Last season was tough for me. Nothing got going. There was my shoulder injury and then the red card I received against France. I missed the Six Nations, the Lions and England’s summer Tests against Argentina.
It was a really stop-start year. But it’s made me appreciate how much playing for England means to me. I’m delighted to be back in the team for the start of the autumn internationals.
I can’t wait to challenge myself against the best in the world.
It’s been a busy few days in camp ahead of our first game with Australia on Saturday. In our team room at Pennyhill Park, we always have darts, ping pong and cards on the go.
But this week has been different as lots of the boys have been watching The Celebrity Traitors. I haven’t got too heavily involved myself to be honest, but I do know Joe Marler is doing really well! The boys have been cheering for him and there’s been lots of shouting when the programme has been on.
I’m more of a fan of The Witcher on Netflix. New episodes came out this week, so Luke Cowan-Dickie and I have been geeking out on that.
Immanuel Feyi-Waboso will be writing for Daily Mail Sport throughout the autumn internationals
I’m delighted to be back in the England team for the start of the autumn internationals. I can’t wait to challenge myself against the best in the world
It’s been a busy few days in camp ahead of our first game with Australia. In our team room at Pennyhill Park, we always have darts, ping pong and cards on the go
Tuesday is our toughest day, a double session. The afternoon rugby hit-out is full on. We’ve looked at how to nullify Australia because they’re a very good attacking team. Wednesday was our day off. I spent the day with Ellis Genge, Luke and Henry Slade and we went out for dinner at Piccolino in Virginia Water in the night.
International campaigns with England are very demanding. But for me, there is always other work to do as part of my ongoing medical studies at Exeter University. I’m intercalating – taking a break from medicine full-time to do another degree on top for a year.
At the moment, I have a lab report due, so I’m trying to get through that. I also have an economic evaluation to do and a dissertation. I’m working on a research question, looking at a study on the effect of intermittent fasting. It’s a big thing in society today and I’m looking at whether it’s good for athletes.
I did some studying after training on Monday. But I was so tired after Tuesday’s double session I couldn’t do any! I’m quite good at knowing when I’m tired. If I know I’m just going to sit at the computer and not take any information in, I tend to do planning instead on things like the structure of my essays. If I’m fresh, I’ll do more writing.
Emeka Ilione of Leicester was in our last alignment camp and he’s also studying medicine. Unfortunately, he’s now injured, but it was interesting for me to talk with him about how he balances his degree with playing. I’m going to try and implement a bit of what he does into my life.
Rugby is my main focus, of course. But I also have my medical studies and play the piano too. Another thing I’ve started to focus on is learning languages. When I’m going to bed now or have long drives, I listen to French podcasts, and I’ve set all my social media pages like Instagram to French. I feel like I’m in a good place with that, so now I’m trying Spanish and then hopefully Italian.
As England players, we’re so fortunate to have the facilities we do at Pennyhill. We have everything we need to prepare for Test rugby. One of the best things is the food. It’s unreal – and there’s definitely no intermittent fasting here!
When the squad met up on Sunday night, we were treated to a Sunday roast by our chef Tom Kirby. The boys love Tom. The omelettes he makes each morning are very popular. For me, pigs in blankets are the best thing about a Sunday roast, but I always find there are never enough. Here, it’s different! You can gorge yourself on them.
As England players, we’re so fortunate to have the facilities we do at Pennyhill. We have everything we need to prepare for Test rugby
Rugby is my main focus, of course. But I also have my medical studies and play the piano too
I did some studying after training on Monday. But I was so tired after Tuesday’s double session I couldn’t do any!
Luckily, I’m a player who doesn’t have to count my calories. I need to make sure I’m fuelled properly in a Test week and to be honest, I just eat as much as possible. When we have food, I generally choose things with lots of calories. I don’t put on weight very easily and it’s been quite hard to get to the weight I’m at now.
I never have to think I shouldn’t eat something. It’s a good position to be in! Some lads can eat everything and don’t put on any weight. Some only have to look at something and can put on weight. On the day of a game, I have eggs on toast for breakfast, nothing crazy. I’ll have more toast than normal but don’t eat loads.
Pre-match nerves have a bit of an impact. I try and get most of my carbohydrates in the day before. Our nutritionist with England, James Morehen, is very good. We try to eat four to six grams of carbs per kilo of bodyweight the day before the game.
I’ll have breakfast and then my pre-match meal is normally rice pudding or pancakes and we also have the option of carbohydrate drinks.
When I’m not in England camp, I work closely with Athlete Kitchen who provide all my meals. They ensure I get everything I need. But as a winger, I want to feel light and fast on game day!
At my club, Exeter, we’ve had a good start to the PREM Rugby season. We’re in third and after my injury, it’s been great for me to score seven tries in five matches.
It’s nice because you feel like you have momentum and form on your side. It gives me more confidence to know I can score. And when you come into England camp, you know that’s going to be amplified because you have so many good players around you.
With England, I want to get on the ball as much as possible, so it’s about finding ways to do that within our system.
At my club, Exeter, we’ve had a good start to the PREM Rugby season. We’re in third and after my injury, it’s been great to score seven tries in five matches
It’s nice because you feel like you have momentum and form on your side. It gives me more confidence to know I can score
With England, I want to get on the ball as much as possible, so it’s about finding ways to do that within our system
I was so excited when I saw I was in the starting XV for Australia. There is so much competition on the wing and I think that’s shown by the fact Tommy Freeman is playing centre this weekend.
We’re in a good place as an England team – we’re on a seven-game winning streak, we know the way we want to play and training has been really good.
We know we have very good teams to face this autumn, so the messaging from Steve Borthwick and the coaches has been about imposing our game on the opposition.
We want to have a successful autumn and starting with a victory over Australia is the first step to doing that.
