Hello! Welcome to my new blog. I'm going to try to give you a birdseye view of rugby from a club perspective at Brive and from the international scene with England. Which is where you find me now with my new computer, which I got this week. Well I had to have something to write my blog on! As you all know the Six Nations tournament starts on Saturday and I'm lucky enough to have been called into the squad.

Preparations started a couple of weeks back when I left Brive to come back to train with England. Last week was a bit of a new experience for me, because the training camp was in the South of Portugal and it was first time I have trained away before a Six Nations tournament. It was a change of scenery- and of climate- that was more than welcome. It makes a massive difference when you’re used to being under the Pennyhill Park tent, where it’s -1•C and it’s raining and you’re looking at the pitch knowing that you’re going to have to run around in the mud. Compare that to being in sunny Portugal, where the temperature is 18•C! It’s easier to learn new moves and new calls with the sun on your back, rather than losing your concentration because of the heavy rain!

We had an intense few days; here’s briefly what it consisted of. The first day started at 7am with breakfast followed by a visit to the doctor, who gave us a check up for any pre-existing injuries. You know you're in for a good week, when the first meeting is entitled “Just a talk about fitness”! This is basically how the 5 days went: overall we did 3 weight sessions, 6 rugby sessions, a fitness test and team building activities. After weight sessions, all the players are given protein shakes, but after on-field sessions, most boys will have a high carb drink. Because I always struggle with my weight, I think it’s better for me to just take a smaller protein drink.

When I was forced into early retirement, I ballooned to around 138 kg! So when I started rugby again, I lost 24kg and now I try to keep my weight around 112-113kg during the week, and 116kg for match days, so that’s why watching my weight is so important for me.

The week in Portugal was all about getting to know each other as a team. But this last seven days has been more intense, because we're into a test match week and working towards the England v Wales game at Twickenham. I'm on the bench and it's always an exciting time ahead of the tournament. I'm looking forward to Saturday's match and if I come on, I'll be ready after all the pre-match preparations. Wish me luck! I’ll report back next week with hopefully an England win to talk about! Thommo.