Friday, January 12th.

We were very confident; we had a good week training. Nerves were apparent in the camp but that is to be expected for a big game like that. We met at about 5.0 p.m. When you're playing at home you are on your own until you meet up. You end up playing things through your mind, in my case when I get a chance, what I'm going to do. The mental thing definitely plays on you when you have a night game.

When you get together it's almost like a release. We had a good build up, got the start that we wanted in terms of the game, got the points on the board. During the first 20 minutes we only had the ball for 30 seconds. We defended like demons.

In the dressingroom afterwards you could have cut the silence. It took us quite a while to realise that we hadn't lost. We wanted to win it so much that many of the guys had actually forgotten the score and thought that we lost. We tried to focus on the positives from the match. We went to the reception but got away quite early.

The joke at the time was that we wanted to be alone with our thought, as opposed to thoughts. I went home but I'm one of these people who replay things in my mind and I had a nightmare that night.

SATURDAY You wake up the next morning and find that the sun still rises and life goes on. We met in the pool early for a recuperation session where we walk through the water to take the sting out of the knocks and bruises that we suffered the previous night. Straight away, you forget about healing and start thinking about the next game.

Nobody had their head down. I had gone to the pool session feeling quite low. The great thing about a team atmosphere is the camaraderie and the sense of shared responsibility lightens your burden as it were and you can get down to the job ahead, which is obviously next week's game in Biarritz. We were discussing the game but we were discussing it in terms of, `we're still in the hunt.' We had half an eye on the BiarritzNorthampton game. They lost, but we still need to win next week. Nobody even contemplates the possibility of a draw.

SUNDAY We had a free day. It's good to get to the stage where you don't have to think about the game. You can just go away and be with your family. It's like a safety valve that offers you a release particularly after the previous Friday night.

MONDAY We got back to business in training. Monday is the time that you address directly what happened on the Friday night. In the morning we went to the gym. Some of us did weights, some of us did running; the usual things in practise.

We had a video session on Monday night. Now any rugby player will tell you that on the back of the bad performance, a video session becomes a video nasty. There is no place to hide.

Everything is analysed down to the last mistake. It's not a negative thing. It's a very good part of the process, in that when you make your mistake and we all did that night, you can put your hand up and admit responsibility. It has a cathartic effect.

The video briefing started at 7.0 and went on for an hour and a half. It wasn't all doom and gloom but it certainly was disappointing to see it all again. Having got over it on the Friday night I found that despair starting to creep back. In fairness Matt (Williams) and Alan picked us up. There was no ranting or screaming, the two coaches are wonderfully analytical and address the real issues. They set about fixing the problems, rather than dwelling on them.

I hate the term mental toughness. Look at the tackles Denis Hickie made with a broken hand, look at Trevor Brennan's input, Liam Toland etc; you could go through the team. We made a couple of errors that put us in serious difficulty. As our combinations get better through experience and familiarity we will be better able to shut down games.

TUESDAY This is the day that you stop dwelling on the past and start looking to the game ahead. The focus firmly shifted to the Biarritz game. We had Roly Meates down in the afternoon to work on the scrummaging: he's one of these great guys that I can't speak highly enough about. It's all cold analysis, no fuss, no excitement.

It was the first time that I noticed the spirits within the squad pick up appreciably. The jokes started again and the atmosphere was lighter. Willie Anderson once said to me, `a good team can be measured by the rate of a recovery from a setback.' It will determine how you fare in the next match.

WEDNESDAY We had another video session in the morning. Gone are the days when you simply trundled out onto the pitch for training and messed about aimlessly. It all about specifics now, principally analysing the opposition. Willie (Anderson) came down and we did some good lineout work later in the morning. The mood is definitely upbeat, we've got last Friday night's crap out of the system.

I spent the afternoon taking the piss out of Emmet Byrne and Victor Costello, so I know things are back to normal. It was very physical in the afternoon but the quality of work was excellent. Mentally you can feel the blocks being put down and built up again. It's funny, years ago Irish teams would talk about weathering the storm for 20 minutes on going to France.

It's absolute rubbish. Weathering the storm implies hanging on, that's the sort of attitude that gets you crucified. You want to be in their faces, starting quickly, imposing your game; not hanging round hoping that you're not going to get pasted. We plan to attack from the off.

THURSDAY It's travel day. We arrive in Dublin airport for 8.0 a.m. to be told that our flight to Paris has been delayed because Charles de Gaulle is fogbound. The initial indication is that it's going to be a delay of three hours; it is the start of 16 hours of travelling. When we eventually get to Paris, we're aware that we have missed our connection to Biarritz. We have to get a bus to Orly airport which takes about an hour and a half because we're slap bang in the middle of rush hour traffic.

Our flight is not until 9.0 p.m. so it's time to amuse ourselves for several hours. One of the big orientations which we have had as a team this year, and Matty is responsible, is learning how to travel. Matty and Alan (Gaffney) make us bring books, games and I have my guitar. It comes from a Super 12 culture of having to travel constantly.

They (Williams and Gaffney) hate the excuses of, `travel day was hard,' that's bullshit. You come prepared and you get through these things. It's part of being a professional sportsman. Guys are walking around with snakes and ladders, ludo etc. Trevor Brennan's got his lego, Emmet Byrne's got his dumbbells. Malcolm O'Kelly is in the women's shop buying new peroxide for his hair. We have got things to occupy ourselves.

When we were in Orly I got out the guitar and we sang a few songs, played a couple of games. It was enjoyable, it was a laugh and it whiled away the time. We eventually hit Bayonne (we're not staying in Biarritz itself) about midnight, grabbed a quick bite to eat and went to bed.

FRIDAY Because of the travel disruption, we don't have to meet until midday which means a few extra hours in bed. Then we were off to the pool for a stretching session. After that it was a bus tour to Bayonne and Biarritz; it's a lovely part of France. The captain's run in the afternoon is important. We go through the game plan, from lineouts and scrums, to link play with the backs, basically fine tuning the pattern for match day.

It's gone well. The mood is upbeat, you can feel the determination, the resolve to do well. In the evening we are left to our own devices. The last thing you want to focus on is the game. It's fine when you're training or doing video analysis but if it starts to prey on your mind then you are going to be mentally exhausted come game time. It's going to be a long day tomorrow until kick-off time, 6.30 p.m. locally, and at this stage it can't come quickly enough. We're ready.