Thursday 17th July 2010
Dear Diary
We had a photo shoot on the schedule today. We were allocated a 5min time slot where we were photographed from every angle. Jimmy (Cowan) was one of the first on the list, so he had to do his early in the morning. I was still in bed when he came back to the room. As he walked in I could see he was gutted. When I asked him what was wrong he said he had been caught off guard. When I said, “How come?” he told me, “Man we had to take our shirts off!” I think he would have cracked out a few press ups and sit ups beforehand if he had realised. He stood in front of the mirror and said to me, “I’m not that bad, am I?” It was a funny way to start the day.
The coaches delayed naming the team this week because there were a few injuries. The 15 starting players have to do a media session on Thursday mornings, but because of the delay we had to wait to find out the team too. I got a text about 7.30am to tell me I was in the starting XV to face South Africa and that I was required for the media session at 8.30am. It was unusual because we normally get that information in the meeting on Tuesday.
The media session wasn’t too busy for me actually. It was fantastic because they can be pretty full on sessions. I only had one request because Rene Ranger has got his first start and Piri (Weepu) is starting too. Tom Donnelly got quite a few requests because lineouts are always a big part of the game when we play the Springboks. So the focus was really shared around, which is good. I try to go into the media sessions with a few key messages to get across to the fans who are reading or watching, stuff I’d like them to know.
We had a busy training day, with two team sessions and a gym session. The first team session Ted (Graham Henry) likes to call the ‘cerebral session’. We went through our game strategy and key points. It’s all about the details. After that session all the guys had real clarity. Then in the afternoon we went really physical and put the whole plan together at full speed. In between team runs, most of the guys did a short, sharp power session at the gym, but I’m getting a bit old now so I had to do a rehab and stretch session.
Playing the same team two weeks in a row is unusual. I think it makes for a tougher challenge, especially when we had such a good win last week. I know what we’re like after a loss. You get really motivated to turn things around and I know that’s what the South Africans will be feeling. It means we have to perform better the second time around. We played pretty well at Eden Park, but we’ve got a real job ahead of us to be able to do the same again.
Cheers,
Dan Carter
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