We will have to improve to avoid another sting

European Cup Diary: Trevor Brennan had a mixed bag at Christmas as well as losing top spot in the league

Sometimes a bit of time off is a good thing, and the mid-season Christmas break in Toulouse for eight days was welcome, but in our case it turned out not to be so.

Personally I felt refreshed for it. We stayed at home in Toulouse, having a relatively quiet Christmas day with just the family. Poor Josh picked up a bout of gastroenteritis for two days and frankly didn't care whether Santa Claus came calling or not. Then his brother Danny caught it, then Paula and even Alfie (Gareth Thomas) picked it up when we went ski-ing in the Pyrenees. It was just one of those bugs doing the rounds.

Myself Paula and the boys, along with Gareth and his wife Gemma, went to St Lary Soulan ski-ing for five days, and ran amok for four of them. But myself and Alfie also went for a two- or three-mile run up the mountains each day. It was like a scene from Rocky IV, when Rocky prepared to fight the Russian, as we ran up the snow in a spectacular setting.

As we came back on New Year's Eve, and were due back at training on Monday, January 2nd, we took it easy that night as well and had a quiet night at home.

We had left off with a good win at home to Bourgoin on December 23rd to remain top of the table. Like I said, I felt refreshed but quite a few players were still felling tired mid-season and several still hadn't recovered from little knocks or injuries. Let's just say the training wasn't good all week in the build-up to the game at home to Bayonne last Saturday.

There were no real full sessions and the team that took the pitch hadn't had a run-out together, while a lot of guys were playing out of position.

Because of injuries to Jean-Baptiste Elissalde and Frederic Michalak, our winger Vincent Clerc played at scrumhalf. As Gareth Thomas still had a sore knee, Florian Fritz played at fullback for the first time ever, and Xavier Garbajosa had to play at centre, while the Maka brothers were also ruled out, and Gregory Lamboley is still out injured for a while. So we were really thin on the ground for the first time this season.

For the first time in a long while, it seemed that much of the talk was on this week's match with Wasps. Certain guys probably could have been risked but weren't because of the game, and so quite a few of the Espoirs played. It proved quite an eventful match for me. We were 3-0 down about 15 or 20 minutes into the game when we attacked one way then went back the other, and I ran a good support line off a break by Clerc to take the offload about 15 metres out, then ran around the posts to ensure the seven-pointer. As Gareth is a good friend of mine, apparently he was mobbed by the whole replacements' bench.

Near the end, though, I managed to pick up a yellow card. From hero to villain.

We had beaten Bayonne away on the first day of the season when Richard Dourthe, who was playing fullback that day, gave me a black eye that any boxer would have been proud of with a sneaky little punch. I never thought much of it at the time and quickly forgot about it, whereupon he tried to do it again on Saturday. This time I saw it coming and managed to pull out of the way. But I couldn't believe it.

This time my reaction was also different from the opening day of the season, and I caught him with a beautiful punch. Let's just say he needed some assistance to leave the pitch.

Maybe we were a bit over-confident, and thought we'd beat Bayonne comfortably even with the under-strength team we had out, and we had our chances. But we didn't take them, they came back into the game with a penalty try from a five-metre scrum, kicked their penalties and defended as if their lives depended on it to win 19-13.

Fair play to them, and they celebrated at the end as if they had won the World Cup final, and these things can happen in sport. Look at what happened Celtic and Manchester United.

Even with the team we had out, we should have won, and we hadn't been beaten at home in over a year. It also cost us the first place we'd had since the start of the season. I was expecting to be slaughtered on Monday at the video session but the yellow card was overlooked. The coach didn't see much point in poring over the video and thought it was best to move on. Instead we were given the stats on the game; 28 turnovers, 20 of them by the backs and eight by the forwards. A lot of individuals were given a good bollicking, and he told us we lacked aggression and hunger, as well as accuracy.

Guy Noves also told the papers and reminded us that Biarritz had lost at home to Bayonne last season and gone on to win the French Championship. And it's amazing how much a big match can act as a miracle cure for so many different types of injuries, for by Tuesday virtually everyone was fit to train. Everyone wants to play against Wasps, a rerun of our final two seasons ago, and in front of a sell-out 37,000 capacity crowd in the football stadium.

Our coach has also picked up an award from the English journalists for services to rugby, only the third Frenchman in 20 years to win the award, after Philippe Sella and Jean-Pierre Rives. Gareth Thomas will also be travelling over to the banquet in London on Monday night as, in addition to the BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year award, he has won the Memorial Award, following the likes of Jonah Lomu, Sean Fitzpatrick, Finlay Calder and Ollie Campbell. He says he's looking forward to taking Guy Noves out to all the London night spots.

We're going to be invaded by a sea of red Munster supporters who are over for their game against Castres on Friday night, and there's been one block-booking of 148 tickets from Munster fans who emailed the bar. So it should be a good weekend if all results go the right way.

I would expect us to play an awful lot better, and we'll have the Welsh fella back, along with Elissalde, Michalak and the Maka brothers, as well as Fabien Pelous, who's back from his nine-week suspension. In addition to their return, hopefully last week will also have given us a timely kick up the arse.

(Trevor Brennan's regular Heineken Cup column can be read on the ERC website, which is at www.ercrugby.com)