Getting the clippers out for the NHS!
In his second week in isolation, the England and Exeter wing gets in one last ride and takes up a challenge from club-mate Henry Slade...
SUNDAY Knowing that Boris Johnson was going to tighten things up with the lockdown on Monday, I got my motorbike out for one last time to go on my weekly drive down the coast with big Dave Ewers. We’d had a bit of a relaxed training week before so I also got together with Henry Slade, Nic White and Stuart Hogg to do a socially-distanced running session…. a bit of a shock to the system! We’re trying to mimic our running metres during a match week — roughly 4 to 5km a day.
MONDAY With all pubs being shut down, I had a call with my mates and co-owners of the Swordfish Inn back in Cornwall. Rather than operate a takeaway service, we decided to close everything down. It’s a concerning time as a business owner, because you don’t know how long this will last, but we’re quite lucky that we’ve done reasonably well over the last year or so. We can look at it as a positive opportunity to paint it up just before the summer, which is our busiest time in Cornwall.
TUESDAY There’s a ‘Shave your head’ challenge doing the rounds on Instagram so I had to get the clippers out after being nominated by Sladey! It’s for a good cause because it’s raising money for the NHS. It’s the first time I’ve shaved it off — grade one all over — and I needed help from my partner Zoe. It felt pretty cold out on our family cycle ride that afternoon!
WEDNESDAY While Zoe and our daughter Nori get stuck into their Joe Wicks PE workout in the living room, I’m sweating it out in my homemade gym in the garage. My routine at the moment is to get woken up by Nori at 7.30, fill up a bottle of water and do a 30-minute blast on the Wattbike. That’s a bit of a fat burner. Then I’ll go into my ankle rehab — Nori likes to join in. She’ll have a bit of a nap at 2pm and that’s when I’ll do weights.
THURSDAY It was pretty noisy at 8pm when everyone stopped to clap for the NHS. I was recording a podcast with a local guy from Devon at the time, so we stopped to show our appreciation. None of my friends and family work for the NHS but there are a lot of people connected to the club who do. Sam Hill’s sister is a doctor and Gareth Steenson’s wife is a GP. We all have massive admiration for everything they do.
FRIDAY I binge watched the entire Tiger King series on Netflix as a bit of a Friday night treat. Smashed out all six episodes in one sitting on the sofa! Like everyone, there are times when life can feel a bit boring. Our PlayStation league is up and running and we have a knockout FIFA tournament going. Adam Hastings beat Sladey — a bit of revenge for the Calcutta Cup! — and I got a first-round bye.
SATURDAY The old match days are a bit different at the moment... I spent the morning painting my front gates! Who knows when we’ll be back on the pitch. There’s some talk about summer rugby, which I’d be a big fan of. Games are always exciting when the ball is dry and the sun is out. I still like our game the way it is, playing in the mud and the rain, but the Premiership final is always an exciting game because of the time of year.