88 days and counting.....

The size of the task ahead has slowly moved to DEFCON 1. Warning bells are ringing everywhere and the ‘O’ word is resonating amongst us as a group as we come closer to learning our fates.

The elephant in the room is getting larger and squeezing us into a corner and along with that comes my own self-doubt. Am I ready? Am I good enough? Have I done enough?

The positives are that my fate is in my own hands and there is plenty of rugby to be played before my friends and I potentially embark on what will be one of the biggest imaginable rugby outings to date for all of us.

We have spent the year trying to avoid the thoughts of what lies beyond the World Series so that we can expend all of our energy into putting in quality performances as individuals and as a team to give all of us confidence and belief moving forward. With under 100 days left to go we sometimes find that we allow ourselves to dream and then…. BANG…. you are stood there on the training pitch on a rainy day in April showers which, for me, is reminiscent of what we had in December. I for one am happy to call myself a fair weather player!!!

As Rihanna says, on repeat, repeatedly, over and over again we just have to ‘Work, work, work’. With two tournaments to go we have players returning to full fitness in the way of ‘The Big Nosed Duo’ of Dan Bibby and Alex Davis. They are both itching to lay down their own markers for Olympic selection. The announcement of the wider Olympic Training Squad is just around the corner and everyone has their eyes on who is going to be included in Team GB 7s!

There has been a loud outcry for the inclusion of 15s stars within the GB Squad. From the offset my opinion has been that the best 12 players from the home nations should be selected whatever that may look like. With that in mind, being a rugby fan first and foremost, I am very excited to see what blend of players from England, Wales and Scotland are selected. 

The only real stumbling block is injury, the thing we as players dread more than anything and is so often totally out of our control. During my years within the England set up, James Rodwell has become a very close friend of mine and it was fantastic to see him carving up in his 69^th consecutive tournament which is a ridiculously impressive feat. However, seeing him go down in Singapore and having to be stretchered off with a serious leg injury hammers home the realisation that even though the Olympics are so close they are also so far away. On a positive note, the initial signs are that Rodders has a real fighting chance of being fit in time but nonetheless this serves as a reminder that our hopes and dreams can flash before our eyes and be gone within a second. 

This week leading into Paris will be a chilled one. Usually we travel 10 days to our destination to acclimatise but for a ‘local’ tournament like this we won’t leave until Tuesday. The coaches have enjoyed the opportunity for a few more days to beast us. 

Paris seems as though it has all the ingredients to be an amazing tournament. Not only is it easy for family and friends to come across the border, the french culture is appealing (I know boring Tom Mitchell and Charlie Hayter will be keen for that) but for me its has to be the french pastries! 

Everyone is very excited to see how it unfolds,

Next stop Paris…

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Onwards and Upwards

It's always nice to return home with all the creature comforts that come with that, but also to see my plump little son just 10 weeks old. 

After a long two and a half weeks away from home stopping off at Sin City and, a new inclusion, in the way of Vancouver. I have had plenty of time and conversations to take stock of what was a tough two tournaments for us as a group.

In my previous BLOG I spoke about how excited we were to build on our 4th place finish in Wellington and 8th in Sydney. We went into Las Vegas in a buoyant mood wanting to build some momentum into the close of the season. As well as welcoming back the ‘house wives favourite’   Phil burgess and ‘tour captain’  Charlie Hayter both returning from injury.

Unfortunately, things didn't go our way and we massively underperformed. We got ourselves into good positions and strung together some good phases of play but lacked the accuracy and intensity needed to capitalise on these fortunes. As we have learnt, you only have to make one small mistake and you can end up a score down!

I remember finishing the last game vs France feeling battered bruised and very embarrassed. The changing room was a very somber place and we all felt very frustrated, angry and all around deflated.

We didn't show the attitude we pride ourselves on, something we have worked on over the last 18 months. It's the basis of everything we do day to day and what we are measured on in games.

The joy of sevens is that, there is normally a weekend not long after another so we had an immediate opportunity to perform better the following weekend.

Second week training is more about recovering and getting over the travel. The intensity slowly builds over the 2-3 training days and we finished our training week with a scrag game vs Scotland to help get the new boys joining us up to speed.

There was a vast improvement in Vancouver which turned out to be a better weekend for us but still below par by our standards. We were a lot more competitive through the weekend and showed a better attitude towards the game. There was an improved mental buy in from all the squad and a desire to top the previous weekend's performances.

For a first tournament Vancouver was a massive hit and one I'm much looking forward to next year. Vancouver is the only indoor tournament on the calendar, has an immaculate and wide surface to play on and was packed with 30,000 fans everyday!

A few personal highlights of the last two weeks were: 

1. Watching my first NHL Game (“Gooooo Canucks!”) 
2. ’Baptising' the freshers and their initiation drinks in Vancouver
3. After waiting 2.5 hours to check in, Tommy Bowen being informed his flight had been cancelled triggering mayhem from the management flocking around him to get on the closing flight, and to all of our enjoyment at the potential chance of leaving him behind.
4. Tommy Bowen, figuratively known as the cartoon character Butt Head, after finally making it onto the plane and in his excitement of being sat in between the south african pair of Seabelo Senatla and  the legend Bryan Habana spilling his water all over Bryan’s laptop. Thankfully Butt Head lived to tell the tale. 

Next stop Hong Kong…

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Las Vegas 7s here we come

A 5:05 alarm is always hard to process regardless what you are doing.

After a short 10 minute taxi and £20 later, I arrive at Terminal 5 rocking my new Mizuno trainers and in a generally excited mood.

As I arrive at the airport and make the walk to the check-in desk with my kit bag in tow, I have a warm feeling of excitement as we are about to embark on another tournament, and the the reality of our hard work and sacrifices are getting closer but more to the fact that we get to do it in Las Vegas (I know, it sounds ridiculous!) 

 I finally meet the team and I receive a warm reception from the boys of, “what are you doing here?”, or “terrible Lid”, which brings a smile to the boys involved. Once queuing and catching up on the last 48 hours of our lives talk moves to some of the boys new “Sky Haircuts” in preparation for next weekend's tournament in Las Vegas. The rule of thumb is if you've had a haircut regardless how good it is, its going to get mocked. As ever Captain Tom Mitchell gets the most stick being the vainest character in our team, that, and his new approach to a mohawk! We also  have Tom Bowen looking like a Turkish monk, and Phil burgess too ashamed to show his High and Tight new lid that he is still wearing a Hat!

As ever we try our best to wangle some upgrades and as ever James Rodwell is front of the queue. Once he has been rejected the opportunity to get an upgrade he proceeds to inform the staff that he is England's most Capped 7s Forward and that he's played over 50 consecutive tournaments which in his eyes is due an upgrade...before he slinks off through security.

Once through security the obvious Giraffe awaits. It's served us very well (quite literally) over the past seasons, both on home soil and away. We finally make our way to our gate and are met by the South African 7s team.

After training as a squad for the past few weeks, seeing another squad my thoughts move to next week and playing again. Your pulse starts to quicken as you start to shortly play out the weekend ahead hoping to finish off the tournament bathed in glory. As you look around and see the likes of Brian Habana the rugby fan in me is quite in awe. It just hits home we are slowing etching closer to the Buzz word of the year, Olympics!!  I also think to myself that it's amazing for the sport to have these international “stars” playing 7s. It makes what is already an amazing spectacle and takes it to the next level of high octane entertainment. 

The reality of playing next weekend is the combination of all the hard work we have put in in the last couple of weeks and is so exciting.  We say it all the time but it's another opportunity to show the world how well, as a team, we are progressing. I wasn't very happy with my last performances in Dubai and Cape Town and with missing the last two tournaments, I’m just itching to show the world how good I am!

The next few hours are a blur, a five hour wait in New York for our connecting flight and we finally make it to Sin City after 22 hours of travelling needing sleep.

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