We are half way in to the Six Nations Championships and most of us have established our own rituals to mark the occasion. But a few friends and acquaintances have asked me what goes on behind the scenes in the days and hours before an International, if you are playing in it.

So here’s what it’s really like:

The week overview

It might surprise a few people that many players actually dread squad get-togethers. It’s like your first day at school but a hundred times worse. Always watching what you’re saying, trying to feel at ease while the sweat rings under the shirt tell the truth! It’s England camp, and it’s time to go on message.

At the start of the week, when you’re not battering each other with tackle bags and in contact suits, you’re generally in your room drinking tea and revising your set strike moves. Every potential lineout, scrum, penalty and free kick can change in a split second. So it’s crucial to be able to switch between reflex and prescription mode. Also being stuck out on the touchline, nearest the supporters, meant I was the last to hear the strike-move. So if Jeremy Guscott had a nose- bleed or was too busy dusting down his shirt, I was in the shit.

The set moves are rehearsed over and over until you have got the running lines and angles to perfection. There are generally a hard-core of set moves which the squad will stick to over the course of the Championship. So paper copies are guarded, usually by the fly- half.

If you’re new to the squad, you have a lot to learn. Your schooling has just started and you’re more worried about getting the calls right and being quizzed in the team meeting than what’s on the set menu for dinner. That pleasure comes with experience.

You might get away with it at Club level but not at International level. Attention to detail is essential.

The second half of the week is the icing on the cake – walking out at the home stadium for a team run through, rehearsing your moves, visualising and piecing together positive affirmations.

Nearer game day you are exposed to the media frenzy. You either love this, and take a step towards the journalists, or grab your tea and retreat to the darkest corner of the room. England vs Wales was always the one I feared. The reason: the tabloids’ penchant for an ancestral conflict to stir up the supporters. With my full name being David LLewelyn Rees there was a story somewhere.

Some more things you might not know:

1. The week before the game. This seems like a very long week. Check television reports and generally have sleepless nights trying to memorise team moves.

2. The night before, down-time or prep-time? Some players will have a sports massage, watch a film, switch the mobile off and relax. My worst and most last-minute prep was in 1998 when we played against France. It was Christophe Dominici’s first French cap and I hadn’t had any luck finding footage on his previous matches. So I spent most of the evening running through clips of his past games. As a winger you need to understand and anticipate the running lines, defensive strengths and weaknesses of your opponent. The late prep wasn’t ideal.

3. Game Day – Pre-match preparation: Nothing can prepare you for the lift you get when you leave the safety of the team coach and walk through hundreds of supporters on your way to the changing rooms. You have one ear cocked for friends wishing you well but the other ear is plugged into dance music to keep you focussed. Every bit of energy is waiting for that first explosive moment which allows you to enter the game in two hours’ time.

4. Unique individual preparation: Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason for it. Every player will have a very personal method of getting in the zone for kick-off. As the clock starts ticking, the more unusual pre-match preparations shine through. I had a scruffy, tight old pair of briefs, which I had worn for club games where I had scored a succession of tries in leading up to my first England game. These were definitely coming with me and so were my lucky pair of boots. Other pre-match preps include: an ice cold shower, gulping back 3 cups of coffee, a warm-up routine in the weights room area with banging dance tunes in the background.

5. Pre-game stimulants: Caffeine is the stimulant of choice. If you want it to really work, you should have two weeks’ abstinence from chocolate, coffee and tea. Then 30 minutes before kick-off, pop the Pro-plus pills and knock back a shot of coffee and away you go. It’s completely up to the individual whether to have it. The coffee, Pro-plus pills are laid out on a table to administer as you please. Even without completely giving up coffee, it works. Unfortunately for me, the last time I managed to stick to the two-week caffeine abstinence was in 1999 when we played Australia in Sydney. It was my last full England cap!

6. Singing the national anthem: Will make you want to cry and if that camera comes swanning past you and picks up any nose twitching, it’s a fight. After all, your family are sitting 40 metres in front of you, as you try and make eye-contact with them, to let them know you are ready.

7. You eat like a horse: All that training and nervous energy results in a ridiculous amount of kcals consumed. The body and metabolism go into overdrive.

8. One-cap wonder? For every new player who takes the field there is a fear that you might be a “one cap wonder” and disgrace yourself on the pitch. Pressure and banter from fellow team mates is harsh but humorous.

9. Running out at an international is the biggest natural high you will ever experience. As you run out the tunnel, the noise intensifies until you reach the exit. As you spring onto the pitch it erupts and almost lifts you off your feet. You want to cry, a double-wave of goose pimples rides up from your back over your face as another comes from the pit of your stomach and to your fingertips. Euphoric, hair-raising, addictive!

10. Post-game weigh in: You weigh in before and after kick off. Very often you’ve lost at least 2kg in weight. Every player has a kcal/water rehydration protocol before leaving the dressing room. The immediacy of this is essential to aid recovery from injury and post-match fatigue.

11. Come down: Win, lose or draw the immediate aftermath takes about two days to re-sync with that adrenalin still coursing through the body. Your friends and family want to share and chat through the game when you just want to switch off and move on. The moment’s gone, you need time for reflection, analysis and a week in solitary. However you’re always interested in what the papers have to say. Drawing from the positive comments can help back up a good display on the pitch.

12. The coach back to the hotel: It’s tradition that if you win your first England cap you stand up, microphone in hand and sing your signature song. I sang the Blaydon races. This is the worst part of your day. Even more nerve-racking than running out the tunnel at Twickenham.

David Rees is co-owner of Oakfields Personal Training, Bristol. Where he has been working since retiring from professional rugby.