Hi everyone! Last week I went back to France to play with my club, CA Brive. We had a game against Castres  last Saturday, so I travelled on the Monday and trained in the afternoon with the team. It felt good to be back, even though it was hard to switch back to French. At the club, we have 12 different nationalities and all the team meetings and training sessions are 70% in French and 30% English, because there are a number of Brits and South Africans.

Tuesday was our hardest day because we had weights, scrums and lineouts. In the afternoon we had full contact against the Espoirs – the “hopefuls in French, i.e. the Academy”. We also ran through our attack and defence; it was made easier because the sun was out! Wednesday was a day off so I enjoyed a day in Brive, after catching up with teammates and friends. Lots of green tea was drunk that day as I had been gone for almost 2 months!

Thursday starts with an 8 o’clock weights session and then a lineouts and skills session. We have a 3 hour lunch break, where typically a couple of times a week, I lunch at a local brasserie. I order a club salad (ham, tomatoes, mozzarella, eggs, salad and a nice dressing) most of time and once in a while, my favourite treat is a homemade cheese & bacon burger! After our long lunch we have an attack session, just to go through our final preparations and that went well. Thursday early evening, the sun was out, so I went for a ride on my Triumph motorbike for a couple of hours, as the roads in the region are so nice.

On the Friday morning, I packed my bags for the trip to Castres and for England, as I had to get back to camp on the Sunday straight after the game. Going to Castres isn’t too bad on the coach as it takes only a couple hours and some coach journeys can take up to 7-8 hours… Castres are top of the league and they beat us; it was hard to take the defeat, as we played some good rugby and Castres played a boring but effective game.

I couldn’t stay around long after the match, as I had to shoot off to Toulouse airport to make my flight back to rejoin the England squad. Because there was no time for me to do a recovery session, I wore my recovery leggings under my jeans for the journey back to England… if only people knew…! After the game we were also given Arnica tablets; they help speed up the recovery process. So that was my week. I’ll report back to you next week, with my take on the Scotland game and behind the scenes at Murrayfield. Have a good week. Tommo.