It’s been a fair few weeks since I last updated my blog, so many apologies for that. As soon as we finished our World Cup campaign, I had about a moment’s respite before getting to grips in my life as a professional player with Leicester Tigers, so it really has been non-stop.

Obviously we were devastated not to squeeze past New Zealand in the final and I truly believe that on another day, we may have turned that result around, and we’ll learn from that experience. However, if you look back at what we achieved, there are some big plusses to take forward for the future. Most of all, it was HOW we played. We wanted to play attractive, expansive rugby, but without jeopardising the basics of defence, retention and control, and I honestly believe our brand of rugby was as good as any on view in the competition. Rugby is about winning, and without those basics in place, you will never string a series of results together, and that’s what we will take with us for the future.

Fundamentally, the whole event was the most wonderful and humbling experience of my career thus far; without doubt the best standard of international rugby I could play at my current age, and I would like to think that not only did I contribute, but I developed as both a person and a player, which is all you can ask of yourself.

Coming back to Tigers has re-focused me on what I now need to do to further progress. The professional senior game is certainly more physical than the U20’s and group standard, and whilst I am confident in my skill level, I realise I have to maintain and improve my physicality, both to compete, but importantly to stay fit and available.

At the moment, I am around 82 kgs, and I’m working very hard with Alex Martin, the Tigers’ conditioning coach (or Specialist Torture Manager as I like to think of him!), just to bulk up a little and maybe gain a few more kilos. I’m a similar height to Jonny Wilkinson, so getting to around 85 to 88 kilos would be my benchmark moving forward, so it looks like a lot of hard anaerobic power work for me in the weeks to come, although I would caution that by saying I’m very congniscent of the need also to maintain my flexibility whilst gaining muscle, as that is the key to a lot of the skill set a fly half needs. Many young pro’s forget the detail of stretching and flexing, and I am determined to do both to build strength and retain skill.

Looking forward to the pre season and Premiership, I’m obviously aware that Tigers will be without Floody for a good part of the early season, and I hope that may give me a few chances to play in the senior side. My Head Coach, Richard Cockerill, has suggested that there will be opportunities for me, but equally, in true Leicester style, I realise that it’s up to me to seize them as and when I can.

There is no such thing as a free meal at Welford Road, and I also know Billy Twelvetrees and Jerry Staunton will be equally keen to impress. My rationale is to nail the basics- my re-starts, goal kicking, distribution and tackle completion. Anything else after that is a bonus to me and the team, but unless those core roles are executed well, with 95% or better completion rates, I realise that the breaks, the jinks and all the other bell and whistle activities are immaterial to a large extent.

It’s safe to say that, at Tigers overall, there is an air of dissatisfaction regarding our achievements last season. Second and third are not words found in the vocabulary of the Tigers’ players (unless it’s Dan Cole and Castro at the lunch table!) and we feel that, with our history, heritage and squad, we did not acquit ourselves as we would have liked. There is an air of determination to turn things around this year, and a realisation that new faces will have to be integrated, some re-building needs to take place and we need to challenge hard to turn opportunities into silverware.

We do believe that the sheer size and depth of our squad will leave us in better shape in the early part of the season compared to other clubs. Certainly there’s a few of our close rivals that we consider will be much harder hit by World Cup call ups than we will be, but that is conjecture right now, and it does not mean we will take our foot off the gas pedal in any way shape or form. We know what we need to do and there’s a steely-eyed focus around the players right now, which is great to be part of.

So, in closing, here’s to the new season and the hope that we’ll right the underachievement of last year.

Thanks for following my blogs, and I’ll speak to you soon.

Cheers,
George.

If you’re sportsman, there’s few words in the English language that hold the appeal of the phrase ‘World Cup Final’, but, after a hard-fought win against a tough French side, that’s exactly where we find ourselves, and I have to say, it feels good!

With the temperatures soaring into the 30’s again, France proved to be a tough not to crack. We went into half time with a 3 point lead at 13-10, but France came out well in the second half, until we got our act together and managed to string together some good phase play.

I was lucky enough to be on the end of one of those team phase plays, and managed to get into a situation where I had a one on one match up with a front five forward. Fortunately, I managed to execute a simple dummy and a gap opened up, and I closed my eyes, went for it and dived in for what proved to be an important try in one of the most significant victories of our young careers.

Looking forward to the final, New Zealand are the bookies’ favourites and they have earned that mantle with their tough performances, although I’m positive we have the ability to beat them. They’re hugely physical but also technically proficient around the breakdown area, which is a real feature of their game. They execute brilliantly around those areas and we will have to compete hard. They have some great broken field runners and with number 8 Luke Whitelock proving to be an inspiring leader, they have quality from 1-15 in their line up.

That breakdown will be key; we have to compete aggressively yet stay on our feet and be legal about it. It’ll be a crucial area of the game, but I’m confident that Alex and the pack can match and possibly dominate their Kiwi opponents, hopefully giving us enough ball to break down their powerful and well organised drift defence.

We’ve talked a lot about our approach in the build up; keep it simple, and execute/complete is the message. We’re aware chances will be few and far between and that we have to take what comes our way and maximise every opening that presents itself. It is an absolute cliché, but good rugby is simple rugby, and it’s all about that completion rate. The more you complete, the longer you have the ball, and it’s an absolute truism to say you can’t score points unless you have the ball. Rest assured, we’ll leave nothing in the dressing shed and whatever happens, we’ll give our best and that’s all that can be expected of us. Win, lose or draw, as long as we know we did did our best there will be no regrets.

In closing, my ‘muppet of the week’ moment goes to my room mate Matt Kvesic. Not content with injuries picked up on the field of play, during our pool recovery session, Matt decided to execute a triple salco somersault with toe loops (or whatever divers do!) into the swimming pool and only contrived to split his eye on the dive board on the way down, thus needing 3 stiches! We’re convinced he did this only to make himself look meaner and tougher to the opposition, and I’m toying with the idea of calling him Self-inflicted Matt from now on!

Wish us luck and we’ll speak after Sunday,

Cheers
George.

Phew! What a tough game- and what a great performance by the guys.

We really are chuffed not only with the win against a very physical and competitive South African side, but also we’re within touching distance of a World Cup Final, which is an amazing achievement in itself.

We knew all along they’d be big, tough and physical and so it proved to be. The first half was very tough and I was proud how the forwards fronted up and never gave an inch. You need to show South African rugby players that you’re not intimidated by them and the forwards did exactly that. They’ll try and bully you all day with their direct route 1 game and we knew exactly how to react and precisely how to counter. We did a lot of homework and that really made a huge difference.

We’d managed to grind them down a little in that first half, and I have to say we were disappointed to go in 11-11 but even then, we felt we had the edge in terms of fitness and mental toughness going into the second half.

The try in the first half was key- a great finish by skipper and No 8 Alex Grey after 6 or 7 worked phases, exactly as it should be, and Christian Wade managed to do what every good winger should do- be there to burgle a try!

The defence in the last 20 was immense- I honestly counted something like 7 or 8 last gasp try saving tackles as the green wave came and came again. It was hard work, but the guys did great, they matched the physicality and every man, from 1 to 15 put their hand up!

Looking back, I think having a later kick off really helped us, and also, we’re learning how to better rehydrate, something that’s been discussed at length by the coaches. A little and often, is the key thing, and also making sure you take on the fluids during the game too.

Anyway, I cannot wait fro the French game, and we’ll look no further than that for the moment.

In closing, I always like to report from the camp on the latest moment of idiocy, and this week’s Muppet award goes to my good mate Andy Short, who successfully locked himself in a toilet cubicle for an hour and a half. Mind you, typical winger, goes missing for 80 minutes and then complains about it. I told him that was pretty bog-standard for a three quarter…..

Yours groaningly,

George.

With 2 wins from 2 games all is in pretty good shape in camp and the boys are delighted to have beaten a resolute and dogged Scottish side, although we’re a little disappointed with leaking 3 tries.

We always expected the Scots to be abrasive and physical, but we conspired to really gift them 3 scores which is hugely frustrating, and we’ll examine what went wrong in that area and try to eradicate it moving forward. They gave us problems at the breakdown which we expected but in fairness, at times, failed to deal with. By saying that we scored 4 great tries and the backline went well, so we must also take the positives as well as the negatives.

I was rested and benched for this game, although sneaked on to play 30 mins. The management had always said they’d mix it up a little for this game and select for the biggest game- South Africa on Saturday night.

I get the feeling both Owen Farrell and myself could start; Owen is comfortable in the 12 channel and that gives us a lot more options in terms of kicks, particularly the openside cross kick, a tactic that works well on the big hard grounds of Northern Italy.

We know South Africa will be tough. With one the stand out players of the tournament number 8 Arno Botha giving pace and power to their forwards, the are a big, powerful side, and they love going Route 1 before going Route 1 again! Joking aside, they do relish the physical contact, looking to bully their way forward and we’re expecting a tough match up front. However, it’s our intention to try and play the space, offload and keep contact fast and minimal. Tempo is the absolute key here and we want to run their large forwards around the park a little.

Socially, we’ve loved the area where we’re staying. We were treated to a day out in Venice yesterday and had a great time wandering around this unique and beautiful city., However, no social trip would be complete without one of the forwards making an utter fool of himself and this week’s culprit was our sizable openside Matt Everard, who conspired to almost fall into the river off the Gondolas. Personally I would have let him fall in, but he was dragged to safety amongst much mirth, inspiring the usual debate and banter- mainly focused around how far the Venetian seas would have risen if the big lad had have fallen in!

Anyway, wish us luck for Saturday and we’ll speak soon,

George.

Well, a win is a win, and despite the searing heat in Treviso, we’re happy to be played one won one as they say.

We’re not particularly happy with the way we won, and we’re very disappointed with the penalty count against us (19) and that’s something we’re really going to have to look at moving forward. If we infringe that many times against other sides we’re going to make it very difficult for ourselves and we must examine our work at breakdown time and the way the referees are looking to interpret that area of the game.

It was a boiling hot evening and the boys are very dehydrated and exhausted. At times it touched 28 degrees and if you combine that with the huge playing area at Treviso, you’ll realise we’re one very tired team this morning.

Just as their senior side showed the Six Nations, Ireland were very physical and strong around the contact area. As I suspected before the game, the breakdown was very messy and fragmented- a form of organised chaos, and they made a point of the tackler holding our carriers up off the floor, and then the second man in coming to rip the ball. I admit it caused us issues and we have to revisit the point we made before the match about keeping the momentum and leg drive going when taking the ball into contact; it’s also  absolutely imperative that our second man in is clearing out aggressively and hitting the ruck or maul with real intent.

Ireland kicked very well and showed great discipline, but I was delighted at the character the guys showed, coming back from a 1 point deficit with 7 mins to go, to take the lead and end up emphatic, if not comfortable, winners. That sort of experience will bode well and it’s a great reference point for us for similar situations in the future. We know we can do it and we know we’ve the fitness to make the last 20 mins our own, an absolute key quality in international rugby, as the All Blacks have shown for many years.

Looking forward to Scotland, despite their heavy defeat against the South Africans, we know they will be organised and very passionate. Scottish sides always take a degree of breaking down before you can afford to look to be more expansive. I realise it’s my job to keep the scoreboard rolling early on, and hopefully draw enough of a lead to open the backline up and play some real rugby of attacking intent later on. We know my opposite number at ten, Duncan Weir, will be a key match-up for them and his work in the Magners League this season for Glasgow shows how fast his talent is developing, but I’m confident that we’ll have enough ball to negate his threat.

Very lastly, after those 80 sweltering minutes in Treviso, we had a rather tedious 2 hour coach journey back to our digs in Padova. The ‘social committee’ therefore decreed each of us had to sing a song to pass the hours away. You can therefore imagine the laughter and mirth as our young Tigers’ prop, Ryan Bower, treated us to a rather tuneless rendition of ‘It’s Christmas Time”. Christmas Time in 28 degrees in June? Only a prop could come up with something as daft as that!

Speak soon,
George

Well, here we are enjoying the sunshine and hospitality of Padova in Italy, whilst we prepare for our first game against Ireland tomorrow night. I must say the Italian food is excellent- loads of pasta and so on, great for loading the old carbs, so no complaints form me there!

I know it’s a cliché to say we need to take each game one at a time, but in our Group it’s very true. Scotland, Ireland and South Africa are all formidable opponents and we have to make sure that we front up and play with the intensity and fire we’ve talked about all week.

Looking at Ireland, we expect a very physical encounter. We saw how the senior side disrupted England at the breakdown in the Six Nations, by holding their ball carriers up off the floor and preventing quick rucks. We’ve discussed this and are determined to keep those legs driving and hit the contact area with power to prevent a repeat of this. The first 20 minutes will shape the game; we want a very fast tempo and maximum completion on our skills from the first whistle.

Ireland have 6 or 7 payers who’ve played in the Magners League this season and we know they have experience aplenty. Equally we’ve got the likes of Owen Farrell, Henry Thomas and Elliot Daly, all of whom have made their mark on the Aviva Premiership this season, so we’ll be looking to use those guys and their knowledge to unlock a strong Irish defence.

From a personal perspective, I’ll be looking to get us into good positions early doors- it goes without saying that territory and possession are all, but people often forget the simple stuff, and I’ll be reminding all that we have to play in their red zone and keep that ball!

Anyway, that’s all from me; I’ll be on at the weekend to give my thoughts on what I hope will be a strong English performance.

Speak then,

Cheers
George

It’s great to be back with all the U20 lads. I missed the training day up in Coventry last week due to club commitments, so it’s been really good to get back into it and meet up with all of the boys for the first time since the 6 Nations win.

We’ve enjoyed a good couple of days in camp – first of all we had a few team meetings and had to fill out a few forms, but once we got back onto the training field we pretty much picked up where we had left off and looked really sharp.

We enjoyed a good training session against the Saxons who are preparing to play the Barbarians at Twickenham on Saturday.

It was great to come up against England senior regulars like Matt Banahan, Charlie Hodgson and Paul Doran Jones and I thought we equipped ourselves pretty well in the 15-a-side semi-contact, and it was good to get a nice blow out.

After that, the 20s lads had to change their mindset from the rugby pitch to the racing track as we headed over to a go-karting complex in Avonmouth. There was a lot of hype about who was going to win, particularly from Andy Short who said that he used to do Motocross when he was younger.

I ended up teamed with Shorty and we came seventh out of twelve. Enough said. Four forwards ended up on the podium, instantly dispelling the theory that the lighter backs would win!

Mike Haywood and Koree Britton won, Marland Yarde and Guy Armitage came second and Henry Thomas and Sam Twomey came third. It was really good fun, although there were some dirty tactics from a few of the players…. overtaking when they shouldn’t, and things like that.

I’m rooming with Matt Kvesic again, I was with him throughout the 6 Nations and that went pretty well – so hopefully we’ll enjoy similar success together over in Italy.

We spend quite a bit of time with Andy Short and Matt Everard, another pair of good lads, but I hope that their banter improves during the next month or so we’ll be spending together.

The main focus of this week has been on us, we’ve obviously got half an eye on the first game against Ireland on June 10 – but we’re not putting too much emphasis on that just yet. There’s a lot of hard work to do until then, but we’re relishing it and can’t wait to get stuck in.

George

After finishing the six nations it was back to Leicester and getting ready for the end of the season. For me, my main priority has been playing for the second team and trying to win the competition twice in a row.

After comfortably beating Worcester and sale in our last two pool games we was drawn against Harlequins away in the semi final. We was away because we didn’t finish top in the northern part of the league meaning we had an away semi against the winner of the southern part of the league. We met Harlequins in the final the year before so there was already a bit of history there. We went down there with full of confidence but knowing it was going to be a tough task. They had a team full of first team experience and had a good crowd to get behind them. It was a tough game and we ended up winning 19-15 in a game, which went right down to the last minute. It wasn’t the best team performance but when it comes to the knock out stages, it is all about winning.

This gave us another trip up to sale for the final. They have gone really well this year in the competition winning 9 out of 10 of their pool games and beating Saracens in the semi final. We had a good weeks preparation training against the first team and getting plenty of opportunity to train together. It was always going to be a tough game going up to sale on a Monday night but we knew what to expect as we went up their two weeks ago and came away with a win.

We started the game pretty well, scoring a couple of tries and kicking a few penalties. At half time it was 24-13 but we knew Sale would come out firing in the second half. It was a close game in the second half, which was riddled with penalties and mistakes making it a stop start game. We managed to come out on top with a 35-30 win, which was a great feeling. We have now won the A league two years on the run but I’d say this one was the most satisfying as we had to play away in both the semi and the final unlike the year before where we was at home for both of them.

Cheers

George

We went into the last two games of the six nations with two tough games against Scotland at home and Ireland away. The Scotland week was ultimately our biggest week of the Six Nations because we knew if we could produce a good performance along with a win it would set us up for the championship. We trained well all week, focusing on being accurate and not making unforced errors, which had let us down, in previous games. It was always going to be a tough game because the Scots are a passionate group and we were under a little bit of pressure as we were expected to win at home. We started well taking a 21-0 lead, two tries coming from kicks, which shows they can be used as an attacking weapon. Scotland came back well and scored from a driving maul but we kept on playing and ended up scoring another 5 tries to win 56-8. It was a great win for us and sent us into the last week against Ireland with great confidence.

It was the last week of the Six Nations and there was a Grand Slam at stake for us. We spoke early on in the week and placed a massive emphasis on training as well as we can and making the week enjoyable and relaxed. Nothing was said about the Grand Slam at all, it was all about our performance and trying to better in what we did against Scotland. We trained with the seniors on the Wednesday before flying out to Ireland and that was massively beneficial. The difference in tempo, communication and accuracy in the training session was massive and only lifted everyone’s standards.

We were playing at Athlone against Ireland, which was a long way from any airport so the travel wasn’t great. The boys remained focus though and we had two days to relax before the game. Ireland in Ireland is never easy and you know what they will bring to the game, physicality, passion and a lot of energy especially when the crowd gets behind them. We created 3 clear-cut chances in the first half and did our best not to finish one of them! I knew if we carried on playing though there would be plenty more and that was the case. We scored a crucial try before half time when we had a man in the bin, which was massive for us. It gave us chance to go into half time with a 21-10 lead and regroup. We came out in the second half and started brilliantly. We were far more clinical and ended up scoring another 3 tries in 15 minutes which finished the game off. It was the first time any England age group side had won in Athlone and we had also gained the best defensive recorded ever in an U20s six nations.

It was a great feeling to win the Grand Slam and we celebrated pretty well too but we all know that there is still massive amount to work on before the JWC in June. I just can’t wait now!

George

For this weeks game against France we were based in Worcester. We met up on the Wednesday before the Sunday game which gave us 4 training days. In general we trained pretty well, practicing the things we needed to work on in order to get the right result against France.

The players had met during the week without the coaches like we always do every week. During this meeting we spoke about how this game could put us in a great position going into the last two games. A lot of the boys said it was the turning point for us to come up against a good physical French team and try and get the result we wanted. We also set our goals for the game.

I think there was more nerves before this game than there has been before. I’m not totally sure why this was the case because we treat every the game the same, but maybe us knowing that France were also unbeaten up to this point added to the occasion.

We started the game great, playing at a fast tempo and executing quite well. We built a 19-0 point lead after scoring a good try through Jamie Elliot and kicking penalties in which we had earned by playing well. The conditions played a big part on the game as there was a strong wind to play against in the second half for us. Having said that we still had great opportunities to score some more points but our accuracy let us down in the second half. To be fair the French came back well and scored a try of their own with a penalty making it 19-8.

It was great to keep the winning streak going in this tournament and puts us in a great position but we are under no illusions we have two very tough games against Scotland and Ireland coming up so we are going to keep working as hard as we can everyday.

Thanks George