Once I had agreed to play for Biella Rugby, which is situated near Turin, due to their injury situation they wanted me there as soon as possible.

So after booking my flights for two weeks time, it was a mad rush to organise everything. I managed to arrange a last minute driving test for the day before my flight. I also had to get all my transfer documents signed and played my last match for Malvern RFC.

Unfortunately, we lost the match, but it was nice to leave them scoring a try. After the match everyone wished me well and I will look back at my time playing for Malvern with fond memories and wish them well for the remainder of the season.

Then it was onto goodbyes of family and friends, a trip to see my girlfriend at university and a goodbye night out with some friends was really emotional, but a really nice send-off. Now it was just down to the small task of passing my driving test. I spent three days in Coventry with an instructor and thankfully came out with my licence, although the thought of driving on the other side of the road with the supposedly crazy driving Italians was a daunting prospect.

I arrived at Turin Airport on the 21st of October at about 5pm and was greeted by the vice-president, Vittorio, who I had being liaising with. The drive to Biella took just less than an hour and I have to say I was pretty nervous on the drive, especially as we were heading straight to the ground.

There I met my housemate Patrick, who is the U19’s coach, a 28-year-old Australian who is luckily fluent in Italian and often acts as my interpreter! Pat could sense how nervous I was and helped calm me down, took me to our flat to let me get unpacked and settled before training later that evening.

Being thrown straight into training was a bit daunting but now I look back on it, it was probably a good thing. The training was tough, not because of the drills, but merely trying to understand what was said! The coach is a New Zealander who has been with the club for five years now, so speaks very good Italian and normally only speaks in Italian for training. Luckily the boys were pleased to tell me or show me what needed to be done, which has definitely helped out. This was my first indicator of the friendly nature and the generosity of the all the people I have met here.

The rest of my first week was spent training and getting settled in, I also was starting to see how close the players here are. After most training sessions the majority of the squad will go for some food and after every Friday session there are beers provided by the player who did the most stupid thing the week before!

All the team stay at the pitch and drink, before heading out together into Biella, which due to its small size ends up being the same bar every Friday. The next day was spent doing a photo shoot for a calendar in order to raise some funds for the club. It was a bit weird only being there four days and already being asked to be in a calender, but it was good fun and I think that the boys enjoyed nothing better than posing in front of the camera!

This photo shoot was followed by a nice meal with the coach Ollie (an ex-Worcester Grammar School boy) and their better halves. The meal was fantastic as most have been here, the Italians definitely living up to their cooking credentials, although I have found ordering difficult. I bought an Italian learning CD back in the UK and have been having some tips from the players, but I am picking things up slowly.