FOR THE FIRST time in quite a while I am delighted to say I’ll be playing back-to-back matches for England, and as captain when I run out at Otago Stadium on Saturday to take on Romania.
Obviously I was a bit stiff after Sunday’s encounter with Georgia but only a few bumps and bruises so I was quickly able to declare myself fit for Saturday’s match, which is a crucial one for England.
And the best news of all is that my knee came through the game unscathed. As you know I took an extra week of recovery, only just missing England’s first game against Argentina, so I was never really in any doubt I’d be ok for this weekend.
I think there was a general perception back home that England were only going to need to turn up against Georgia.
But in the end we had a frustrating 80 minutes. We did finally score six tries but there are an awful lot of things we need to improve upon and we must make sure we do that.
The quality of their back row and particularly their seven Mamuka Gorgodze - who was named man of the match - was exceptional.
My recovery
The lungs were blowing a bit against Georgia as it was my first match since the start of August, but I was pretty happy with the way it went.
The legs did get a good burn on early in the match but I was delighted to get out on the pitch, but my main emotion was frustration because of the number of penalties we conceded.
That meant we couldn’t quite get into the style of rugby we wanted to. Especially when you are captain you feel responsible for that penalty count.
We started the process of sorting out the frustrations from that game straight afterwards but the way we do it is personal to us as a team and the details aren’t something I can divulge.
Romania on our mind
You only have to look at how close Romania pushed Scotland to see what a potentially difficult and certainly awkward encounter this is going to be for England on Saturday, in Dunedin.
Scotland only beat them because of two tries in the final ten minutes so why would anyone in the England camp underestimate Romania?
In many ways they are similar to Georgia in that they have a big physical pack, who will love to run at you all day.
Georgia had a great set piece and they drove very well and we are expecting more of the same against Romania.
Gone are the days of 2002 when I came into the England squad when we might have put big scores on these teams. Many of the players play in the Top 14 and all the sides are well-drilled and more professional than they have ever been before.
We are now moving towards the business end of the pool stages and we all know that if we slip up now we could be going home.
I have played in three World Cups and I can assure everyone that this is a very tough competition and is only getting tougher, with the development of all of the nations that are taking part.
Added to that pressure is the certainty that everyone wants to beat England. No matter whom you face you know that is uppermost in the minds of your opponents, so we know the Romanians will be fired up as never before for the match on Saturday.
Squad morale
The team spirit is excellent in the England squad at the moment and we are really developing a club atmosphere, something we have been trying to achieve for a while.
It is always difficult on long trips especially with guys who haven’t experienced it before. The ‘bubble’ we are in can be intense but we have a great squad of guys who are also making the effort to see New Zealand. We are pretty lucky as we have a good, broad spectrum of characters.
We have been together with the guys for long enough now to get to know them very well. We are talking about each other’s families, rather than just exchanging pleasantries. You have to get to know people on a tour like this, especially being in camp for months.
We got together back in June, which is a huge period of time together. It is very different to the RBS 6 Nations, where we now get to know people as men rather than just people you play rugby with.
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