JUST hours to go and I can't wait to start my first World Cup match.

I'm excited and looking forward to it. I've obviously wanted to start a game the whole time I have been here.

We had our final team run yesterday morning and now it's all about resting up and being ready.

There is obviously a bit of pressure involved today because, essentially, it's a knock-out game. We need to win our last two pool games to qualify and make the quarter-finals, which is what it's all about.

It's important that the guys don't put too much pressure on themselves but go out and enjoy playing. Blackie (Steve Black, Newcastle Falcons conditioning and mentoring coach) is good for that kind of thing.

I've texted him my fax number so I'm sure he's going to send me some pearls of wisdom. I do enjoy them - they are always reassuring and make you feel better about yourself.

I have been up against Seilalu Mapusua and Brian Lima before when we've played London Irish and Bristol. Lima is not called 'The Chiropractor' for nothing - I think he even knocked himself out after one of his own tackles against South Africa. He and Mapusua are both good players and with Alesano Tuiliagi and David Lemi on the wings it's going to be a big challenge.

We've got to mix our game up a bit. We have to match them physically to allow us to play a more expansive game but if we go toe-to-toe with Samoa as our only game plan we play into their hands.

We arrived here in La Baule on Thursday and it's massively different from the Trianon Palace. It's on a golf complex in the countryside, very pleasant with big rooms and good food.

We came by TGV train from Paris. It took about three hours but it was better than the coach which would be fairly cramped with over 40 of us on it.

It was nice to sit and stretch my legs out and have a bit of chill time. I watched the back end of a film called This is England, which was about the rise of the BNP during the 1980s. It wasn't the best. I also watched Rocky Balboa. I was expecting it to be rubbish but it wasn't too bad. I also did a bit of my French course and read my book.

Before we left Versailles I managed to visit the Chateau.

It was very impressive but weird things went on there, like having the public watch the king wake up from a gallery.

One of the kings found it too cold in his bedroom so he would sleep in a warmer one, but would have to be back in the bed where there was a gallery of people to watch him get up in the morning! So he would move back in at 7am in the morning to get up at 7.30am - strange. You can see why there was a revolution - he's living in luxury, swapping bedrooms, and everyone else is scraping around trying to make a living.

Toby Flood arrived at the start of the week. It's nice to see him on the back of a win for Newcastle and to hear how the boys are getting on. He got man of the match and, by all accounts, is on form.

We had a public training session the other day in Versailles. There were about 3,000 people there. I got talking to a few of the guys from an English school in Paris and I gave one a pair of my rugby socks.

I hadn't expected there to be so many people there and it's nice to have such support out here.