Diary from inside Warrington Wolves' pre-season camp

HELLO everyone and the warmest of welcomes to the first edition of ‘The Portugal Diaries.’

All being well, I’ll be providing an entry every day from here in sunny – if a little chillier than expected – Vilamoura on the beautiful Algarve.

I must start by thanking Warrington Wolves for inviting me out here to cover their pre-season training camp.

We don’t often see what goes on behind the scenes at training, so it promises to be an eye-opener.

Today’s entry won’t be a long one, as we did not arrive at The Wire’s training base until just before 7pm.

I almost had a calamitous false start to the day as I had to sprint from my flat to Warrington Central station in order to catch my train to Manchester Airport.

It was a close one due to me not leaving myself enough time to make the 15-minute walk, so it turned into a 10-minute mad dash and I just about made it.

By arriving at the airport in good time, I had plenty of time to grab a bite to eat before boarding our flight to Faro along with Adam from the club’s media team.

With it being early January and very much out of holiday season, the plane was only around half-full – meaning I ended up with a full row of seats to myself!

Despite the relative solitude of not sharing my personal space with another passenger, there was unfortunately no escaping the rowdy group of women who were sat a few rows behind.

They may have partaken in a few too many pre-holiday drinks at the airport bar and it was showing.

No problem – the new headphones that I got for Christmas (hat tip to my girlfriend’s parents for those) were turned up high and it made the two-and-a-half-hour flight a straightforward one.

After a bit of a hiccup with our transfer – which turned up an hour late – we finally arrived at Brown’s Sports and Leisure Club, where the team have been training and staying.

We were greeted by Kylie Leuluai, who informed us there was food waiting for us in the restaurant – much to my delight as all I had eaten thus far was a ham sandwich.

There were a few players still eating when we made our way down to get our food and they made us feel very welcome – even if a few were a tad surprised to see me!

One thing that had struck me was how cold it was. I took my jumper off briefly before going outside made me quickly put it back on!

The players have been here since Sunday and Matt Davis told us they had found the main pitch to be slightly frozen first thing in the morning on one occasion.

After training in the morning, they were given the afternoon and evening off so many had been down to Vilamoura’s famed marina for the day.

Bennie Westwood and Harvey Livett had been golfing on one of the many stunning golf courses around here, and Harvey was telling the group how he managed to break one of the clubs he had hired!

Once the main group had dispersed, a few (myself included) made for the on-site sports bar to watch the Manchester City game before heading back to the rooms at a reasonable time.

It is a 7.30am start tomorrow, so a long day ahead!