Martin Johnson has caught up with Declan Kidney regarding squad control ahead of next Saturday’s meeting in Twickenham

I KNOW I should start with the serious stuff but I feel the need to set the record straight right from the off. In a recent Sunday Times interview my secondrow partner Nick Kennedy made some scurrilous remarks about the music I listen to on the team coach and in the dressing room before matches.

I can confirm that I have no Celine Deon on the iPod and it’s not all “Irish Trad” flooding my ears either.

The majority of the lads like their RnB and hip hop but, for me, it is Metallica, Foo Fighters and, yeah, some of the greats of traditional Irish music as befits the captain of a club with proud links to Ireland.

Some guys like silence, while others have the headphones strapped in until we come together for the final huddle. Whatever gets you going, I suppose.

Normally the younger lads are in charge of the music in the dressing room while the older lads simply learn to shut out the noise they come up with.

Increasingly, coaches love that famous Al Pacino speech in Oliver Stone’s American Football film Any Given Sunday. They use it before big games dubbed over clips of us doing well in defence or attack so guys can glance up at the plasma in the Madejski Stadium dressing room as a little reminder of our positives pre-game.

All this stuff has become more developed in recent years.

As has the England national team’s use of their players. Martin Johnson has caught up with Declan Kidney regarding squad control ahead of next Saturday’s meeting in Twickenham.

The Elite Player Squad (EPS) has helped them bridge the gap in preparation with Ireland as it keeps the frontliners out of club matches during the Six Nations. Two seasons back everyone would have been forced to turn out for their primary employers, the club, this past weekend. It meant they only gathered on the Sunday night before a Test match, missing out on the quality and less pressurised work that can be achieved, say, last week.

Johnson has a perfect mix now where he can wrap players up in cotton wool or release the likes of Paul Hodgson and Steffon Armitage, who joined us up in Newcastle on Saturday, or the full squad availability for the week in Portugal before the Welsh game.

You can see it most clearly in Steve Borthwick’s lineout. This is the essence of the England captain’s game. He pores over the opposition throw and while Simon Shaw is not a great contester, he is an effective lifter and Nick Easter can do damage at the back.

Basically, they try and force teams to throw to the front, so as to hinder the gameplan of working off good, clean middle of the line ball. This also allows Lewis Moody time to fly up in the outhalf’s face.

It is a big challenge for Paul O’Connell and the boys but they bring a vastly experienced unit that outwitted the Springboks last November.

The EPS has allowed a shift in mindset to occur amongst the English set-up as well. The different philosophies under Declan Kidney’s management of Les Kiss, Alan Gaffney (Australians) and Gert Smal (South African) have become evident in how Ireland play, but England have been run by three Old School Leicester men in ‘Johnno’, Graham Rowntree and John Wells.

When backs’ coach Brian Smith tried to bring the London Irish wide-wide game into that English system it patently didn’t work, whether they didn’t have enough time to adjust or that type of player was simply not there.

Now the coaching team has had more time in camp, a style similar to the Wasps philosophy is evolving. This is the around-the-corner carries by forwards, sucking in tacklers to eventually exhaust a defence and create room outside.

It is a pattern most players would be familiar with from the Premiership. From the players’ point of view, it is very important that everyone is working on the same philosophy even if they have different ideas.

England might have disappointed in Rome but crucially they arrive at this juncture with two wins from two outings. That’s all they care about and are due a big performance.

Matthew Tait is a real statement of intent at outside centre, while Riki Flutey has good hands and Ugo Monye will do damage if afforded space.

Another topic I want to touch upon is concussion in rugby, which has seen vast improvements since the development of cogsport.

At the start of every season we must take a basic brain reaction test on a lap top. Pick up a head injury and you cannot go back playing until you attain your cogsport test scores.

Concussion is a trauma to the brain and it swells so one concussion makes you more susceptible to another one. I failed it four times two seasons back so was not insured to play until I passed.

The NFL have taken a leaf out of rugby union’s book by looking at adopting cogsport.

Right, I’m off to Seilala Mapusua’s surprise 30th, organised by his wife, at the club. It’s a traditional Samoan bash so there’ll be pig on a spit and as an extra surprise his brother is flying in. It can be tough celebrating birthdays, and the like, without your family so this should be good craic.

We are not over the moon with the 12-12 draw up in Newcastle but there were some positives. Two good tries off the lineout and after a few pick and goes, in the first half and then we struggled for field position on a surface akin to the back pitch up in Stradbrook. We did well not to lose it in the end.

Harlequins are next up at home so we’ve got to kick on after three draws in the Premiership this season. With no ‘W’ beside us in 2010, it’s all about the club motto now: win the next game.