Sharks wing Steve Hanley returns after a short Christmas break to discuss the latest news from the world of rugby in his weekly internet column.

It's fairly safe to say this hasn't been one of the best Christmases on record.

Obviously, with playing so many games in such a short space of time none of us had much chance to celebrate Christmas with our families.

And to add to that, we lost all three games over Christmas and New Year, so it couldn't really have turned out much worse.

But, surprisingly, everyone has kept positive, we aren't letting this get us down. Robbo's probably the most positive man around at the moment - for obvious reasons - so he's lifted the mood.

We'll need more than a good spirit to turn things around though. Performances haven't been good enough and we know that, so we'll have to cut out the basic errors if we are to stand any chance of beating Gloucester tomorrow.

It was never going to be easy against Bristol. It was chucking down and that made it extremely difficult to play rugby, conditions that were only ever going to suit them.

We were all really angry about their try as well, I could see from where I was sat in the stand that Juan (Fernandez Lobbe) was having his jersey pulled.

We had watched them do something similar against Bath but this was a five-metre scrum so it made it much worse.

Of course, Juan blamed himself for not putting in the tackle on Dan Ward-Smith but there was no way anybody could say it was his fault. I was just amazed neither the referee nor the touch judges saw it.

It was particularly difficult to stomach since we dominated most of the game. Some of the Bristol lads said to me after the game they felt it was harsh considering we still had most of the possession with half a team available. But fair play to them, they took their chances and got the kind of breaks we got when we were top of the league last year.

Daniel (Larrechea) got a lot of stick from the fans for his performance but I don't think that's really fair.

His decision on the final play hasn't been mentioned this week but I know he regrets it, i think he realised it was the wrong choice immediately after he had kicked it.

But Daniel has been asked to step in at fly half and I don't know if that's even his preferred position. He was told to go with a kicking game because that's where we thought we'd get most joy.

For the most part the kicking game did work. It guaranteed us field position, we just didn't take advantage of our chances.

It's going to be very tough to turn things around against Gloucester but it's absolutley crucial we do because we play them twice in a row in the Premiership. If we get nothing from the next two games then it'll leave us with a lot to do if we're going to finish in the top six, never mind the top four.

If we cane beat Gloucester and then get four tries against Calvisano who knows what it could do for our season?

There were a few surprises in the England team announcement this week, not least of all Robbo.

None of us even suspected a thing, he kept it completely quiet - the dark horse! Cuets (Mark Cueto) had heard a rumour when he had been talking to someone about the England set-up and Robbo's name was dropped in but no-one knew anything for sure until we saw it on Sky Sports.

I think it's the right move for England though because I can't think of anyone better for the full back spot. I don't know how much of a role Brian Ashton played in his return but I'm not sure if Robbo would have returned if Andy Robinson was still in charge.

I know Robbo has been speaking to Brian and I think he really buys into his philosophy so I can see him playing a big part in the Six Nations.

The decision to include Mike Catt is a similar one and I think it's the right one too. I don't care how old he is, the guy's on fire at the moment and his experience will be vital to the team.

Andy Farrell's inculsion is an interesting one too. It's funny because when he wasn't playing he got a lot of media coverage but now that he is featuring regularly everything seems to have gone quiet.

England have been trying to build a team for the last two or three years and it hasn't worked so Brian has decided to go back to experience and in many ways I think that's as bold a decision as going with youth would have been.

With it being a World Cup year I think Brian sees this Six Nations as the last chance to some wins under their belt and build some confidence. And if England can win a few games and get on a roll, who knows?

The All Blacks are dominant at the moment but at tournaments like the World Cup nothing can be taken for granted.