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We are now approaching the knock out stages of the Rugby World Cup and I hope our supporters are in better heart after our performance against Romania. Although we are not going to allow any complacency to sneak in and there is still room for improvement, it was good to see so many of the team playing with confidence and ambition.

Competition for places in the starting line up for England is fierce and I was pleased with my work at scrum and lineout. I also had the chance to demonstrate what I could do in open play and I was particularly pleased with the “round the back” pass to my old team mate at Stade Francais, James Haskell, which led to one of our tries.

It was satisfying to notch up the try count and to release the backs with time and space. However, we now need to focus on the remaining pool group match against Scotland next week.

Their defeat by Argentina means that they will be fighting for World Cup survival and no-one with any knowledge of the history of England v Scotland encounters will expect it to be anything but a really hard fought Test match.

If we win we are fairly certain to be playing France in the quarter finals after they lost to New Zealand in their pool match at the weekend. In fact, as a result of Ireland’s superb win over Australia, the top half of the draw for the quarter finals could feature teams drawn purely from the northern hemisphere!

Earlier in the week I returned to visit Otago Boys High School in Dunedin – the school I came to when I was just three weeks short of my 17th birthday.

Rugby had just turned professional and even though I was skinny and far from being a star at my school in Edinburgh, I had set my sights on becoming a professional rugby player. I figured that there was no better place than New Zealand to do my apprenticeship!

Sure enough, in this rugby mad environment, I rapidly improved as a player and in my second season played with none other than the present captain of New Zealand, Richie McCaw.

Joining me on the school visit were England team mates Delon Armitage, Manu Tuilagi and Courtney Lawes. Like me, they were very impressed by the skill level of the first XV players at the school and the quality of the coach – one of my team mates in ’97, Ryan Martin.

I presented the school with my England shirt for the game against Georgia and, in return, they gave me a current First XV shirt which I will keep with my original one and my first England shirt and cap.

As I have said before, the people of New Zealand live for rugby. Let’s hope England can continue to give them something to enthuse about!

Keep the faith

Cheers, Tom