NEC Harlequins players have been the centre of attention all week.

Keith Wood has failed to recover from his calf strain and is not fit to lead Ireland against Wales on Sunday. Keith has spent the week in Ireland receiving treatment to the injury, although it is unlikely that he will be fit to face Bath next weekend.

Dan Luger pulled out of the England squad on Monday after failing to fully recover from the hamstring strain which has forced him to miss our last two games. However, the real story of the week has been the remarkable progress of our 20 year-old scrum half Nick Duncombe.

Nick made his first team debut on 5th January 2002 against Munster in the Heineken Cup. Since then he has started against Leicester in the Powergen Cup quarterfinal and made his Zurich Premiership debut against Northampton. This Saturday he will be sitting on the bench for England at Murrayfield alongside our own Jason Leonard as England start the defence of their Six Nations crown. Having broken his neck playing for England U18 schools against Wales in April 2000, this has been a tremendous effort by this young man. Mark Evans identified him as a 16 year-old player with a huge talent and we are now seeing this come to fruition.

Having missed the whole of last year due to his injury, Nick made his debut for the NEC Harlequins U21's in September 2001. He has also played a number of 2nd XV games this season as he got back to playing rugby. This month he has made an immediate impact on the first XV and we wish him all the very best as he enjoys being part of the rarefied atmosphere that is the Six Nations competition. Something Jason Leonard will no doubt be able to help him with.

Back at Aldershot, the squad have been working on their fitness and skills with Paul Pook, Dave Bell and Richard Hill as we start to prepare for next weekends clash with Bath at the Recreation Ground.

Perhaps the busiest people this week have been our physios Cameron Steele and Sarah Scott. However, the good news is that we are making some progress in this area. Last weekend against Northampton there were ten or eleven players missing who potentially could have been in our starting 22. Although it is early yet, there is every likelihood that a number of those missing such as Roy Winters, Alex Codling, Will Greenwood, Dan Luger, Tani Fuga and Jon Dawson will all be available for the Bath game.

There is no doubt that despite the loss to Northampton, the team's performances over the last three weeks have been much improved. As I said last week, the senior players have been working closely with the coaching staff, and I, along with the rest of the management team, have every confidence that with a modicum of luck we will start to see the benefit in the very near future in terms of wins in the Zurich Premiership.

Enjoy the Six Nations this weekend whoever you support, and let us hope that all the NEC Harlequins players return to the training ground on Monday in one piece.

See you soon.