Today's rugby players want to find the soul of a country – we just found the nearest bar

For every player, standing on the pitch representing your country at a World Cup, the experience is completely different. There are some who don’t remember a thing about match days. They go to some faraway place. They know the brutal nature of the sport and they’re ready for pain.

I, on the other hand, loved it. I loved looking up and around. And while some people say that’s why I was so inconsistent – because I didn’t concentrate on the job – I can remember everything. I could tell you what music was playing, where my mum was sat, where my mates were, what was going on, the detail of the stadiums, everything.

Everything has been leading up to that point – you’re well fed, well rested, without a care in the world. Your focus is purely on the job that you’re there to do.

Unlike the fans, you haven’t had to negotiate any travel details at all. Your passports are sorted, your visas are organised for you, your flights are booked, your airport transfers arranged and your hotel room is sorted. You don’t even have to worry about your laundry.

Then when it comes to game day, you’re ushered onto a coach to the stadium – there’s no trying to negotiate the local subway system, no worrying about what you’re going to have to eat, no queueing for the grounds – although we’re not completely pampered yet. Unlike footballers, we at least carry our kit around, rather than just being responsible for our washbag.

Even the after the game things are different. While the fans are out celebrating or commiserating in bars, we’re sitting in ice baths before heading out for a nice three-course meal – to get some carbohydrates and protein back inside us. Then it’s back on the bus to our five-star luxury hotel.

You also don’t have to worry about costs. Come the World Cup, ask an England player what the current pound to yen exchange rate is and I’d be very, very surprised if they could get within 20. In fact, they’d probably laugh in your face.

When it comes to getting out and exploring, there’s not a lot of time. Back in the old days, way before the EasyJet generation and everyone travelling with Instagram – before the world shrank – there was a real lack of knowledge about other countries. After the games, players could either be found on the golf course or back at the accommodation, watching TV.

We used to get out in the evenings - to the bars - but today’s crop of players are a lot more cosmopolitan. I remember in South Africa in 1997, one of my first major senior tours, the great British & Irish Lions coach Jim Telfer telling us: “I don’t want you going to the local Irish bar, drinking Guinness and eating fish and chips. You’ve got to immerse yourself in culture”.

The current crop are far keener to understand the soul of a country. They’ll want to know what Japan is, what it’s about, what drives it, what its people are like.

A lot of our boys will know players like Dan Carter, Matt Giteau and Adam Ashley-Cooper who are out there playing in the Japanese league, so they’ll get taken out to some smart local restaurants. But when a rugby player goes to the World Cup, they’re not on a jolly, they’re not on a trip. It’s absolutely pure focus.

Players do have some down time and that’s where the current team are good, making the most of their opportunities and going out walking. But they don’t go to the top of Mount Fuji on a walking expedition. They’ll get together and go to the local coffee shop or sushi restaurant. It’s very much about preserving all energy and focus for training.

For most players, it’s not until you go back to a country as a fan - or a reporter - that you get to see more. Wherever I go now, I realise how little of a country you get to see as a player. When I went back to Australia in 2013 for the Lions tour, I drove across the whole country. When I went out to New Zealand for the 2011 World Cup, I visited Lake Taupo and did some fishing and walking. For the Lions in 2017, I drove across the North and the South islands over five or six weeks.

But because of when World Cups are, most of our guys in the northern hemisphere don’t have time to extend their trip. They need to be back in their club shirt fairly smartly, or are keen to get back to their families to spend some time with them. In fact, we’ve just seen Joe Marler retire from international rugby for this very reason.

There’s also the disappointment to contend with if you’ve lost. No matter what, although England have only won one, we usually go in as one of the top four teams and there’s always the expectation among the players that we can win it. If you lose, you tend to want to head home reasonably quickly. Then there’s the small matter of having to get back to meet the Queen.

This is the first World Cup in Asia and I think that Japan will be magnificent hosts. The stadiums will be absolutely rammed and while the Japanese, like all host nations, will pick their second favourite teams, many of them will be desperate for England to do well because of what Eddie Jones gave them in 2015. They won three games in a pool stage. And beat South Africa. They were ecstatic.

Not only will England have a huge amount of support, but Eddie, or Yoda as I like to call him, will know where to go. He’ll know the training base and camps. He’ll absolutely know where he wants his team to be and when. Although it’s fairly neutral and some things are out of your control - drawn out of a hat - there’s also an element of flexibility, such as a choice of hotels. Eddie will have all that experience to hand to make sure that England are in the best possible position. In terms of understanding the country, they couldn’t have a better teacher.

The team will be treated like heroes, which will make it a wonderful tournament for them. I’ve always found that a happy person makes a happy player and the Japanese will take every single team to their hearts. But I just think when England run out onto the pitch playing anyone else, there will be a huge amount of Japanese in cherry blossom shirts who will be secretly waving the English flag.