play and that’s what we've been able to do: not conceding any tries and scoring over 100 points in those two matches does make you feel good. It’s a bit of a joke amongst the players here at Leeds that if there is a short way or a long way to take a trip, we will always take the long way. We flew out of Leeds airport to Venice then took a bus to Parma (which was about 4 hours) and then on the way back we went from Parma to Milan by bus then flew to Liverpool then back on a bus to Leeds…

It's been hard to get into the Christmas spirit with all the training and playing. Back in France, the teams get a week to 10 days off over Christmas, which is great to rest the body and mind. Oh and of course to have time for a massive feed on Christmas Day and to work it off before the fat test on the first day back! I also used to ski once a week during winters while I was in France, which I’m really missing. On the pitch our next game is against Newcastle; it was supposed to take place yesterday on Boxing Day, but it's been put back 24 hours until this afternoon because of a frozen pitch. Wish us luck! 

In the run-up tp Christmas, I went with a few of the lads to the Leeds hospital to visit some of the wards. Seeing the children there just puts everything into perspective: I have always found these visits hard, but since I’ve had my own little one, it’s even harder. When you hear stories about the things some of the children have been through, it's very difficult, but they are always the ones with a smile on their face and they are always the ones who are happy to see you. I hope everyone has been having a great Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all! Don’t forget the diet and new training regime start next year!!!

Hi everyone, I’m still at Pennyhill Park, but feeling totally different after two good victories against Australia and Samoa. The match against Australia was straight off the training pitch, everything we said we would do, we did!! Chris Ashton scored a great try, which came from great defence on our own line. After having a massive high like that match, it is always dangerous going into a game like the one we had against Samoa. But the week building up to the match everyone had a spring in their step and the banter is always good!!! But it’s good that a few players from Samoa play their rugby in England, just so some of the lads who haven’t played the national team know what they're capable of!! They are massive big-hitting rugby men. Not massively fit, but they have great skills and awesome explosive power. Their tackling has hurt a number of players around the world!!! If you look on YouTube, I'd say most of the biggest hits in rugby come from them!

Being in camp for 4 weeks does tend to give you a bit of cabin fever!! So as a group we went out go-karting. It was an awesome track and you could accomodate 25 cars at once. We arrived late afternoon, the sun was going down and there was a lot of moisture on the track. Now trying to fit my backside into the kart was a challenge all by itself I can tell you! We had 3 races of 10 minutes. The problem with karts is if you are a big lad like myself or Dan Cole (see below), you have no chance of winning because of our weight. So our race is all about how many people we can get off the track before we get warned!!!! Dan's first race didn’t end too well, as he ended up in the tyre wall with only 3 wheels!!It was a great laugh though.

At the weekend the match against Samoa didn’t quite hit the heights of the Australia game, but it was a totally different test. For me it’s giving the lads good experience going into the World Cup. This week we play South Africa who haven’t had the best of seasons and lost to Scotland last week. They will be like a wounded beast. They will be thinking that if they can beat us at Twickenham, it will be a big step forward. Playing South Africa is like playing a Samoa and Australian mix. They are very aggressive and hard men, but with great skills and a good backline. It should be quite an occasion before I return to Leeds next week.