New experimental laws, Martin Johnson as England team manager, no Lawrence Dallaglio at London Wasps, the Heineken Cup, a Lions tour to round off an international season that starts with a fantastic autumn series and then heads into the RBS Six Nations, and the small matter of defending our Guinness Premiership title. Welcome to the new rugby season!

Having been allowed the summer off, I went into our final warm-up match last week, against Llanelli, feeling very nervous because I didn't really know how it would go. Nervous at 35 years old? You bet and following on from two days of fitness testing at the first England squad get-together, all those cobwebs have been well and truly blown away.

The bits and pieces that were hanging off me at the end of last season are back in place, although I have to admit I did sustain two dead legs during that time with England. There was an awful lot to get through and Jonno wanted to find out exactly where the players were in terms of fitness and injuries.

We had a few meetings to clear the air following the New Zealand 'episode' and the England Saxons matches at the Churchill Cup, while Jonno also set out a few ground rules for the future. It revolves around getting back to agreed standards of behaviour in public and so on, which is something former England coach Clive Woodward instigated but probably slipped a bit after his time.

It was a case of emphasising that we are role models and have to behave as such.

In terms of Brian Smith becoming the England attack coach, he has different views to other coaches I have worked with and we will have to wait to see how it pans out. It is refreshing to have something new to work with and Jonno isn't really taking a coaching role yet. He may become more hands-on in the future.

He has complete trust in his coaches, Brian, John Wells, Mike Ford and Graham Rowntree, and will let them take the sessions.

At Wasps, we have had lots of discussions about the new experimental law variations - designed in South Africa to make the game faster and easier to referee - and while you can look at videos of Super-12 and Tri-nations matches, it's a fact that we have a different kind of game here.

You can't read too much into how they played. It will be a case of "suck it and see" because in our three pre-season matches, the referees have had different interpretations each time.

We take on London Irish in the Premiership double-header at Twickenham tomorrow and when Lol was around there was one voice at the club. If he had hung his boots up earlier, we could have struggled to fill the leadership void.

But it seems there are a lot of people putting their views forward now they are not treading on Lol's toes.

When you have been led by the one guy, it is difficult not to have him around. Suddenly having a lot of people wanting to say their bit, it can get in the way of things.

You don't really want to have numerous open discussions on the training pitch. However, it's good we have people who want to take up the mantle, while everyone is clear Raphael Ibanez, the captain, is our leader.

In terms of who will be pushing us for the title, it's difficult to pick out one team. It's a bit of a cliche to say there are no easy games in the Premiership but that really is the case.

Worcester finished strongly last year, while Northampton have returned to the top flight with some quality players. There have been significant changes at Leicester, with a new coach. Last season, under Marcello Loffredo, they weren't terribly confident but still reached the final.

Gloucester have continued to recruit well and are still fuming after finishing top but not winning the Premiership title, while Sale seem to start really well and then fade away. In my experience, clubs have a few seasons like that and then find a way to grind out wins.

Bath could have difficulty replacing Steve Borthwick. He's now with Saracens, who have been very active in the recruitment market.

I always felt that when Borthers was missing from the Bath line-up, they struggled. They are also going to be without Danny Grewcock, who is injured.

Sarries will have a very good pack with Chris Jack and Borthers along with Michael Owen, from Wales, and Wikus van Heerden, from South Africa.

With Wasps having the tag of Premiership champions, the other teams will want to take our scalp even more and with the club set to lose nine players to England for two extended release periods, it's going to be a really tough campaign for us. No doubt, everyone will want to stop us getting into the top four.

The difficulty for Wasps is that if we don't start well then people will point to the fact that Lol isn't with us any more and we aren't the same team.

However, last season we won at Leicester for the first time without Lol. It was a significant moment and one from which we will take huge confidence.

The autumn Tests and the Six Nations will have a major bearing on who makes the Lions squad for South Africa, which is a target for me this season. However, this is such a long campaign that it will be difficult to hit so many peaks when the shop-window games take place, particularly the Heineken Cup.

It's not like the Olympics, where you qualify a long time ahead and then work to peak for that one event. It will be difficult for everyone who wants to go to South Africa.