Now I can see why full backs get miffed when they don't get the ball. They've run 40 yards and they've just missed it, or somebody takes it on. I can understand it now. There's certainly a helluva lot of running at full back. So much running off the ball and so much unseen stuff.

It went okay. I think I did my basics reasonably well but the whole positional thing is difficult. I was looking around and asking myself if I was in the right place, and `Balsh' (Iain Balshaw) actually helped me a bit by standing behind the posts and feeding me things, which was great.

I was a bit disappointed that I didn't hold one Garryowen although their player did well and the second time a ball was kicked through I knew I wasn't going to get to it. I let it bounce back into the winger's hands, which was annoying, but I hit him and he spilled it, so it was okay. I probably didn't get into the line enough, but that's just an experience thing, knowing when and when not to. I can certainly learn a bit from `Balsh' there.

It was weird. I'd been so zoned in on playing full back every day for the past two weeks that when I was thrown back in to centre I thought `how do you defend here?' For a moment it was almost like I had been more comfortable at full back but then you get into it fairly quickly.

The boys are all fairly ticked off we conceded two tries. With Phil Larder there, defence is going to be enormous. You look at the Aussies, teams that don't concede tries win World Cups. Or European Cups, in the last two years Leicester and Northampton have conceded the least number of tries.

I met Phil Vickery in the dressing-room afterwards and he was saying "I can't believe it, 116 points and again no try for me." And I was thinking `I stole his try from a foot and a half out.' It was the essence of a prop's try.

Rewind to Monday, April 30th - The preparation begins here.

The hard training started. I celebrated well over the previous weekend but now, no more booze, really healthy living. I like to think that I am reasonably professional but there's some comforts that I just have to have. I wouldn't enjoy life if I didn't have these few things, but all burgers, pizzas and Pepsis were cut out and I only drank water. I had complete tunnel vision on getting myself fit because I haven't played a lot of games.

I trained with Mal (O'Kelly) quite a bit. I really concentrated on skills with Matt Williams before he went off, and I did match simulations with Craig White which were brilliant. Go for a minute, stop for a minute, running, hitting the deck, hitting the tackle bag, chasing and catching a kick, kicking a ball when you're tired. I feel as though they've stood to me. An incredible difference. It was the best month's training I've ever put in. You have to have an end goal and nothing's much bigger than an ol' Lions tour.

Saturday April 26th - Assembly at Tylney Hall to begin training camp.

Myself and Mal are flying out at 12.10 and I'm in the airport at 11.00. Mal walks into the airport at 11.40 with no bag. He has a rucksack and a little kind of of plastic bag compared to my massive bag. "Where's all your gear?"

"Ah like, y'know Buddie, this is all we're going to need. We're going to get everything."

He looks like he's out of the scratcher about 15 minutes.

Woody picked us up at Heathrow airport but it took ages to get there. Nightmare traffic in London, believe it or not. We got there just before 3.00 and the first team meeting. A lot of handshaking and introductions. Of course Woody knew them well; Woody knows everybody.

I went down to my room and saw this mountain of gear. I laughed when I saw it and thought how lucky we were. There were three bags packed to the brim, full of gear. Then we had to go to another room, to Hugh Llewellyn, the Adidas rep, where we picked up two pairs of shades, a watch, a little rugby ball, then we went to another room and picked up trainers. Although I'm sponsored by Reebok I picked up a pair of boots. I wanted a pair of Lions boots because they had a little shamrock on them. On another day we collected all our Eden Park clothes.

Mal was right after all.

Building squad spirit at the Army Barracks in Aldershot

The Impact people devised different projects for the squad. One of them had all of us playing in an orchestra. I played tambourine, which was, er, grand. In the one I got most out of they drew a Lions shield and you had to fill in each of the four boxes, one was me at my best, another me at my worst, things that are important to me and things that drive me mad. It was a real honesty thing and getting to know people.

It's very nervous talking about yourself like that and I don't enjoy public speaking, I don't like being the centre of attention, but I thought that was very good and it helped us get to know each other. We also did obstacle courses, tree climbing - which was good fun. We knew it had to be tough and intense. In England we trained twice a day and alternated with two Impact sessions each day, ate, slept and that was it.

Playing at full back

We all pretty much knew from our first squad meeting which team each of us was going to play in over the first couple of games. I noticed my name was first, at the top of the list, and I noticed there were two other centres. Hmm, what's going on here? Well, I always wanted to play full back to see what it was like. There's nothing like experiencing new things. Funny how you have to wait until you're playing with the Lions before you get the chance. The only worry was that my kicking game wasn't up to scratch, so I thought I'd be running everything. But now I think that's a lot better.

So I went out training, did all the stuff and took to full back okay, and began to enjoy it. It's just been a gradual process, picking up different things and working with my two wingers. Phil Larder has obviously been a big help, because when I'm defending he stands pretty much behind me looking at everything, and passing on tips. It's going to be different but exciting. To a degree it's a case of something to prove, never having played there before.

The training has been very sharp, different too because I'd never done so much defensive work, at least not to the extent we do with Phil. It's great to have Dave Alred there as a kicking coach the whole time because the things you're doing wrong he corrects immediately and you hit the next one really sweetly. With Phil it's been both positional defensive play and tackling technique, and as I'm at full back I've had to learn a whole new defensive game. This tour has elevated things up to another level. Skill levels are brought up another notch. You see some things and I've learnt so much. At training I've picked up things every day, from different people and coaches. Obviously having a kicking coach and a defensive coach is brilliant, and having your every need catered for is just fantastic. You could get used to this.

Wednesday, June 6th - Our first day off

Golf with Hendo and Jason Leonard. I played absolute tripe apart from five holes but it was great. We had the cameras walking around with us. Sometimes that's a bit annoying. Your every move. And I wouldn't be the best pressure golfer; I have enough pressure playing rugby. The second the cameraman left I had two pars and back-to-back birdies.

We went out to a restaurant that night, the whole squad, and I have never seen so much food eaten in my whole life. The menu had been sent in to the hotel the night before and we all ticked off what we wanted. I didn't realise how it was going to be done. I ordered bruschetta, garlic bread, mussels and then prawns as well. I was stuffed after that. I was sitting beside Danny Grewcock. He had bruschetta, garlic bread, a good bowl of mussels, then he had a calzone (folded) pizza. Now I couldn't manage that much. But then he had a pasta and chicken dish, followed by t-bone steak with chips. He ate about twothirds of his t-bone steak and chips. It was unbelievable. I've seen Bob Casey put away some food, and Ciaran Scally for that matter, but this - eh - really took the biscuit.

(In an interview with Gerry Thornley).