I have been in Paris for three days and the atmosphere is incredible. I have done many VU Six nations trips to Paris but the anticipation for tonight’s game is something else.

Last night was a great way to warm up with a few beers in Carrs Irish Bar. Today I have been seeing a few of my old rugby mates. These included Andy Robinson, Matt Perry, Scott Hastings and Phil De Glanville. It is always great to see these guys and share some old stories.

Robbo, Phil and Scott met a lot of the VU group whilst they were out here. In fact the conversations included laughter and tears. The tears came when Robbo got quite emotional talking about the World Cup win. This England team still means a hell of a lot to him.

We warmed up for the big night when I met the boys for a coffee. They made me buy the coffee and then had the brass neck to say I was being flash because I paid with a 100 Euro note. You can’t win even when you are being generous. De Glanville claimed I was known as Mr Expenses during my playing days because I was so good at getting my claims in. I can assure you they were all legit.

I will use this posting to give you some of their thoughts which came from their chats during the day. They really know about what it is like to play with the expectation of a nation on them and they are always more than happy to pass that knowledge on. The kick off is just a few hours away and we can’t wait.

So here are the thoughts from some of the boys:

Scott Hastings on our performance last week: ‘England were shit’. I don’t think we will have any more comments from him.

Andy Robinson As I said Andy got really emotional as he chatted about the 2003 World Cup and that was great to see. He said a key battle ground would be the lineout. He is sitting on the fence a bit over who will win the tournament but certainly believes in England. He said the South Africa game was a must win, there would be a real danger of not qualifying if we go down. He had great things to say about Farrell and has him down as the team’s best passer, I won’t argue with that. He said that during the 2003 World Cup campaign the team spirit was incredible and he put down Martin Johnson's  leadership as the crucial factor.

Phil De Glanville Phil loves talking rugby even if he does take the mickey out of us forwards. When chatting about this year's tournament he said his favourite match so far had been the France Argentina game; and I agree. His money, and he has more than he claims, is on New Zealand for the tournament. He feels it is a major blow to lose Olly for tonight’s game. When talking about Andy Farrell he told me he was treading carefully because Robbo had recruited him, however he did say that Andy would not get the back line going as well as Mike Catt. His key men are Martin Corry and Matt Stevens. He added that the game could only go England’s way with quick ball.

So there we are. I am off to the game now. Come on England.