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| The Flood Files: Italy Preview |
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| Toby Flood touches down last weekend against Wales |
| 8 February 2008, 12:18 pm |
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| Newcastle Falcons centre Toby Flood writes ahead of Sunday's Six Nations clash with Italy in Rome. |
We have a fantastic opportunity to put things right against Italy on Sunday and we are determined to take it.
The players felt last week’s defeat just as much as the fans and now we have a way of righting some wrongs.
I've been to Italy before with England 18 Group but nothing on this scale and I'm massively looking forward to the game
I have heard really good things about the atmosphere at the Stadio Flaminio and how pumped up everybody is.
Mind you, with Jamie and Jonny next to me I won't know which shirt to put on – perhaps they should send some Falcons kit over.
Seriously, what a great chance to play for my country with so many guys from the club. Last time I did it was in South Africa last summer when we had all four of us - Noon, Taity, Wilko and myself - involved in one test match with Jamie playing on the wing and Mathew in at 13. It’s great to have those two back involved and hopefully we can go out and all put in a performance we can be proud of.
I was shocked to hear that there’s been a lot of talk about Jonny’s performance against Wales and speculation about his place in the team.
If you set the bar as high as he has done then you put yourself in the firing line. But there’s no way in my opinion that Jonny did not perform to a level that he has set himself hundreds of times.
When a guy puts himself at that level for that long, the moment people perceive that he hasn't performed at that level they jump on the bandwagon. Take Tiger Woods - if he doesn't go out and win a tournament, then he is a failure.
We are professional sportsmen and though the emotion is huge when you lose a game it can't last for the whole week.
There was massive disappointment after the Wales match. But once you get into the week and you start going through and looking at how your next opponents are going to playing or what they are doing defensively that wipes the disappointment from your mind and you end up concentrating completely on the task ahead.
I’ve had a small thigh strain this week but I trained on Thursday and I’m sure I’ll be fine for the game.
On Sunday I’ll try and chill as much during the day but here’s my pre-match routine:
· Team meeting
· Get on the bus - listen to a bit of Arctic Monkeys, Oasis or Ocean Colour Scene or just stick the iPhone on shuffle and listen to all sorts
· Arrive stadium and into the dressing room - get strapped
· Walk round the pitch, see what the wind is doing and chuck a ball around with a couple of the boys
· Come back in and get changed
· Back on the pitch for a 35-minute kicking session
· Back in, have a flick through the match programme – I don't really read it, it's just good to take your mind off things – have some fluids
· Out for the warm-up
· Back in – can of drink with caffeine in it
· Out for the anthems
We are desperate to win on Sunday but we are not going to try and force it. We are just going out with a passion and desire to play rugby. We don't want to get into arm wrestle of a match like last year at Twickenham, which was a tough old game. We want to go out and play a bit of rugby.
As players we realise that when we cross that white line there is nothing more that the coaches can do. It’s up to us.
Cheers,
Toby
Article courtesy of rfu.com |
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