Nathan Hines

Published on Friday 25 January 2008 16:34

BY the time you read this our game against Biarritz will be over and I'll either have come through it safe and sound and will be on my merry way to Edinburgh to hook-up with the boys or I'll be nursing a wound back home in France.

I sincerely hope it's the former. This Six Nations can't come quickly enough for me. I don't want to miss a second of it, but going to a place like Biarritz the week before it all starts? Well, frankly, you just hope for the best.

All the boys in Scotland have the weekend off but over here, there's no rest for us donkeys and no respite at Biarritz's home, Parc des Sports Aguilera. I have pretty painful memories of a trip there a few years ago, which Al Kellock helpfully reminded me of this week. David Couzinet, their second-row, put one on my nose there once, a punch I barely saw coming. We eye-balled each other at a ruck, I turned away and then whack.

Al's been having a laugh about it. "You gotta sort Couzinet out," he's saying. "You can't just accept that. Get some revenge. Show him who's boss". I point out to him that if I seek retribution on Couzinet, which I've no intention of doing even if he's playing which he probably won't be, then I will get banned. Al says, "that's a small price to pay for justice". Of course, a suspension would mean that one of Al's rivals for the second-row slots against France is suddenly out of the way. "That never even dawned on me," he hoots. All good fun.

It's been fun talking to the French press this week as well. Some of them have been ringing me up looking for information about Scotland and, to put it mildly, I've been a bit vague.

"What's the team going to be, Nathan?"

"Well, that depends on who's fit."

"Who calls the lineouts?"

"Oh, that's a shared responsibility."

"Who calls the backline moves?"

"Ah, I'm a forward, I wouldn't know anything about that.".

It's all part of the Six Nations build-up. L'Equipe have pages to fill and they try and cover every angle. I'm not sure I was a huge help to them but they had plenty to write about anyway once Marc Lievremont, the new coach, named his squad during the week. He's really gone for it. Lievremont wants to bring back the flair and he made a hell of a statement in his first selection. Only 11 guys are left from the World Cup and 10 clubs – quite a lot – are represented. You'd hope that all this upheaval will cause them cohesion problems when they face us on Sunday. But I wouldn't bank on it.

Lievremont has picked some outstanding young players. There's one guy I'll be keeping an eye on in particular because we tried to buy him out of his contract at Montpellier and they told us to get lost. He's a 21-year-old back-row called Fulgence Quedraogo. They've also got Bonnaire, Dusautoir and Vermeulen in the back-row – all playing really well – so that's that going to be one serious battle.

The downside is that there isn't a single Perpignan player in the squad. We had two good contenders; David Marty, the centre, and Nicolas Mas, the tighthead prop. Mas is a fantastic scrummager and I thought he'd be in there for sure. I saw him at training on Wednesday and just said to him, "mate, I don't understand". He said, "neither do I" and shook his head. Maybe we'll talk about France a bit more next week.

It was great getting back in touch with the lads at training. It was 16 degrees colder in Edinburgh than it was in Perpignan but at least I had my long hair and new beard to warm me up. Frank said I looked like a homeless person. Over in France they ask if I'm doing it for a bet. I'm just too lazy to shave, that's all.

The last time I saw most of the boys was at the World Cup and there was a bit of chat about that during the two days we had at Murrayfield last week. My own hope is that we can build on what we did in France which, to be fair, was a bit of a lost opportunity. That's the phrase that's used. We were pleased with the way we played but felt we could have gone further. I remember that Argentina match and a lineout we had in their 22 in the last few minutes. We coughed it up. That was a critical moment and it was down to a lack of experience. We need to be more focused when we get into situations like that. But it'll come. We're a young team. Our average age is about 26 and a half. Lievremont's first squad has an average age of 26. We probably forget sometimes how inexperienced our guys are. I'm the oldest at 31.

We finished with the wooden spoon last year so the only way is up. Actually, I never saw us a wooden spoon team even though we finished last. We beat Wales, almost beat Ireland, played some great rugby against France and absolutely gifted Italy a win. I was speaking to some of the boys about that game last week and we all have similar memories of it. My abiding memory was of walking back towards the north stand and looking up at the clock and seeing that 5.36 minutes had been played. Then I looked at the score and it was 0-19 with a conversion to come. I said to myself, "this can't be happening, this is a freak".

We're a year older and a year wiser now. I'd like to think that we're not capable of self-destructing like that again and that if we get into a position to beat Ireland, or whoever, then we'll close the deal this time. Those are the lessons from last season. Not long to go now before we try and implement them. Judging by the mood in the camp last week, everybody is mad keen to get started.

Starting a family so important to Leann and me

It was around this time last year that I went to Frank with an unusual request. It was a Monday afternoon and we were at a squad session at Murrayfield, just a short few weeks before the start of the Six Nations. "Frank," I said. "I need to get back to Perpignan by 10am tomorrow. My wife and I need to have a baby."

I'm not sure if I put it quite like that, but it was the truth. Frank gave me the go-ahead and off I went, at speed. I headed for the airport. At the same time, my passport was put in a taxi at the team hotel and delivered to me at the terminal. Only problem now was that there were no direct flights to Perpignan, so I jumped on one to Paris instead, stayed overnight, got on another flight the following morning which got me into Perpignan at 9.45am. Fifteen minutes later I was in the hospital ready for the latest round of artificial insemination.

Leann and I have been trying for a child for six years now. We've not had any luck so far but it's so important to us to start a family that I know it will happen one day. I'm sure there are many, many people out there who've been in our situation at one time and now have a house full of little ones running about the place. A few weeks back we tried IVF for the first time. Unfortunately, it didn't work out. The embryos didn't develop and we were quite down about that as you can imagine. Everyone has been really supportive and we'd like to thank them for that. We're going to try again … after the Six Nations.

Swapping rucks for rock music

Hopefully you've been able to keep tabs on Chris Cusiter's progress at Stade Aime Giral but if you haven't let me tell you that he's getting on like a house on fire. He's speaking the lingo (but not the swear words) and has established himself as our first choice scrum-half, displacing Nicolas Durand and becoming a firm favourite of our home crowd. Nico is a very talented boy, if a little inconsistent. Cus is like a rock and has really speeded up our play with his fast service and quick breaks. Everyone has really taken to him.

And he can play guitar, too. We're in a band together. Well, kind of. On Monday, the two of us went over to our team doctor's house for our first jamming session. The doc's the drummer, Cus is on guitar and I'm on bass. We play AC/DC, Jimi Hendrix, Guns 'n' Roses, The Foo Fighters. You get the drift? Hey, we're not the finished article but we enjoy it. We need a singer, though. Perry Freshwater, our prop, has a good voice but his wife just had a baby four weeks ago and I think Perry knows exactly what he's going to be doing with his spare time from now on. It begins with a z and ends with a z and has lots of other z's in the middle. While Perry sleeps, we'll play on.