A week in the life Gaffer’s long hours to prepare for 90 minutes

on when the 20s game is at night, I can be here sometimes until 10.30pm or 11pm, so it can be a long day.

“It gives us time in the afternoon to go through whatever we need to have a look at and then we take the 20s game. If it’s away, it’s a longer night again.

“On a Wednesday we come in and it’s the media conference in the morning, then training again as normal and then getting everything else organised.

“We’ll go upstairs on a Wednesday afternoon, we’ll spend maybe an hourand-a-half in the video room going through all the clips of the opposition and making sure everything’s set for the Friday morning meeting.

“On the Friday I’ll go through everything that I want to discuss – the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition. That would have been put together on a Wednesday afternoon. I’ll take it away on the ipad and I’ll watch it again a couple of times over the course of Thursday so it’s ready to present on the Friday morning.

“On a Friday we’ll come in early and we’re back in the media room, usually about 8am or 8.30am, and at 9.15am I’ll be up the stairs and we’ll take about half an hour as a staff again, going through all the stuff we put together on Wednesday, making sure it’s all right to present to the players. Then we’ll go back upstairs at 10-10.30 and I’ll speak to the boys who are going to be left out of the team.

“I’ll speak to the boys that are going to come in and I’ll go through some stuff on the board, show them what I’m going to be looking for them to do on the Saturday.

“We’ll then talk about that as a team, so it’s not just individually that they’re hearing it, and I’ll go through the video