Ruben Wiki: Ready and waiting for one final shot at the title

Although it wasn't a vintage performance against France yesterday, there's nothing like the feeling you get when you win.

It lifted our spirits after what has been a pretty difficult week for us knowing our chances of making the Tri-Nations final are no longer in our hands.

But we will all be incredibly nervous when we jump on the plane this morning at the same time Great Britain take on Australia. Some of the guys would have liked to have been able to watch the game but I prefer it this way. I hate watching at the best of times - it's unlikely I will have any fingernails left anyway.

Although Bluey McClennan has said it would be great for international rugby league for Australia to miss out on the final, and I would certainly love that to happen, I really don't care as long as we're there. If we get another chance in this tournament, you can be sure we're going to take it.

It's been a tough campaign but I'm not even contemplating the fact we might have to come home early if we miss out.

People can criticise us for what went wrong last weekend and we accept we didn't step up to the plate but we are only human and everyone has a hiccup every now and then. That was ours.

Everything that could have gone right for Great Britain did - every pass stuck, every bounce of the ball went their way. It's pretty hard to peg things back when it goes like that and you only need to look at what the Wests Tigers did to some very good sides in the NRL this year, when they often put 50 points on opponents, to see how hard it is to stop a team in full flight.

We tried to take our frustrations out on the French after last week but it was often us who were left frustrated by what I would say is the best referee in the world. At times it felt like we were up against 14 men but we managed to shrug that off because you can't beat a referee. We went back to basics and eased away towards the end.

Former Warriors coach John Monie has certainly taught them how to play and they will only get better now they have a side in the Super League.

The French crowd also got to see Stacey Jones and I'm sure he will be a big hit there next season. He's been great for us and the fact he has wanted to play every week suggests Bluey must be doing something right in terms of creating a good environment.

I hope we have another week in the UK because it will mean we are in the final but it might also be good for my marriage, as the wife might not want me back the way I look at the moment. I had surgery on a broken nose early in the week because I was having difficulty breathing and I've now got a couple of black eyes. It's not a pretty sight and she told me so when I spoke to her on the video phone - just doing my bit for my country.