Monday

Wake up at 6.10am. Not good. Still feeling bad from the Saturday night. Go about the normal ablutions with no great haste. By 6.50am I am already in the car on the way to Durham School. When I get to school it is 7.40am. Why do I have to live in Morpeth? I make myself a cup of tea and finish my English essay for first lesson. After Chapel on a morning I have English then a double free. I have no work so go into town for a bacon sandwich and play on the X-Box when I get back before going to lunch at 12.15pm. At 1.30pm that’s when rugby starts. We have a quick chat about what we will do in training then we get on with it. Its nice and easy to begin with. Just some simple handling drills that we take forward by adding a few shapes into before adding a defender in. From here we look at body positions in the contact area, especially the ruck. This is then turned into a game with one man taking the ball in with two ruckers and a counter rucker trying to steal the ball. This gets rather competitive and we turn it into a small pitch game with larger numbers. We run this drill for about 20 minutes before ending with a light jog. My last two lessons finish uneventfully and I leave for home at 5pm.

Tuesday

Another early start. I have two lessons in the morning and one in the afternoon today so am able to finish at 4pm. A good day. Today we do not have rugby but we are expected to do weights in our time as there is not time within normal rugby sessions. As I have gotten home earlier I decide to go to the gym and work on my arms, chest and shoulders. After a good hard session I head home again and finish my prep.

Wednesday

These early starts are killing me! Surely I cannot keep this up. I have three lessons in the morning meaning that I have a double free in the afternoon. This will allow me to go home straight after rugby at 2.30pm. The morning is extremely boring with the lessons seeming to drag on forever. When it finally came round to rugby I could not contain myself. I was so happy to be out of the classroom. It turned out to be a very tough session. Lots of contact. We started again with handling drills and running shapes but this progressed very quickly into the numbers game. Mr.Kime would call out two numbers and the corresponding amount of attackers and defenders would run out. This ran for about 25 minutes and was very tiring. After this we had more rucking practice and then looked at some defensive systems to try and combat the very tough, forward driven Woodhouse Grove who we would be playing at the weekend.

Thursday

Possibly my favourite day! A double free for my first two lessons! But wait. Things just get better. I remember that economics is not on as all of the teachers from the Economics department have taken a trip with the Business Studies set to see the Nissan Factory in Sunderland. I do not have a lesson until 3pm so do not go into school until 1.30pm as that’s when rugby starts. Today is an easy session with us just running through our forwards and backs moves separately before coming together.

Friday

Today is just a normal school day with no rugby apart from a quick team meeting at morning break with Mr.Kime to talk through the team again and what we will be doing the next day. When Evening Chapel finishes all I can think about is the match the next day…

Saturday

The match. The warm up is just like any other with the backs and forwards separating and then coming together. But there is a different tension in the air. We know that after last year in which we were beat heavily we would have to really up our game today. We kick off to the them and straight away turn the ball over. A good start. But the game is very stop start with us giving too many penalties away from coming off our feet. In particular its one player but I won’t name names! We go into half time with an 8-3 lead. We were certainly the better side and it’s a good feeling to be leading against Woodhouse Grove. In the second half we weather an absolute storm of short forward runs but the penalties kill us and they manage to score from a 5 meter scrum. They miss the conversion and with 4 minutes to go the score is 11-11. Then a miracle!

There flanker tries to kick the ball and gives it straight to our winger who motors home in the corner. 16-11! We win the game!

IRB Series: Dubai / South Africa leg  

The start of the tournament on Friday isn’t far away now and we now need to focus on the task ahead. The players are looking sharp, the guys understand what we’re doing and we’re all starting to click.

We have all gelled really well as a team. I’m room sharing with my fellow Newcastle Falcons team mate Micky Young, who’s quite a character.

We arrived on Saturday morning at 7.00am and were pretty tired from the flight. Saturday and Sunday were relaxation days trying to get everyone back into the swing of it so we had a couple of pool sessions.

Our physio Brett Davison gave us some challenges, one of which was to carry each other from one end of the pool to the other. It was fine for the taller guys but Micky Young and Tom Biggs, the two shorter members of the squad, struggled a little.

Monday was down to business and we had some heavy duty training sessions, which on Tuesday, concluded with a match against the British Heart Foundation. The BHF squad is like another England sevens team, with the likes of Tony Roques, Dominic Shabbo and Jack Adams, who are out here to take part in another tournament which runs alongside the main Dubai event.

Dubai is such an amazing place, I couldn’t believe how much it had changed since I was last here, the heat is still as intense though but it’s been a welcome break from the cold in England.

On Tuesday me and Tom Biggs popped out to have a quick look around the shopping mall. Half way around Tom made me close my eyes and he dragged me into this room where we sat down in front of this massive 103inch plasma screen TV. After that, we found a bucking bronco chair, which Tom wanted to buy until he realised it was £4500!

Wednesday was a brilliant team building day. We were invited onto a 90ft yacht by a Sheikh to watch the QE2 enter the Dubai Palm, where it’s going to be moored and turned into a hotel. We also saw the A380 Airbus, the largest commissioned aeroplane, which flew over us several times, it looked amazing. After that, all the players took a swim in the ocean. Everyone had a great time and it did us good to take our minds off the rugby for a couple of hours.

In the evening we had the official tournament function at the Rooftop Gardens in Wafi City. We met all the sponsors, media and VIPs for the tournament but we didn’t stay for too long though as we all needed our rest ahead of Thursday.

Our preparations are in full swing now. We have one last training session on Thursday morning then it’s time to focus on Friday’s first match against Portugal - I can’t wait.

Part 2

“It was an amazing feeling to captain the squad today, I’ve never captained my country before so it was special, a huge honour and a massive accolade.

“There was a bit more pressure on me today because Ben Gollings was resting so I was in at fly half so not only did I have to skipper but I had to kick too - but I loved every minute of it - I’m quite a vocal character anyway so I quite enjoyed it. To lift the trophy as captain would be the best feeling in the world.

“As a team we spoke all week about being professional and doing things with quality in every aspect of our game. First match was Portugal and then USA which were going to be potential banana skins for us but we knew if we did what we were good at and didn’t deviate from what we said we were going to do then we’d be ok.

“Both teams definitely gave us a challenge. From my perspective the boys really turned up today and the tries that we gave away were from our own mistakes rather than the opposition actually attacking us so that’s a positive for us as you can always correct mistakes.

“Then we came to the big one at the end against Fiji which was massive for us, especially for Josh Drauninui and Isoa Damudamu, the two Fijians in our team. Damu had been rejected by Fiji a few years ago so for us to then go and dominate them and beat them in every facet of their game and dictate the pace to win 28-5 was a great feeling. I have only ever encountered that once in my playing career and that was in LA when we beat Fiji in the final.

“We’ve got Argentina tomorrow morning and we need to make sure we’re back on the money doing what we’ve done all day today.”

Cheers Ollie

Cheers

Ollie

IRB Sevens Series - Wellington/San Diego Leg

All the guys can talk about now is the tournament. We’ve been together for two weeks, training and bonding as a team and we’re all pumped up and ready to hit Wellington’s Westpac Stadium.

Since arriving in Wellington we have been training really hard so today as a treat we were allowed out for a couple of hours. We decided we’d hook up with the local ‘Harley Owners Club’, very cool!

A group of 25 Harley Davidson bikers picked us up from our team hotel and took us on a tour of Wellington. We went through the countryside and saw some unbelievable scenery - I never realised Wellington was so green.

We eventually headed up a huge hill which looked over the whole of Wellington and the view was breathtaking. After a short rest we were back on the bikes and we headed through the town with everyone staring at us.

We’ve been hearing all the stories from home about the snow and I’m glad I’m over here. The weather has been great. We even managed to catch a bit of sun whilst training. The jet lag is pretty bad but that’s to be expected.

I’ve been catching up with my movies, whilst we’re away me and Biggsy (Tom Biggs) run a movie club, where all the guys come to Brett’s room (England Sevens Physiotherapist) and we watch movies. My favourite so far is Gran Torino with Clint Eastwood, he’s a legend.

On Thursday we have the Wellington parade which is a huge day where the whole town comes out to celebrate the sevens. If you’ve never experienced it then it’s hard to explain, but basically thousands of fans from all over New Zealand descend on Wellington for one big party.

Bring on Friday. Our first match kicks off at 1pm against France and I can’t wait!

Cheers

Ollie

IRB Sevens Series Wellington/San Diego

To lead England to victory in Wellington feels absolutely awesome. I knew we could do it. I have faith in this squad and we've worked so hard to get to this point. The Wellington trophy is the ultimate reward for that hard work.

After the final we all headed to the town for a couple of drinks to celebrate. Wellington was buzzing with people having a good time and carrying on the sevens party into the evening. Rusty (Assistant Coach, Russell Earnshaw) and Biggsy (Tom Biggs, Leeds Carnegie) were playing practical jokes on each other and trying to get the rest of us involved but it didn't come off, we were all so tired.

On Sunday we had a rest before we had to fly to San Diego for the next leg of the Series. A few of us chose to go to the cinema. The Wellington cinemas have lazy chairs which are wicked. We watched Valkyrie, Tom Cruise's new film, which was very entertaining. 

We flew to San Diego on Sunday night, most of us slept on the flight. We arrived on Monday morning and got straight back into training. We've had a pool and training session every day this week. The squad are all feeling refreshed now and are all fit and ready to face Scotland in our first match on Saturday.

Today we are heading out to do some team bonding at SeaWorld, we are going to watch Shamu the killer whale, which we've nicknamed Damu after Isoa Damudamu (Army)! 

After winning last weekend we have set ourselves new goals. Now that we've won a tournament the challenge is to win back to back tournaments, I hope we can rise to it!

Cheers

Dubai Sevens World Cup

Tomorrow I will be leading England out at a Rugby World Cup and I really can't wait! 

We've been working so hard and we've come along away so it will be good to finally get the tournament underway.

We arrived last Tuesday and had a week's training camp in Jabel Ali. The resort was beautiful, the rooms had views of the beach and it was very secluded. We trained twice a day and had a pool session every day so it was quite intense. But we did find time to play a little beach volleyball and of course, I was king of the court.

On Sunday we relocated to the Atlantis. It's massive and we're still trying to find our way around! After we'd settled in we headed to the Dubai Mall for a signing session with the Aggreko Dynamo cheerleaders, which was very interesting. I think one of them took a shine to Crackers (Chris Cracknell).

On Monday we went to the Emirates Towers to the Christine Noble lunch, which supports the Christine Noble children's foundation, we had a great time, I had to get up on stage and answer questions from John Bentley. When we got back we decided to hold a movie night to all wind down.

Yesterday was our first day off since we arrived and as Atlantis is such an amazing place we decided to stay here to check out what was on offer. They have a water adventure park in the grounds so after lunch we all went down to it. The slides are crazy and they have one called 'Leap of Faith'. It's a sheer drop that takes you through an underwater shark tank. A few of the guys ripped their shorts on the way down because it was so fast and a few chickened out. I thought it was wicked.

Today and yesterday we had some media opportunities and it's nice to see so many people coming to town to watch and support the sevens. BG (Ben Gollings) and me did an interview with Hello! in Dubai, which we were pretty excited about, I'm looking forward to seeing it in print.

Anyway today we started with a training session and we've just had lunch so I'm off to rest. 

Tomorrow can't come quick enough for me. It's going to be a massive and exciting day.

Cheers

Ollie 

We are in the 1/4s now!

We made it through and now it starts getting really though. We face Samoa today in the cup quarter final and it's going to be a massive game. But you need to play top sides, that's how you improve and I'm confident that these 12 men can rise to the challenge.

Yesterday was a very long day but a successful one. I think the match against Tunisia was a wake up call. They played very well and so did we in the first half but in the second we just sat back and rested on our laurels and we were punished for it.

Tom's (Varndell) pass to BG (Ben Gollings) was the right decision as it allowed BG to score right under the posts for the conversion, if we hadn't of done that then we wouldn't be where we are now.

After that match we were fairly down but we knew Kenya would be a must win match and we needed to pick ourselves up and remind ourselves that we are in a World Cup.

We had a really long break between the two matches, which was good, because it gave us a chance to refocus and rest. I had a sleep as did most of the boys, some watched a few of the other matches. After the rest we all had a run about to wake the muscles and get ready for the match.

So now we're faced with Samoa, they beat us in San Diego so we have a score to settle.

My family are here and that's been really nice, although, I haven't really been able to see them but to know they are here is a support.

Cheers

Ollie

HONG KONG MARCH 2009

MY first time in Hong Kong and I can see why it's rated as one of the best sevens tournaments because this is just such an amazing place.

In between training we've managed to have some downtime and on Saturday me, Crackers (Chris Cracknell) and Kev (Barrett) went for a little pampering. I had a massage and a pedicure. My massage has definitely left an impression as the masseur was little heavy handed and Kev's pedicure left him a shoe size smaller from all the dead skin they removed - yuk!

After that we went to the night market to pick up a bargain or two. Our coach Ben Ryan boasted that he was the best haggler, which was clearly a lie as after about an hour all he'd managed to secure was a pair of pink pyjamas.

Yesterday we had a muscle beach workout session. Biggsy (Tom Biggs) likes to work on his guns whilst the rest of us work on the whole body, the management even get involved with our physiotherapist Brett (Davison) partnering up with Crackers. After that we held a values session where we talk about how we want to be seen and remembered during the tournament and it was very positive. 

After the disappointment of losing to Samoa in the quarter final of the Rugby World Cup Sevens our focus is firmly on the Series title. We're currently joint first with South Africa so a win here would really boost us.

BG (Ben Gollings), Rusty (Russell Earnshaw), Roders (James Rodwell), Tom (Varndell), Biggsy (Tom Biggs) and Vicks (Rob Vickerman) have been arriving over the past couple of days after playing for their respective clubs over the weekend, so today was our first day together training as a whole squad, but already we are looking sharp.

Tomorrow we are travelling to training on the Star Ferry which we catch from outside of the hotel to Hong Kong Island. Everyone is really looking forward to getting stuck into training ahead of Friday's kick-off against China.

Cheers

Ollie 

THE FABS ARE OUT IN FORCE!

England Sevens Captain Ollie Phillips reports exclusively from camp at the Hong Kong Sevens.

WE have just returned to the hotel after beating China 54-0 in our first pool match of the tournament and even though it was raining the fans were out in force and the atmosphere was amazing. It was great to get the first match out of the way and it was a fantastic result but now we need to concentrate and focus on facing Japan tomorrow. 

Earlier today around 40 England Rugby Travel supporters came to watch us train in So Kong Po. It was really nice to see so many of them out, it really gave the boys a boost. We had some photos taken with them and stayed around after training for a chat. 

Yesterday we had a day off so a few of the boys went up to The Peak, it's a view point from right up on the mountain and they got some great photos. I went shopping to Mongkok market and ended up buying two tailored overcoats, one is dark green tartan and the other is beige and blue chequered squares, perfect for long country walks!

Tonight we are just going to have some dinner and get an early night ready for tomorrow. After Japan we face Wales which will be a massive match and I can't wait.

Cheers

Ollie

Monday 24th November 

Today is the start of a very tough week for us, we are now in a position in the league where we have to scrap for every point available to us and that starts this Friday at home to Wasps.

Having been feeling pretty low all weekend after last week's result, I woke up this morning and made a point of putting it to the back of my mind and focussing on this week. Straight out of bed and downstairs to cook my breakfast - a packet of chicken. Every morning when I cook the stuff I ask myself why I don't cook i the night before as there is not much worse than the smell as soon as you get up.

Positivity at training was my aim so as soon as we started there was a great deal of positive chat and upbeat comments flying around amongst the lads. We spent time looking at what we are going to do against Wasps in the game this week. Wasps pose different problems in terms of how they defend and this is what we addressed this morning but we have played against them loads of times before and knew what was coming so things went well. 

It's very tough on a week following a loss as confidence is low but you have to out things to the back of your mind and get on with it. After training I did my personal extras working on my tackle technique and then headed home for lunch. I only love 10 minutes from the training ground so like to go home if I can as it gets you away from rugby for a couple of hours and helps keep your mind fresh, allowing you to do other things in your life which I feel helps you on the pitch in my opinion.

This afternoon we had our 4 gym groups and worked on cardiovascular fitness and strength with Sparks our fitness trainer. Interval sessions on the cardio machines followed by a weights circuit and then some strongman training. The strongman training involved flipping big mats and piling them up and moving them about as fast as possible. It's great training for functional strength and helps loads. Only about 40 minutes of that and then the day was over with the chance to head home again and focus on other things that interest me.

 Tuesday 25th November

Today's session started in the freezing cold focussing on the defensive side of our game. Alan Tait has come in this season and done some really good things with our defence and it is now much stronger in terms of the tries we leak than in years gone by. This season our discipline has let us down and cost us most of our points through penalties rather than anything else.

Small drills where individuals can focus on their own roles are followed by larger more generic drills where players can work together as units and this is where the real benefit comes from in the side.

After spending some valuable time on defence we split into forwards ad backs, forwards looking at their line-outs whilst the backs spent time handling and practicing our running lines in certain plays. This is only a short 20 minutes before we all join again and run through our attack again to make sure that is spot on before our Thursday team run.

We want to spend as short time as possible on our feet this week as we want a full tank of energy to take into the game against Wasps so we don't spend too long on our plays. We finish and the backs have a meeting with Alan Tait and the video analyst which helps highlight little areas where we can improve and better our performance on Friday.

This afternoon we don't have a scheduled session but I go into our local gym and work on things I feel I need to keep on top of to stay at the top of my game in terms of being physically ready to play. 29 is not old by any means but I am well aware that there are lots of youngsters now coming into the game. They are far bigger and faster than when I began playing so I have to try to keep on improving too or they play and I don't!! It's only 40 minutes or so before I have completed this session and then I head home.

Time to spend some time with the dogs and keep up to date with work commitments and then I am off to a dinner tonight which is for Alan Shearer which should be good. I am sat with a table of people I know and some I don't but that is one of the things I have come to enjoy as a player, getting the chance to go out and meet people and get some serious networking done!!!!

Thursday 27th November

The forwards met half and hour before the backs this morning so they could run through what they were going to do at the line-out tomorrow night. They will have been given a video from Stuart Grimes which will allow them to understand the problems that Wasps will throw at us and how we might look to get the better of them in this area.

After their meeting they walk straight into another one where the team is announced and our coach Steve Bates highlights a few more things we need to think about before we go and train for the last time prior to the game. 

A short warm up is followed by handling drills with Alan Tait and then we split into the team which is playing tomorrow night with the rest of the squad working with Taity to try and put together plays which Wasps do so we can practice our defence. We work at our defence for about half and hour and then swap round so we can have a look at what we want to do against them. 

It is only a shirt session as we don't want to take too much out of the legs so we have a full tank tomorrow night. It has only been a short week and we have not had long to prepare but we are looking forward to the game which provides us with a great opportunity to get a win under our belts and start building our confidence again. Fingers crossed.......

 England have started well in the November internationals with their 39 - 13 win over a Pacific Islands XV. There were several positives to take from the game; the performances of players like Delon Armitage, Danny Care and Ugo Monye were superb and some of the older, more experienced guys lead from the front. However, this was a Pacific Islands XV who on the day did not play particularly well and certainly didn't test England the way Australia, South Africa and New Zealand will in the coming weeks.

What did you think of the weekend's game? A great performance? I don't think many will say it is worth the £80 that a ticket costs now thats for sure.......

Wednesday 12th November

I am not sure about the new England team selection. In terms of picking players who are on form and sticking with those, I don't see where Nick Kennedy went wrong to get dropped for this weekend's game against Australia. Tom Palmer has come into the side for him and I think Tom is a good player but I don't think Nick deserved to get dropped from the team, let alone the squad totally. 

The other change comes at prop and being an outside back, I won't claim to know the ins and outs of scrummaging but I would think that they have changed the roles of Matt Stevens and Phil Vickery because Vickery would not have the same impact on the game from the bench as Stevens would.

Australia look strong having reunited Ryan Cross and Stirling Mortlock in the centres but I don't think they will be as strong as the coming Tests against arguably the two best teams in the world. England will have a great chance to beat the Australians at the weekend but they will need to be on top of their game for the full 80 minutes rather than in patches like last weekend against the Pacific Islands. 

Wednesday 19th November

I thought that Martin Johnson would stick with the majority of the side that started the game against the Australians last weekend. James Haskell has been brought in so that there is a strong ball carrier in the back row I think. He will add some power and pace to a back row that has so far not made any massive dents in opposition defences. 

This team is growing and needs time to develop. One thing fans of sports teams sometimes forget is that the team they are supporting may not be as good as the think or indeed want. Over time this England side will develop into one which will be ready to make a charge to the next World Cup but at the moment the building blocks for this team are being put in place and put together. Danny Care and Danny Cipriani look like they have only just started playing together at this level but that is not to say that they won't go on and be one of the best half back pairings around - they will but they require time and some degree of patience too.

The back row are relatively young and will come on to be one of the best in the world I think as there are some great players who are not even in this November international squad.

Martin Johnson may well find that England struggle again this weekend but he will understand what is needed for his team and I am sure he knows time and games played is what is required.

Sunday 23 November

Looks like things are going from bad to worse for some of the players in the England squad and also the management! 

Yesterday's performance was a complete nightmare and showed the lack of confidence of the players in the team, especially in key positions. Danny Care looks like the most relaxed player in the team and he is one of the new faces, his pace is a real threat all the time and he has been playing well I think but as for Golden Danny, he is finding things a but tougher at the moment. Coming back into the team having not played any real rugby since his recovery has meant that he is behind the pace of the game. He is taking far too ling to kick the ball and has had kicks charged down in all of the last test matches. He will recover from this as he is a great player but I think it is about time to give him some time out from the international stage and give someone else a chance. 

Discipline is again causing massive problems and must be acted upon this week as the All Blacks are cruising at the moment and are smashing teams they play without breaking sweat! 

What does Johnson do this week? It's a difficult job that he has as everyone has different opinions about what to do and how to react but I am sure whatever he does he will have thought long and hard about his final decision. The press don't seem to realise this is a building phase for the team and like I wrote the other day, seem to believe that England should be beating all of the teams they have played and this can simply not be the case as they are so far ahead in terms of their player development. Australia were the most similar to England in terms of development but they were still more experienced in key areas.

I hate to think what the score will be this weekend but I hope that things pick themselves up this week and the players put on a far better, more convincing show than the last 2 weeks where they have fallen far short of the skill levels required.

I wish them all the best though as I would love to see them go well against New Zealand; I just can't see it!

 On the long trip home from Newport last Friday night, I was left asking myself what the EDF Energy Cup is about. Newcastle and Newport did not have anything like their strongest line ups on the field - but is that surprising, after all, this was Newcastle's fourth game in twelve days. 

As you look across the teams that took the field in this weekend's opening rounds of fixtures, you can see that the majority of sides chose to rest many of their front line players which I think undervalues this competition. I have been lucky enough to play in three national cup finals and have won two of them and these were in competitions where the teams took it seriously. It was a fantastic challenge when teams put strong sides out and everyone had that cup day mentality where clubs knew anything could happen on the day. I remember going down to Rosslyn Park in the Tetley Bitter Cup and it was a great day, we were pushed all the way by a team several leagues below us and it felt like that is what a cup competition should be about.

This EDF Cup feels like the rugby equivalent to the Coca Cola cup in football where teams do the same and rest players rather than going all out to win the tournament. But perhaps that is the way the sport is going. Professionalism is moving on and the game and the cups are evolving with it. I am not by any means a hardcore traditionalist but I thought the national cup was great and a return to that would be fantastic in my opinion. The EDF does not seem to be popular with the clubs and I can't imagine the fans love it that much either. It may even be better in a different format where teams are drawn from a hat but at the moment each side knows exactly who they are playing year to year.

A return to the old national cup and a scrapping of the EDF would be great in my opinion but wether this happens remains to be seen. There are rumours of something happening with it at the end of the season but until something is changed I won't get my hopes up....... 

 1) Everything Rugby: If a film was made about your life, who would play you?

Jamie Noon: Owen Wilson from You, Me and Dupree.

2) ER: Beach or Skiing Holiday?

JN: Beach

3) ER: Which 3 people would you like to be stuck in a jungle with?

JN: Ray Mears, Bear Grylls and Vince Vaughan

4) ER: What is your speciality dish in the kitchen?

JN: A great Spaghetti Bolognese

5) ER: What has been the worst first date you have been on?

JN: It's not really a date but when my wife came to watch me play for the first time, I was tackled so hard I stood up and threw up on the pitch right in front of where she was sitting. Not very attractive!

6) ER: Who is the worst trainer you have played rugby with?

JN: Rupert Harding (Newcastle Falcons Academy)

7) ER: Who is the best trainer you have played rugby with?

JN: A close call between Liam Botham and Jonny Wilkinson (England and Newcastle Falcons). I think I will go with Liam though I think. 

8) ER: Who has the worst dress sense of the guys you have played rugby with?

JN: Easily Josh Lewsey (Wasps and England), he wears some very strange stuff.

9) ER: Who dresses the best?

JN: Olly Barkley (Gloucester and England) is pretty sharply dressed, he wins this!

10) ER: Have you ever bought underwear for your Mrs?

JN: Yes, but she took it back and changed it straight away so I am not sure if this counts!

11) ER: Who is the fastest player you have played with?

JN: Tom Vardell (Leicester Tigers and England)

12) ER: Who is the biggest moaner during training?

JN: Mathew Tait always finds something to moan about.

13) ER: What was the last music you put onto your iPod?

JN: Best of Paul Simon - and it's really good, I recommend it!

Monday 15th September

My alarm went off bright and early at 7.30 so I could make the painful journey into the club, the morning after a loss the day before is not the easiest morning to be getting up early! The physios needed to assess me as my knee was a bit swollen. Icing it did not seem to work too well last night but the food I had with some of the lads including Riki Flutey, Tim Payne, Mark Robinson and Joe Worsley made me feel slightly better.

After my knee assessment and having got the news I wanted that there was just swelling and no real damage, I had a brief massage and then headed to my nightmare - the ice baths. I look for every way to get out of it but I have still to find a successful one. We are ticked off the list when the 10 minutes in icy flowing water has been completed. Flowing water for that extra bit of pain!!

The final part of our recovery at Wasps is a 10 minute cycle to get the blood flowing again. Then a short session in the video analysis room looking at the game from yesterday - I will do a more detailed analysis tomorrow.

Normal, mundane jobs follow. Car insurance and making sure my playing insurance is topped up enough are my main jobs for today. A quiet afternoon is finished off with my second weekly nightmare, a trip to the supermarket to grab the essentials needed for a tough week ahead which, right now, I am in no way looking forward to......

Tuesday 16th September

Another early start this morning as I needed more treatment on my knee which has been causing me a bit of niggle. I just hope it clears up pretty soon. I had another massage too - not for the relaxation of it but to try to free up the area so I might be able to function a bit better in training.

At times the physio room looks like a hospital ward with a number of players carrying knocks from the first two weekend's games. It always seems to be the same early season as you come into a new tournament on the back of a summer containing mostly weights and conditioning based sessions. The first bits of contact you get in 'anger' always seem to leave more of a mark than later in the year. 

We had a lengthy analysis session and reviewed what we did well and what we didn't do very well; this week there seemed to be too many of the latter and not enough of the former which goes some way to explaining our last minute loss on Sunday. Straight out of there onto the training pitch for an individual skills session where I focussed on my kicking which I felt was an area of my game which could have been better on the weekend. A sharp hour was followed by some fitness which worked up our hunger for lunch!!

Even more video work ended the day and I went home and rested up and preparing for our big training day on Thursday which will lead us nicely into the game against Northampton at the weekend. My day off will probably be spent having a look at the threats Northampton pose to us so I can take that into the weekend too.......

Wednesday 17th September

OFF!!

Thursday 18th September

Today was always going to be a busy day as we have not done a great deal of training this week due to the number of injury worries we have in the squad.

We started with separate unit sessions where the backs and forwards split. As backs, we don't have a clue what the forwards do - I certainly don't have any idea but as a back line we practice defending what we think the team we are going to face at the weekend will do - this week Northampton. We will then reverse it and look to attack defenders who will defend as Northampton do. We try to find the areas we feel we can attack them in.

Over the first couple of weeks you can say they have had a mixed start but played a very physical and confrontational game against Worcester in their first home game of the season and we are expecting much the same from them this weekend.

We went straight into the weights rooms from the pitch for a brief power session followed by a quick lunch. The media guys were in today asking us our thoughts about the upcoming game and how we see it going. Only a brief time with the media, then down to the physio room to get strapped before going out for team training. Normally it is split between attack and defence and today was much the same. I ended up finishing my preparation for the weekend with some goal kicking and punting.

All that is left now in this short week is the captain's run tomorrow which is just a case of dotting the i's and crossing the t's before resting up and mentally preparing for what is a massive game for us now.

 The difference a win has to a loss is massive. Having beaten Northampton today at Kingston Park we can now look forward to a week where we can build on the confidence taken from today's game.

Things seem so much more bearable when you have won; no negative thoughts, bumps and bruises don't seem to hurt as much and you look forwards rather than dwelling on the past.

This season's Guinness Premiership is going to be a season of highs and lows it seems. So many results have been surprises and teams have been beaten or taken to the wire in games that previously you would have put money on. Who for example would have predicted that Wasps would have lost two on the bounce? 

I feel for my good mate Dave Walder down at Wasps. Having had a fracture dislocation of his ankle in the fixture against Worcester last year, he returned to the starting line up today and would have been really looking forward to coming back and having a successful weekend. It sounds like it was a tough game and unfortunately for him they lost but they and he will bounce back I am sure. 

The difference between winning squads this weekend and those that lost, no matter how close the game, will be massive. Players will feel like the whole world is against them and that life can't get any worse if they lost. Those that won will feel full of confidence and be looking forward to getting up tomorrow and preparing for the next round. 

Even though I didn't play through injury this weekend, I am really pleased for the lads at Newcastle and can't wait to get back into things properly after I have finished my rehab......

Sunday 16th November

I sit here in front of the computer feeling very low, with millions of questions running through my head - none of which I seem to be able to answer as my mind is racing.

We lost today 24 - 8 to London Irish in a game that was there for the taking at half time. As a team, you could probably say we are low on confidence but the world of professional sport does not let you sit back and re-build it. We have 4 days to pull together and get ready to set about Worcester next Friday night.

We have what can be described as a 'rank' start to this season and sometimes you are left as a sportsmen wondering what it is all about and why you put yourself through such mental, and sometime physical, torture. Everybody has bad days at the office and I am by no means taking for granted the job I have got, it just happens that sometimes things go so badly that you start asking yourself deep questions and as I have said many of these you are not in a position to answer.

I think I have got the mental side of my personal game and how I react about right. The night of the game (now) I am in complete pieces mentally but a good nights sleep and I will pick myself up as soon as I swing my stiff legs out of the bed in the morning. It's the way it has to be as Worcester are not going to feel sorry for us and nor is anyone else. I know what I personally have to work on and this week I am going to make extra sure that everything has been covered so I can put myself in the best position to perform well on Friday.

The first thing to start the week though is to clear the mind of negativity. Don't get me wrong, I will be hurting after losing until the start of the game next week but you can't let that affect your preparation or indeed your life, because if you let it, it will! I can internally let things drive me forward but I won't let things affect me externally. My family life is not affected after tonight, that's just not fair on my wife, Mum, Dad, sister and dogs! In fact the dogs are the best ones to be around after a day like today - they don't care at all as long as they get fed, walked and cuddled!

We, as players are the ones who have the opportunity to turn things around and we will try to do this the best we can by working hard through the week and that starts tomorrow. Recovery in the morning, video, maybe some kicking if I am not too stiff and then I will be in a great state physically to prepare for the next game fast approaching........

 One of the hardest things I find in professional rugby is how to deal with the frustration of injury. I completely understand the fact that if you are not fit to play, you are not fit to play, it's the mental side of this that I find most troubling. 

From school days I have always had a dodgy back - mostly down to a desire to bowl as quick as I could without any particular focus on technique! This week, probably with my body getting used to the hits once again, my back has been stiff. Then this morning in the team run for tomorrows match against Northampton I started to get a real build up of tightness, quickly developing into a painful back. Annoying to say the least as I am looking forward to tomorrow's game so much, another massive challenge in the new Guinness Premiership season. 

Knowing I am struggling for this game tomorrow, my mind goes on the rampage! This may well just be me but I am sure there are others out there who possibly have the same thoughts at times like this. How long is this going to keep me from playing and training? When will I be able to bend over and do normal things without thinking I am going to get stuck in one position? Why me?

Don't get me wrong - I have had a pretty good run avoiding major injury and you may say that I am moaning about something that could fix itself in time for tomorrow not preventing me from being involved for months on end. However, this is my job. I feel like an idiot with a bad back, it's not a proper injury is it really! Like many professionals, I am one of those guys who feels like complete rubbish if they stop training for more than a day or so. Probably completely in my head but that is the way it affects me and I know full well others are like that too.

How to mentally sort yourself out for the prospect of injury is something that I have failed to master in the 11 years of my professional career and it may well be down to the fact that I have been so lucky with injuries up to this point, only missing 7 weeks of one season with an ankle injury.

Hopefully this blog will be a blast of hot air and I will be able to run out on the pitch tomorrow, if I can't you can rest assured I will be the worst spectator in the ground and will be finding any way I can to train without aggravating my back any more. I always think at times like this how I take for granted the days when I am fit and forget what it is like to be unfit for anything. There are times when you are so tired you think a couple of days off would be great but when they come around through circumstances out of your control, believe me it kills me.......

 After a tough pre season, I am looking forward to a new playing season with Newcastle even though we came unstuck last 3 days ago against Sale.

We were really confident going into the game and wanted to start the season off with a bang and unfortunately it did not work out that way. Tactical errors combined with a series of individual errors in personal skills let us down and the Manchester based team left Kingston Park with their first win in many years. Very disappointing from our point of view but we can take loads of positives from this game and we are now looking forward to getting stuck into Northampton at the weekend. Our defence was really pleasing and it was only a mix up between a couple of individuals that allowed Sale in to score and eventually run out winners by 5 points. We will work hard at our attacking play this week and try to add more of a threat to our game so we can test Northampton's defence slightly more than we did last Sunday.

We are not frightened by the task that lays ahead of us this weekend or this season and we are looking to make sure that all those people who have written us off this season - without a ball even being kicked - have to eat their words. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and I respect that completely but as a player it gives you an added incentive to prove people wrong.

One thing that does always amaze me is when 'supporters' of your own club spend hours and hours picking through the team and management, going on about how bad things are and how they think things should be done. I always thought supporters would and indeed should back the club, it's management and the players through the good times and the bad. I think people in general find it far easier to find negative things to bring up. Being a positive individual is far harder but makes you a much better individual to be around and helps set standards and helps develop belief and confidence when others may be struggling. I only wish one and all were pulling in the same direction.......