It's been a real rollercoaster ride for me personally this season.

Starting with the alleged drug scandal in the summer, the departure of my coach and friend Mark Bakewell, to beginning the season with Bath on the bench – and then to the dizzy heights of starting two Test matches in the autumn for England.

At the tender age of 35 I thought my international days were numbered. Even though there are and have been several test players around that sort of age (sometimes older), they are all proven internationals with many caps to their names.

For me to be selected would have, in my opinion, been straight out of left field. So when I received the call from John Wells telling me I had been selected in the EPS, my initial reaction was "who is this?" and "this is not a funny joke, stop taking the p***".

To be fair the line was extremely bad and I genuinely thought it was one of the boys playing a practical joke. It was only when Barnesy phoned me and asked me if I'd had a similar message that the penny started to drop. It was either completely true or the biggest wind-up in Bath Rugby history!

He and I were still pinching ourselves and expecting someone to jump out of the bushes at Pennyhill Park shouting "Ha Ha!", even after we had turned up and been allocated our kit.

The first week with the England squad was one of the busiest I had been involved in since turning professional way back when. Every day was a double training session and there were weights and media sessions to contend with in between.

That's not to mention the 'playbook' meetings in the evening and 'leading teams' sessions afterwards to help bond the players together to try to create a club atmosphere. The rugby sessions were definitely longer, more intense and had a considerable amount more "contact' training that I have been used to.

The body was pretty sore by the end of that first week but it was always nice to know that I had The Spa to relax in and let the young ladies who work there pamper me. All of it only 50 yards away!

Even though it was pretty full on, intense and extremely tiring it was great to experience all that goes with being involved with the international scene and for me personally it definitely freshened me up, coming away from the normal club environment. It was just extremely difficult to watch the Bath boys lose to Saracens that weekend and I felt complete empathy for Steve, Brad and Haagy for being completely helpless to change anything on the field.

The only thing that frustrated me that week was the fact that I had to share a room with Barnesy (always a bad thing if you've seen the state of his car!) and watch him put most of the rest of the squad to shame by completing the fitness test in one of the fastest times in the history of England fitness tests!

I, like Barnesy, set a new record during that fitness test as well. The slowest time! Anyway, I was to get my own back on Barnesy before the Argentina Test.

The build-up to the first Test match against Australia was incredibly exciting to be involved in.

All the squad knew that 10 players would be released on the Tuesday night. This would mean that there would only be 22 players left to train the remainder of the week and would almost guarantee you a place within the matchday squad.

When Tuesday came I had two completely contrasting emotions. I learnt that Banners, Davey Wilson and myself were to stay but Barnesy was being released. Great news for the three Bath lads but it was really tough on Barnesy when we heard the news, especially as we were sharing a room together.

I have been where he is on several occasions and I know that it is an empty, gutting feeling. Typical of the man, though, it just made him more resilient and hungrier to get into the squad. If only we all had his passion and drive, we would all be world-beaters!

Starting with any team is difficult when you have to learn a new game plan. There were 22 blokes from different clubs all coming from different systems and styles of play and that should have made it difficult, but to be fair to Brian Smith he implemented a game plan that looked very simple but should have been very effective.

Going into the Australia game we were all very confident that we could come away with a result, but it just wasn't to be.

I think for the first 20 minutes we were very impressive and we controlled territory and possession. Banners had a couple of nice touches and big Davey scrummed well and managed to bulldoze his way up the middle a few times with the ball.

But after that we managed to let our grip on the game weaken and let it slip away with about 25 minutes to go.

I was absolutely chomping at the bit to get on. I have sat on the bench twice for England and have been an unused substitute. One of those previous Tests was, coincidentally, against Australia so I was determined not to let lightening strike...errr…thrice!

Luckily I got my opportunity with about 25 minutes to go but duly gave away a penalty and three points with my first involvement. All I could think of was "three years away from the international scene and everyone's looking at me on the big screen because I've given away three bloody points".

For the record I can say categorically that I did not take that scrum down and was lucky enough to have it clarified by the coaches and a top-flight referee the next week. Phew!

The next week was the game against Argentina. Unfortunately Davey Wilson picked up a neck injury against Australia but it meant that I would get my second start for England. When Johnno told me the news I almost literally leapt for joy.

It felt like all the tough times I had gone through with injuries to my knee and bicep had been worth it.

On Tuesday my joy was shortlived and quickly turned to despair. During our forwards 'units' session we managed to get through our scrum and lineout practice with precision and accuracy but quickly moved on to a short rucking session.

This is where I managed to end Barnesy's involvement with the England squad for the rest of autumn test matches. It was pretty innocuous really. I just cleared him out at a ruck but fell on the back of his leg – I heard a yelp and it was pretty obvious from his reaction he knew that it was pretty serious. He was helped off the field but it was only at the end of training that I realised what I had done.

As I walked up to the changing tent he came hobbling out on a pair of crutches with his knee in a supportive brace. All I could do was apologise. I felt terrible. I'm still hoping Barnesy holds no grudges and knows that it certainly wasn't deliberate but that doesn't help stray from the fact that I managed to maim my colleague and friend and put paid to his chances of making his international debut.

I'm hoping he still has an opportunity when he returns to playing and gets back into that EPS. again.

The game itself was a strange one.

Argentina seemed to come with a game plan intent on spoiling the breakdown and kicking the cover off the ball. With the benefit of hindsight we probably shouldn't have drawn ourselves into their style of play and it wasn't until the last 20 minutes that we decided we had to pull our fingers out or we were going to end up losing.

Cue Matt Banahan to storm down the wing and add to his collection of tries this season. I was pleased as punch to get a hard-fought victory and even happier to get through the entire 80 minutes – not something I am famous for!

Come on Steve, if I'm good enough to do 80 minutes for England how about letting me do it down The Rec?

I was pretty pleased with my performance that day. All the papers had written our scrum off saying that the Argentineans would wipe the floor with us and especially me!

I always knew a lot of what was written was just journos getting carried away with it all and I know that Mr Roncero didn't get any change out of me that day.

And then on to The Big One! Without fear of producing any cliché I have dreamed of playing against the All Blacks at Twickenham since I was a child and have longed to be lined up with the England team watching the Haka performed only inches from where I stood.

I loved every second of that Test match. Even though we lost the game I left absolutely nothing in the tank and was pretty proud that we had not capitulated in a way that virtually every newspaper journo and television pundit had predicted.

In fact my only gripe about the whole England experience was the amount of negativity received from all quarters of the press.

I knew it was bad but I wasn't prepared for the barrage of abuse and nonsense that most papers printed, especially after the New Zealand match.

I went for a coffee in the morning after the match, bought several papers and decided to try to read every article I could get my hands on. All I read was dark clouds, doom and gloom, negative, negative, negative.

Some papers (who will remain nameless) provide player ratings and synopsis. Bearing in mind that New Zealand are the number one ranked side in the world, virtually every player on both sides were given poor ratings and shocking little write-ups.

Hang on a minute? I'd be surprised if there were 15 players currently available who were better than those that took the field for England and New Zealand. Then again, I suppose it can only be news if it's negative.

Anyway, rant over! That was the only blip in an otherwise wonderful experience for me.

I hope that my form stays solid and I get more chances in the Six Nations but now it's time for me to concentrate on Bath.

It's been a difficult season for us so far and I'm hoping that we can turn it around and put some performances in that we know we are capable of and turn a few more teams over.