MY injury is coming along a treat now and I hope to be back playing in three to four weeks’ time.

It was a bit unclear just how long I’d be out for when I first picked up the injury, but it has healed well in the last week or so.

It is always frustrating not to be playing and, even though the conditions were so bad when we played Bucuresti away last year, at the moment, I’d love to be out there in the freezing rain just to be back playing again.

Playing rugby is what I do for a living, so it is always difficult when you can’t do that because of an injury, but there have been plenty of other things going on at the club to keep me busy.

Before the London Irish game, we had a few things that needed to be worked on — our defence needed putting right — and it was a massive positive that we conceded just one try.

Now we have got three weeks to really hone and polish what we are doing before the league action returns.

There were certain aspects we had to work on and we must keep doing that consistently. When the league matches come back round again and the intensity goes back up, we have to make sure we still do these things well.

After winning our first game in the EDF Cup, we are very much in the competition, but we are not looking too far ahead as it is still early days.

If we can put our defence right and combine it with our dangerous attacking play, we will win games. We are not looking too far ahead at winning cups or anything like that, but we know we will win games if we get everything right together.

I was really pleased with the performance of Alex Grove — he was outstanding in the centre. He has really matured as a rugby player over the last six months.

Jake Abbott did very well too, as did Graham Kitchener.

It was ‘Kitch’s’ first start for us, he scored a great try and showed what potential he has. He’s already a real asset to the squad, but will be even more so in a couple of years when he has fully matured.

People are starting to realise how good our academy is now. The young lads are the right sort of people and that’s why they are still at the club.

Also, Miles Benjamin has been a big presence for us all season, so I was pleased to see him get three tries in his last couple of games.

However, you can only play the teams that are put in front of you and we know the Irish game wasn’t the same intensity as a league match.

Matt Jones has had a lot of pressure on him since he joined the club and he is proving what a good player he is. He controlled the game thr-oughout and kicked or passed the ball at the right times.

Hopefully Rico Gear isn’t too far from fitness now and we are very lucky to have such strength in depth in the wing department.

Rico can also cover at 13 while Dale Rasmussen is out, but Alex Grove also did really well there and Hal Luscombe is back running now and not far away from a return.

Things are beginning to look up on the Sixways injury front.

We have played against the likes of Ludovic Mercier and Nicky Little before, so we know a little about this weekend’s European Challenge Cup opponents Petrarca Padova.

We are not worrying about them, but concentrating on what we are doing. I’m confident that if we get all of our processes spot-on, we will gain a convincing win.