Although it is disappointing to be out of the Parker Pen Challenge Cup, this two week break provides us with a great opportunity to work on our game and our preparation for the rest of this season. We have played 19 weekends on the trot, so this mini 'pre-season' will do us no harm at all.

With this in mind, this week we have taken the squad away from our usual training base in Aldershot and are spending three days at the Bank of England sports facilities in Roehampton. During these three days we are spending a considerable amount of time in theory discussions. Yesterday the squad analysed various videos of our games from this season, evaluating our performance against the goals and aims we set ourselves back in August.

Today, we are spending a considerable amount of time discussing the reasons for our poor away record in the Zurich Premiership. There is no rhyme or reason as to why we have not won away from home since 17th March 2001 - indeed we won two league games away from home that month, the other being at Newcastle! It will be interesting to see what the players come up with.

Friday we will work on developing our game for the remainder of the season and, importantly, ensuring that everyone understands their role within the team environment.

In addition to the theory and video sessions, we have also been doing some rugby practice. Wednesday afternoon was the first time that Bill Satala and Ace Tiatia have trained in three inches of snow - but once the snowman had been built and the customary snow ball fights were completed we had a very good session, again based on the tackle contact area that we improved so much in last weekend.

On the injury front, you may have read that Keith Wood had an arthroscopy on his right shoulder at the weekend. Keith should be back in full training in about eight weeks. Bruce Starr is now back in full training, and hopefully will be fit to play in the second XV game against Newport on 20th January.



Pat Sanderson is seeing a consultant next week in relation to his shoulder and we wish him well with that. Tony Diprose is resting his injured ankle - he has played virtually on one leg for the last six weeks, but there is no danger of him missing the game against Leicester.

As you will all be aware, in addition to the Zurich Premiership, we also have the quarterfinal game against Leicester Tigers in the Powergen Cup. Everyone is aware that we have beaten them the last two seasons in the same competition. Leicester have not been to a domestic cup final in seven years, so I think it is fair to say they will be determined to dispose of us at the Stoop!

I hope you all have a great weekend. Rest those voices to ensure they are in full working order for Leicester on 25th January!