Like everyone in the Bristol camp, I am really looking forward to tomorrow's match against Leicester – not least because it will be my 200th Premiership appearance.

Only Simon Shaw, Kris Chesney and Hugh Vyvyan have passed that milestone – and I will be proud to join them. I have recovered from the calf strain which kept me out of last weekend's defeat at Bath, a game I had been desperate to play in.

As it turned out, I missed out, and with Scott Linklater injured and David Blaney damaging his knee after 20 minutes, it gave Ollie Hayes a chance.

Watching Ollie making his debut reminded me of when I was first at the club. I had an old stager called Dave Palmer in front of me but I eventually took over from him and never looked back.

Now Ollie has got an opportunity to do the same thing. He is here next season and he is about the same age I was when I broke through to the first team.

Admittedly, I didn't have to go and flip burgers the night I made my debut for Bristol, but there are similarities!

I was pleased with what he did at the weekend. Bath is not the easiest place to go and make your debut as a young front-rower, but he should be very proud of himself.

I said to him before the game that the positives would outweigh the negatives, and that if he could do a few good things, people would forget about any mistakes.

Ollie is on the bench tomorrow and could get another chance to impress. But I am looking to play my part against Leicester first.

All the games are tough in the Premiership and we are hoping we can play a bit better than the last time we played at home on Friday. Maybe the less that is said about that match, the better.

But Newcastle have shown over the last few weeks that their performance at the Memorial Stadium was not a flash in the pan.

We are simply focusing on ourselves and our own performance at the moment. Paul Hull is bringing in a new attacking philosophy, which is a good thing, and he has brought a lot of bright, new and fresh ideas to the table.

As I alluded to last week, it just seems a bit strange he couldn't have done that under Richard Hill. All that was needed was a bit of communication.

Finally, I should mention Darren Crompton's new two-year contract. He swears he is three years younger than me, but I definitely remember playing alongside him for England Schools! He must have been 15 when he was playing with all those 18-year-olds. We've all started talking about 'The Curious Case of Darren Button' after that Brad Pitt film where he gets younger as he gets older.