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Entering the grounds, it could be any stately home in Britain. Idyllic scenery, a large manor house, it certainly ticks all the right boxes – that is until you look between the trees and see the RFU goalposts, rugby pitch and large semi-permanent gym set up in the field.
Thanks to BMI TRF had been given the opportunity to see the England RWC training camp at Pennyhill Park Hotel first hand, and to have a chat with a couple of the players vying for spots on the plane to New Zealand in September.
Just walking down the driveway you can tell the afternoon was going to different, not because of the helicopter taking off from the car park, but from the golf buggy that went haring down the round containing Mark Cueto, Ugo Monye with Nick Easter clinging on to the back, quickly followed by Simon Shaw on a mountain bike that had seen better days.
It turns out I'd arrived at the end of the afternoon training session, as the other 40 odd players and coaches walked past, followed by Graham Rowntree on another golf buggy.
I made my way to the Old Library to meet Alex Corbisiero, Manu Tuilagi and Nick Easter, to pose a few questions about their time in the camp and the upcoming World Cup.
First of all, I'd like to thank you for taking the time out of your day to answer a few questions for us.
Q: How does the training that you're doing in camp compare to the training that you'd be going through in pre-season with your respective clubs?
MT: It's a lot more intense being here in the camp
NE: I can only speak for my club, but yeah, the intensity in camp is higher than your usual pre-season. Because you're in the camp, the days are a lot longer. With your club you'll come in in the morning and be done by 1.30-2.00 but you'll get your evenings off to go and home and relax. The sessions are obviously hard, but we'll have a rest day thrown in the middle – but here, because everyone's come from far and wide we've got a lot of work to get through. We're here Monday to Thursday, but we'll often start at 7.30 and not be done until about 6 o'clock.
Q: What would a typical day be like, training wise, here in the camp?
AC: Well, yesterday for example, we were up at 7.30am for 40minutes Mountain Biking…
MT: Fat boys club!
NE: Yeah, the forwards are up at 7.30am for Mountain Biking
AC: 10am to 1pm we had 50minute sessions of weights, agility, speed and rugby conditioning, then we had 90minutes of rugby conditioning in a game environment. It's different in the camp to standard pre-season because in the premiership the warm-up games at the end of the summer are worked into the conditioning, and used to get more fitness, but obviously with the warm up matches for England these are test matches at Twickenham and the Millennium, we can't afford to go into these and view them as a training exercise, so we've got to be 100% ready for them.
NE: Yeah, I mean rugby's started in our training already. Usually in our clubs we wouldn't do any rugby training for about three weeks in our clubs.
AC: Also we went straight into hard conditioning, in your club you'll build up to it, but here it was straight off the bat.
NE: We've been doing wrestling and grappling in training as well, which is good from a rugby point of view, as contending for the ball at the breakdown and in the maul has a lot of carryover from it. It's great conditioning, and is good for injury prevention. Well I say injury prevention, but Manu here almost put Mike Tindall through a wall, which was 10m away from the circle he was supposed to be pushed out of.
Q: Who was the fittest coming into the camp?
NE: Us three, of course
AC: Robbo (Chris Robshaw) and Mearsy (Lee Mears) both came in in good shape
MT: Moodos (Lewis Moody) too
NE: Yeah, Mearsy was up there
MT: I think Tom Wood was the guy who came first in the fitness tests
Q: What's the mood like around the camp at the moment?
NE: It's pretty relaxed at the moment – Obviously the start of the camp is focused on the strength and the conditioning, so we're getting on with that, but in next couple of weeks we move onto more contact work building up to the first match, so we'll start feeling it then.
MT: Today's training was a massive step up from previous sessions as we've started our match conditioning in separate teams, so it's feeling more like rugby not just training. It's all starting to sink in more
AC: I think it's a healthy environment, as everyone's pushing themselves to do the best they can
Q: If you could choose one player playing rugby at the moment that you'd to play on the same side as?
AC/NE: Manu. (They both laugh)
NE: Playing in the back row it's got to be Richie McCaw. He does a lot of the dirty stuff, the unsung stuff, you notice just how much work he gets through playing against him. I've only done it a couple of times, but yeah, Richie McCaw.
AC: For me it's got to be Carl Hayman.
MT: I know he's not playing as much anymore, but it's always been Jonah Lomu.
Q: What's the best stadium that you've played at in your career?
NE: Stade De France. We won there a few times with England, in the Semi against France then the following Six Nations, got the double against them with my club Quins as well, so it evokes good memories for me.
AC: I'd say Twickenham. I've not played at too many big ones, maybe the Aviva as well, but I didn't really enjoy my time in that one! With Twickenham I've not lost there with England so I've had good experiences with them there
MT: Twickenham for me as well
Q: What would you say has been your career highlight to date?
AC: The Six Nations for me: Getting my first cap for England was a great experience
NE: Apart from playing for England, winning the Amlin Cup with my club Harlequins.
MT: Playing in the premiership for Leicester
Q: This one's for Manu: It's been a great season for you at Tigers, what were your ambitions for it last summer?
MT: Last summer I wanted to play some premiership rugby for the first team, and try and get into the starting XV. If you'd have asked me at the end of the season, my ambition would have been to make it here, to the England RWC camp.
Q: Another question for Manu: If results and selections went the right way you could potentially face three of your brothers in the World Cup, would you prepare any differently for this match from any other?
MT: No. For me, rugby is rugby. When I go out onto the pitch I want to win, and that's it. Obviously they are my brothers, but when we are against each other on the pitch they're just any other player. I wouldn't feel any differently about playing against them.
Q: Who has the best and worst banter in the camp?
MT: Chutes (George Chuter) has good banter, for an old guy. Obviously because he's a Leicester boy
NE: Worst banter has to go to the Tigers lads. Actually, no, they don't have any banter at all, so they can't have the worst.
AC: James Haskell, for both. 90% of the time it's terrible, the room will go silent and there'll be tumbleweeds, but then occasionally he'll have a moment of brilliance.
Q: Who's the best and worst roommate in the camp?
MT: Me and Alex room together – he's a good MC
AC: Yeah, and Manus always got Samoan cookies as well so it's good
NE: I don't actually have a roommate. I do know that Waldrom (Thomas Waldrom) is pretty bad with his snoring. He was originally put with Charlie Hodgson, but then he complained about it after a couple of days, so they put Charlie with Robshaw (Chris Robshaw) instead. What Charlie didn't know was that Robshaw's snoring is much worse. When we go on the road with Harlequins we have to put him up in a different hotel and he still keeps half the team up with his snoring.
From here we moved onto the main training pitch for a training session with the three players plus two RFU community coaches. Despite having been training from 7.30am that morning, and having only finished a session an hour before hand, the England players ran us all off the pitch, barely breaking a sweat as we went through some defensive drills and a game of touch rugby.
Manu, Alex and Nick then changed into their England strips for a BMI photo-shoot on the pitch, before heading inside for a secret shoot, which we will be able to bring you the details of on August 5th!
Moving back to the main house we were able to see Mark Cueto, David Strettle, Ugo Monye and Riki Flutey having a photo-shoot for the new England leisure range in the grounds of the Hotel, while all taking advantage of the spread that had been put on for the press.
It was a great to experience the atmosphere at Pennyhill Park first hand, and all I'll say is that if England's playing is half as good as their training camp is then they'll go far this September!
Pictures from the day
"It's a roof over your head, I suppose"
"The location could be worse"
" *insert Andy Powell comment here* "
"The players answer a few questions"
"Behind the scenes at the BMI photo-shoot"
"The finished article"
Âbmi is the official airline to the England Rugby Team, for information on flights offers and other news visit flybmi.com; facebook.com/flybmi or follow them on Twitter @flybmi
bmi is the official airline to the England Rugby Team, for information on flights offers and other news visit flybmi.com; facebook.com/flybmi or follow them on Twitter @flybmi
seems like you had lots of fun 
