At our recent training camp in Surrey, we started the warm up with the traditional captain’s run.

Only this weekend, due to Catherine Spencer’s decision to step down as England captain, we were following a new skipper in our resident Geordie, Katy McLean.

Backed up by newly appointed vice-captain Maggie Alphonsi, I know that they will form a fantastic leadership team and will be great role models on and off the pitch.

For our first session of the training weekend, the forwards and backs split to work on unit skills – scrummaging for the forwards and some running and chatting for the backs.

The scrummage session went well – I think that the backs were jealous of our huddling in the sub zero temperature.

After a warming lunch the afternoon brought a constructive breakdown session with Graham Smith, complete with his tackle pads of many different shapes and sizes.

Perhaps the most entertaining session of the weekend was on Sunday morning – the forwards were treated to an INDOOR session to work on our lineouts…but in a squash court.

The hookers threw in from outside the court, through the doors, and Maggie and Heather Fisher at the tail of the lineout were frequently getting slammed into the wall of the squash court!

All in all, a really constructive training weekend, and we are now eagerly looking forward to our first game of the Six Nations campaign against Wales.

Playing against Wales is always a huge physical battle and we are all too aware that we lost to them 16-15 when we last played against them in Wales.

Having had a break of five months since our last international game; all of the team are very excited and ready to get back on the pitch in the England shirt.