Diary: Stephen Larkhams' Cup Diary

Our preparation has just finished, tomorrow we move to France to start the formalities for the 2007 Rugby World Cup. The last 5 days have been spent based in a training facility called Browns in the seaside town of Villamoura. Villamoura sits half way between Faro and Lagos in the Alvarde region of Portugal. The Alvarde sits on the South Coast and is a popular holiday destination for the English, and other European countries that don't see much sun. Even though it wasn't peak season the area was teaming with tourists.

We arrived in Portugal on Friday night after spending 6 hours in transit in a hotel attached to the Gatwick International airport. The flight from Australia was mostly uneventful apart from the 6 blokes who were lucky enough to have their names pulled out of a hat and bumped up to first class. Apparently a party was had in the first class cabin on the second leg from Bangkok to London, and the Hass's (Adam Frier) infamous dry land knee boarding was brought out. He was knee deep in the green room and the cabin passengers loved it.

Prior to this flight the team had a three day camp in Sydney which culminated in a team farewell at the Sydney Town Hall. The team had various duties but the biggest was being presented on stage and being farewelled by the Prime Minister.

We all lined up behind the stage and were called on one by one. On one of the back stage doors was a little A4 sized sign that said 'Performer', and Stephen Moore thought it would be funny to stick it on the back of Matt Giteau as he went on stage. Unfortunately Gits wised up to the joke and it couldn't be done. However Rocky Elsom wasn't so aware and the boys managed to stick it on his back. He was two people from going on stage when the lady organising realised the joke, didn't see the funny side and through much commotion took the sign off.

I was still laughing when it was my time to go on stage, and stepped to the edge of the curtain. There was a guy there who told us when to go out, and as we entered the stage through the middle, I asked him which side I was on. He didn't know, so when I was called forward I was searching for my name tag on the floor, and forgot about shaking the Prime Ministers hand. Quite oblivious the boys already on stage began to shout at me and I finally realised what I hadn't done. The Prime Minister had spent 5 seconds with his hand out chasing me around, the crowd thought it was hilarious. My only saving grace was that Chico (Chris Latham) did exactly the same thing stright after me.

Anyway back to Portugal. It rained the first night, heavy, and the locals said it broke the drought. The rain continued the next morning which started with a team meeting. Knuckles (John Connolly) started by reminding us that we were not on holiday and that this period was our last to do the hard work before the competition proper. The aim of the camp was to train as hard as posible without getting injured and do it in the heat. We then hit the gym, and cycled through seeing the physio, and doctor to make sure we weren't too stiff after the long flight. The afternoon was our own.

The team basically split in two, a golfing group and a fishing group. I was in the latter, and our group of 13 left at 12:30 for the Marina, which was the hub of Villamoura. After finding out the fishing charter company wouldn't take us out because apparently the swell was too big, Coops (Adam Ashley-Cooper), self-professed fisherman, preceeded to haggle with other companies in the Marina until he found one that would take us out. Still raining we set off for a little known ship wreck 6 kms off the coast. The swell had died down considerably to less than 1 metre, and all was looking good until we anchored and set up our lines. Firstly the hooks were tiny, no bigger than a finger nail, which we baited with pippies. The guys realised we wouldn't be catching anything big today. Secondly we anchored over the wreck which was 45 metres down on the reef, but the bait wasn't getting within 40 metres of the wreck by the time the current had taken it, even with heavy sinkers.

We managed to catch 4 fish in about 2 hours, Ed (Fitzgerald) our physio caught a 20cm mackerel, Pink (Guy Sheperdson) caught a 10cm Brim, Holmesy (Greg Holmes) caught a 15 cm Brim, but the catch of the day was Gerrardo (Mark Gerrard). A Groper measuring no more than 5cm, obviously he didn't even realise he had one. But it wasn't about the fish, never is. Coopy was filthy, no one likes him anyway.

The sun started to come out at the 2 hour mark, we fished for another 30 minutes soaking up the sun, then packed it in, and headed for dinner at the Marina. All in all a massive day of flexing rods and big fish tales, much the same as the Australian Cricket team's world cup fishing experience.

The only other opportunity we had to look around was on Monday. Most of the guys jumped in cars and headed to various towns on the coast, the most memorable journey was that taken by the guys who went to Lagos. Their trip started just after lunch, a 45 minute trip in two cars. The day involved swimming and sunbaking. Lagos is famous for its beaches and the caves surrounding them that most of the guys swam through. The first highlight of the day, apart from the serenity, was Coopy's backflip off a 12 metre cliff, into no more than two and a half metres of water, much to the delight of all the people on the beach. Apparently he had spent many hours honing his skills on the rivers and bridges of the 'Centy Coast'.

The second highlight was Hass's parading the beach in his speedos. Whilst everyone else was in boardshorts, Hass pulled his speedos up high. High enough to make them look like a 'thong'. He has an obsession with tanning, that's why we call him Hass, aka David Hasselhoff. On this day, through all of the niggle from his team mates, he got one step closer to achieving the perfect tan.

The rest of the time in Portugal was spent training, double sessions on Sunday and Tuesday. It felt longer than five days, but we got a lot out of it as a team. The last session was a team one and although the execution was sloppy the enthusiasm was high. The feeling in the camp is one of confidence, we've grown as a team over the last 12 months, to the point where we feel like we can beat any other side on our day.