Our final day of training for the week before departing for South Africa was last Saturday.  In the gym at 7.30am for altitude training followed by weights, backs unit work and a short rugby session, all finished up by around 4pm. 

Talk of the day was obviously the Leinster match at 5pm. Actually that’s a lie, the talk was more about heading to the pub to watch it! 

A few beers were consumed on the Wednesday night after a tough two days training and a day off Thursday.  I am a firm believer that there is no better way of bonding than enjoying a few beers in each others company and Wednesday and Saturday certainly proved that. 

Not too many beers were taken but enough for everybody to loosen up and the stories soon started flowing quicker than the drink!

The Leinster support in Edinburgh looked amazing and was a final that we all enjoyed watching.  What a year it could be for the (Leinster) guys – who came straight from Dublin to join us in Surrey the next day – if we could go on and repeat the success from the last tour of South Africa in 1997.

We arrived in Johannesburg this morning (Monday), Donnacha, Paul and the rest of the secondrows looked extremely refreshed as they had to slum it in first class.  They liked to point this out to us when they did a catwalk down the aisle of the plane in their pyjamas that only went up to their knees!  Probably the best fitting clothes I’ve ever seen Alun Wynn Jones wear! 

On arrival at the hotel, we were greeted by a traditional South African song and dance performed in front of the hotel – certainly different to the type of moves I would be pulling on the dance floor. My new roommate Mike Blair, or ‘Blade’ as he likes to be known, has been doing his best to copy them in front of the mirror….naked.