Wednesday 31st January 2007

London Irish centre Nils Mordt suffered a serious cruciate knee injury on his return from England Sevens duty last April.  Nine months later he is not only back playing for his club, but he has been selected for the England Sevens squad who are currently in New Zealand.

He gives RFU.com his latest thoughts....

“The journey from London was horrible as you would expect.  Over 26 hours of being on a plane.  We have to be careful to try and minimise our jet lag too so we are not allowed to sleep on the first leg to Hong Kong and then are allowed to sleep from Hong Kong to Auckland.  I am not the best traveller anyway so get a bit fed up of a whole day of plane food but the food at the hotel is fantastic so makes up for it.  I am rooming with Andy Vilk (Sale Sharks) again and its good fun to be back with him, and the others who I spent so much time with last season.”

“It is great to be back with the sevens boys.  You forget how close everyone is in the sevens squad and what a special atmosphere there is and I have really missed it.  We have a really talented squad over here and it is just a case of us getting over the jet lag and the hostile crowd.  It’s the first tournament back for quite a few of the players, including myself, so it will take a little while to fully get back up to speed.  Everyone desperately wants to get this first Wellington win.”

“The weather is beautiful and it felt good to get off the plane and step out into the sunshine.  Wellington is known as the windy city and the wind was certainly picking up a bit today - I am glad I won't have to kick during the tournament! 

"We arrived to a traditional Maori welcome at the airport which was interesting.  Quite a few people stood and watched and our captain Simon Amor had to then reply to their song and dance.  They have done it for every team who has arrived and we were the 14th team in but they were still enthusiastic and very welcoming.

We went straight to the hotel from the airport, unpacked and had a bit of lunch, before heading to the gym for a spin class.  We all worked pretty hard in the gym with the idea to help get the journey out of our legs, as well as helping us to sleep properly when we did go to bed last night.  Then we had our first team meeting where we each had to present on a different area of the game to the other players.  There are quite a few new faces in the team since last season so it is good to spend some time getting to know them ahead of the tournament.

After the meeting it was straight to bed for an early night.  I struggled to get to sleep for a while so ended up watching some tapes of the opposition matches to get a better idea of their game plans and key players and then finally got to sleep.  It was nice to finally get into a bed after two nights on the plane!

We only have a couple of training sessions as the tournament begins on Friday but I am looking forward to getting back on a sevens pitch and reminding myself of all the moves and drills.

I haven't played England Sevens since Singapore and have really missed it.  My London Irish team mate Dominic Shabbo earned his first England Sevens cap in Dubai in December and it was hard hearing him talk about his sevens experience.  I was so pleased he got selected but it really brought home how much I missed playing sevens when he came back.  Dubai is an amazing tournament, and I had told him all about it before he went so I was a little bit jealous when he was away.

It really is good to be back and fully fit and playing again for both London Irish and England.  The injury was pretty serious and very frustrating but at the same time I am sure it has made me a stronger player and a stronger person so perhaps these things happen for a reason!

Now all my thoughts are on sevens, and running onto the pitch on Friday.  Wellington is where I made my England Sevens debut three seasons ago so I guess its quite appropriate that I am making my return from injury in the same tournament now.

Ends.