Politics is politics

It was a good weekend in Italy last week. European away trips are always good and of course it was nice to get the bonus point out there.

In the end, we did the job we went out there to do but, to be honest, it would have been good to get a few more tries.

We didn't get the chance to play as open as we had expected and to be fair, they came out strong in the second half and played pretty well.

I was pretty pleased with my own performance, it was good to get out there after a while out of the team.

I had to do a lot of kicking in the first half to secure field position and I was pleased with that. I think people were slightly surprised how tight Calvisano kept it at times but we had to be quite savvy.

I didn't get as much of the ball in hand as I would have liked but Chris Mayor got a couple of breaks to set-up two tries and score one himself so he'll have been pleased with that.

Oriol also finished a couple of good moves off so it was a good day for the backs in general. We looked sharp and put together some really good moves.

Ben Foden looked good at 9 and he's really going to be needed between now and the end of the season what with Lilo's (Sililo Martens) injury. He provides good, quick delivery and does a good job in getting the backs moving.

It's just unbelievable that we're in a position where another player has picked up an injury. I feel sorry for both Lilo and Bonner (Nathan Bonner Evans) but it's just our luck this season.

We are just falling to bits but it's important that we keep our heads down and keep going really, there's nothing else we can do.

In all my time playing rugby I've never known anything this bad, literally everywhere you look there's somebody else ruled out.

There is absolutely no point in moaning about it though and nobody here is letting it get us down. We are in good spirits and know we still have a good chance to lift some silverware again this season.

That starts with our game against the Ospreys this weekend.

It's going to be a great final weekend of Heineken Cup group games and good entertainment for the fans - it's what makes this competition special.

Some critics may have rubbished our chances but I'm confident we can do it.

They need a bonus-point win, we need one as well, so it's going to make for some really interesting rugby.

The Ospreys are good at throwing caution to the wind and playing some really dynamic stuff. We'll need to keep it tight at first, we can't let them get the upper hand, but then we have to move the ball at pace and look to exploit any gaps.

We're still really disappointed about the defeat earlier in the season, so we owe them one for that. It could be tasty!

Another thing that's been on everybody's lips this week is the RFU's supposed plans to introduce 10 'super clubs' in place of the existing Guinness Premiership.

As players, we try not to get involved in this kind of thing because, at the end of the day, politics is politics.

But this new plan just seems so completely absurd. I know the RFU have rubbished it now and it may have been a case of someone jumping th gun a little, but there is obviously still talk about some kind of franchise system.

I can't see how the RFU could start franchising it when people like Brian Kennedy own Sale Sharks.

I don't know how they go about getting the owners out or whether they'd just scrap it and start again but then there'd be law suits flying around left, right and centre.

Proposals include getting rid of clubs like us, Leicester, Bath, Wasps and Northampton but they can't just sweep away heritage like that, it'd be ridiculous. It'd make a mockery of rugby in this country.

Anyway, I try not to pay too much attention, it seems there is a different scheme like this proposed every week. I'll just get on with playing rugby.