On tour with the Lions

We're back on the rails again. An excellent victory over Wellington and naturally the atmosphere in the changing room afterwards was pretty good.

It was very important to immediately strike back after the defeat against the Maori. Boy, the New Zealanders certainly enjoyed that. They were milking that for all they're worth.

I fancy there was quite a bit of paper talk as the defeat didn't really affect us that much.

The trip has been very enjoyable - if you take six days' training on the trot as enjoyable!

But it was always going to be very tough to come here and win everything. That was going to be a very tough ask.

Potentially, however, it could be the monkey off our backs. Mind you we have a few of those still in the squad!

Certainly the words from Ian McGeechan afterwards were soothing to the boys.

But there was no doubt the win in Wellington was very convincing. I don't know what the actual stats were but it was a really horrible day and I thought they did well considering.

You just couldn't realise how wet and greasy the ball was by watching the game on television. I fancy if it had been a little bit drier we would have blown them away.

Still, there are not too many nerves as the first Test approaches. Everybody seems fairly calm as there is still a lot of competition for places in the Test team.

It's going to be a very tough test against Otago on Saturday and the conditions at the "House of Pain" in Dunedin are likely to be cold and windy again.

So far the trip in general has been very enjoyable... if you take six days training on the trot as enjoyable! I suppose it pays to be a bit of a masochist.

No, I'm only joking. It's actually a great honour to be in training with such a motley crew.

Being involved with the Lions means that you are with quality players day in, day out - you are bound to pick up something new.

Can you imagine Moody and Corry in a clinch?!

There's certainly no sign of a 'them' or 'us' mentality. As far as I can see, it's all for one and one for all.

I was talking about the last tour with some of the players who were in Australia and they said that was a case of two groups. I cannot honestly see that happening here.

It has also been good working with the various coaches. There are two head coaches and a defensive coach for each match and we are finding that it works well.

They've all got their little gems to say before a game. Gareth Jenkins came up with a few emotional lines like "forging things on our soul". Believe it or not, those sort of things do get through.

It would be easy to tuck yourself away in your hotel room, but we are getting out a lot to mix with the locals.

We are not in a goldfish bowl and we can still enjoy going for a stroll.

We have a day off on Thursday and although I've no family over, I'll link up with a few mates whom I met when I was over in Auckland during the 90s.

Overall there's a good atmosphere and fair bit of craic as well. A few of the Irish boys have installed some sort of court of justice, with Denis Hickie being very humorous once he gets going.

When players have handbags during training or in the games, they have to pay a fine to the players' social committee. Even worse, they have to kiss their adversary on the lips!