I felt we were fresh yesterday and the two-week break since the Welsh match helped us all.

Because it was a Sunday game, we had our pool session on Monday at the National Aquatic Centre and it was good to see Marcus Horan diving into the pool from 10 metres less than 24 hours after the was carted off in a delicate state during the game. Then, we had the rest of the day off before our analysis of that particular game on the Tuesday. The overwhelming sentiment from looking at the match again was that we got the job done, but with the benefit of hindsight we would all have liked to put two or three more tries on Wales. Some people in the media felt that the loss of Stephen Jones tilted the game in our favour but I don't buy into that. I think had he been on the pitch, we still would have won because we were just beginning to get on top when he went off. Our second-half performance was always coming and Jones's first-half effort only delayed the inevitable.

After that analysis we broke up until Sunday night, although I did get through two days training with Leinster on the Wednesday and Thursday, before taking the rest of the weekend off. I didn't get up to anything too exciting, a quick trip home to the folks in Wexford was the bones of it, but it was good to be able to chill out, put the feet up and do normal things for a couple of days. I managed to get a bit of study done, too, for my quantity surveying course in DIT. If I get to do the exams in May, which is the grand plan, I'll have earned my diploma. One small step for man, and all that, but it does take your mind of the rugby. We're all acutely aware that this is our sixth week in camp and our time off is becoming more and more valuable. It's also something that's come into our training because our sessions on Monday and Tuesday were a lot shorter and as a result, a lot sharper. It makes common sense, really, things that may have taken us 30 minutes to get the hang of at the start of February are now taking 20 minutes so I guess that's a sign of progress.

Wednesday was our day off this week so I was out at the awards ceremony for the MS Readathon, something I've been involved in all year. And before you ask, I do read a lot because, believe me, we have an awful lot of time to get into books in the build up to games. At the moment I'm reading a book called The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. A bizarre title for a bizarre book but the author basically takes Eastern philosophies and explains them using Winnie the Pooh. It's a very, very funny book, interesting to boot and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

Thursday and Friday are all about fine-tuning things, particularly in terms of looking at Scotland and what they were about and how we coped or failed to cope with it.

Then the whole process, after yesterday's efforts on the pitch of course, begins all over again in preparation for the England game and I must admit I have sweet memories of our last game in London. I made a nice few breaks during that game but it was great to go to a place that's renowned for being such a fortress and putting one over on the world champions. Now, I really don't think anybody in the squad fears the ground. I don't think England have really fired this year as of yet but it's hard to figure them out.

They're still a team that's growing and I don't really feel they're 100 per cent sure as to what combinations they want to use in certain situations.

The one thing for sure is that all the pressure is going to be on them come Saturday.