IT'S been a busy week of preparation for tonight's Guinness Pro12 game at Murrayfield with a big emphasis on making sure we are ready for Edinburgh's renowned set piece.

The nature of the game means that sometimes you are given long turnarounds and occasionally you have short ones, which has been the case for the boys after they took on Castres in France last Saturday before heading up to Scotland (unfortunately my calf still isn't quite right to make a return).

It's important to get the balance right between training and rest while also making sure you are prepared for the challenge coming up in terms of analysis.

With Edinburgh that has been dominated by working on our set piece – they have the best scrum in the league with their front row of Scotland internationals Alasdair Dickinson, Ross Ford and WP Nel causing plenty of problems.

Boris Stankovich has certainly done his homework this week ahead of the challenge and has been making sure everyone is tuned in to what is needed up there.

Regarding the lineout, it's getting better but there are still improvements to be made. Our stats are quite good but that can sometimes be misleading – it's important that we not only win the ball but delivery it cleanly.

If we can produce a big performance in the tight at Murrayfield then we definitely have the quality to trouble them in the open because we caused Castres some problems when the game broke up.

Once again we pushed a quality side all the way without quite getting over the line. Hopefully that will change tonight and we will take all our opportunities.

 

It's been a busy time off the field with Life Education – it's enjoyable but challenging work and I certainly have great admiration for primary and secondary school teachers.

Me and Richard Davenport have been providing workshops throughout Newport while soon we will be heading to King Henry VIII Comprehensive in Abergavenny and Cwmbran High School.

It's all about goal-setting and getting students starting to think about life after school, daring to dream as our slogan says.

Helping deliver that programme is slightly different to life as a rugby player or coach… and what I did at Rodney Parade certainly was.

It's not often that we are asked to do a spot of 'modelling' but me, Rich and Ashley Smith were posing for Ann Lewis Photography.

She is a sponsor at the Dragons and kindly agreed to help us out for Life Ed and our beneficiary year, putting us at ease and taking some excellent pictures. One thing is for sure though, I'm more at home out on the pitch at Rodney Parade than posing for photos!