A 5:05 alarm is always hard to process regardless what you are doing.
After a short 10 minute taxi and £20 later, I arrive at Terminal 5 rocking my new Mizuno trainers and in a generally excited mood.
As I arrive at the airport and make the walk to the check-in desk with my kit bag in tow, I have a warm feeling of excitement as we are about to embark on another tournament, and the the reality of our hard work and sacrifices are getting closer but more to the fact that we get to do it in Las Vegas (I know, it sounds ridiculous!)
I finally meet the team and I receive a warm reception from the boys of, “what are you doing here?”, or “terrible Lid”, which brings a smile to the boys involved. Once queuing and catching up on the last 48 hours of our lives talk moves to some of the boys new “Sky Haircuts” in preparation for next weekend's tournament in Las Vegas. The rule of thumb is if you've had a haircut regardless how good it is, its going to get mocked. As ever Captain Tom Mitchell gets the most stick being the vainest character in our team, that, and his new approach to a mohawk! We also have Tom Bowen looking like a Turkish monk, and Phil burgess too ashamed to show his High and Tight new lid that he is still wearing a Hat!
As ever we try our best to wangle some upgrades and as ever James Rodwell is front of the queue. Once he has been rejected the opportunity to get an upgrade he proceeds to inform the staff that he is England's most Capped 7s Forward and that he's played over 50 consecutive tournaments which in his eyes is due an upgrade...before he slinks off through security.
Once through security the obvious Giraffe awaits. It's served us very well (quite literally) over the past seasons, both on home soil and away. We finally make our way to our gate and are met by the South African 7s team.
After training as a squad for the past few weeks, seeing another squad my thoughts move to next week and playing again. Your pulse starts to quicken as you start to shortly play out the weekend ahead hoping to finish off the tournament bathed in glory. As you look around and see the likes of Brian Habana the rugby fan in me is quite in awe. It just hits home we are slowing etching closer to the Buzz word of the year, Olympics!! I also think to myself that it's amazing for the sport to have these international “stars” playing 7s. It makes what is already an amazing spectacle and takes it to the next level of high octane entertainment.
The reality of playing next weekend is the combination of all the hard work we have put in in the last couple of weeks and is so exciting. We say it all the time but it's another opportunity to show the world how well, as a team, we are progressing. I wasn't very happy with my last performances in Dubai and Cape Town and with missing the last two tournaments, I’m just itching to show the world how good I am!
The next few hours are a blur, a five hour wait in New York for our connecting flight and we finally make it to Sin City after 22 hours of travelling needing sleep.
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