Playing for England was a massive honour and when I was in the team, that was all I wanted to focus on.

I think when you go skiing you have to buy into the après, so it has to be lively for me. There is such a unique atmosphere in ski resorts that it's all about having fun once you get off the mountain and, as a couple, we embrace that.

Playing for England was a massive honour and when I was in the team, that was all I wanted to focus on.

I started going on ski trips at senior school. I can't remember exactly where but we skied in the Tirol in Austria a couple of times and also went to Val d'Isère in France. When I was 15, rugby took over and there wasn't time to ski any more. I didn't ski again until I was 33.

A French player, Sylvain Marconnet, broke his tibia skiing in 2007 and missed his home World Cup. For me the risk of breaking something versus the reward was never worth it.

I said I'll need to get my nose straightened one day so that I can breathe properly and that was translated by the press into me having it done.

I vary my days between skiing and snowboarding - I can go fast down pisted runs but still struggle in the bumps on a snowboard.