DAN BIGGAR: I’d love to be Wales’ next captain but I’d be delighted for Jac Morgan or Dewi Lake too

We’ve been preparing for next week’s game against England in the hottest conditions I’ve ever experienced. It’s reached 42C and during breaks in training the staff have been bringing on ice lollies and squirting us with water to cool down.

Our training base has been the Gloria Sports Arena in Antalya, Turkey. It’s an amazing facility that’s used by a lot of different sports. Nafi Thiam, the Belgian heptathlete who has two Olympic golds, has been there this week. I had a chance to practise my French with her!

The Real Madrid academy are also training here. All these kids turned up in business class and we felt a little envious after our EasyJet flight was stuck on the runway at Bristol for three hours!

There’s a totally different feel to our squad to four years ago. Going into the 2019 World Cup, we’d won 14 out of 15, enjoyed a clean sweep in the autumn and were Grand Slam champions. There were probably 30 guys out of 32 who were nailed on for World Cup selection.

We’ve been preparing for next week’s game against England in the hottest conditions 

There’s a totally different feel to our current squad to the squad we had four years ago 

There’s been a changing of the guard with guys like Alun Wyn Jones, Justin Tipuric and Rhys Webb all stepping down, opening the door for the next generation to come through

Now there’s much more uncertainty. A lot of people don’t give us a chance. There’s been a changing of the guard with guys like Alun Wyn Jones, Justin Tipuric and Rhys Webb all stepping down, opening the door for the next generation to come through. There’s a good mix with a few of us 30-plussers who are probably on our last hurrah.

We don’t know who is going to be captain yet but I believe they should give it to one of the younger guys. I’d love to do it again, of course, but I think it’s a good opportunity to pick someone who will be around for the next four-year cycle. We did the same with Sam Warburton in 2011 and that turned out pretty well. I’d love for it to go to someone like Jac Morgan or Dewi Lake.

We’ll find out what Warren Gatland decides to do over the next few days, when he names the team for our match in Cardiff. Leigh Halfpenny could make his 100th appearance for Wales so that would be really special. He’s had a lot of injuries and he really deserves it.

It’s always fun having young guys around the group. Talking them into jumping off the top diving board and mucking around on boat trips on the day off. 

We play a game called ‘Who said what?’ where you dig through the boys’ embarrassing social media posts from 10 years ago. The winning group gets an envelope of cash to go and spend in ‘Fake Town’ down the road where they’ve got Rolex watches, Louis Vuitton washbags and Gucci belts!

These warm-up games have a little bit less pressure than other international games. The result isn’t the most important thing. We’ll try out some new shapes, move the ball as much as possible, rather than tee it up for contact. 

You’ll see tip-on passes, creating as many one-on-ones as possible. We’ll have to play different ways in our group so it’s not about setting our stall out in one specific way. You don’t want the same game plan for teams as different as Fiji and Georgia. We’ll be trying out different ways of playing.

New Zealand-born Warren Gatland was appointed as Wales’ Head Coach after former boss Wayne Pivac was sacked by the Welsh Rugby Union following a poor period of results

I’d love for it to go to someone like Jac Morgan or Dewi Lake as the next Wales captain

The beauty of these warm-up games is you never really know what to expect. We don’t know what England has been up to over the last four weeks. Maybe they’ll have a few surprises up their sleeve. It was a bit of a shock to see Sam Underhill get released because he’s as good as anyone on his day. They have so much talent.

I suspect there will be a big Leicester-Saracens feel to their team, guys Steve Borthwick trust to play that territory game. Owen Farrell’s captain so he’ll be somewhere in the team but does George Ford come back in at No 10? Ford was extremely successful under Borthwick at Leicester and he won’t have forgotten that. Marcus Smith is a hell of a player but it looks to me like Farrell and Ford are ahead of him in Borthwick’s game plan.

We’ve all had a good pre-season block now and can’t wait to get going.