Wednesday 30th November 2006

We arrived in Dubai on Monday and are in full swing with training and preparation ahead of the start of the tournament on Friday. I have been to Dubai before last year when I played for the St George Samurai side in the invitational tournament out here.  Its a great city with lots of building and activity going on.  The weather hasn't been that sunny but it is still warm but I shouldn't complain as we don't want it to be too hot when we are playing.
 
We had our first full training session yesterday.  It was good to have a full run out as we had only done a couple of gym sessions the day before. Things are coming together well. It was a hard session given the heat but hopefully everything will be in place for Friday.
 
We are training twice today and then have a players function this evening in the desert which should be fun.
 
I am rooming with James Haskell from London Wasps who is fun to share with - he is always full of chat!  The players went to the local market last night and picked up a couple of bargains. There are quite a few handbags lying around for everyone's girlfriends!
 
We face Scotland first on Friday who always raise their game when they play England. The tournament is incredible over here with 32,000 people screaming for England to win and there is a fair amount