Saturday, game day. Thank god, it's finally arrived. These last few days are among the longest few days I have ever had to endure but thankfully the time has come. We are greeted at breakfast with some mixed news - Brian (O'Driscoll) is fit to play but unfortunately John 'the Bull' Hayes is out due to a virus he was unable to shake off.

Matchdays and particularly the morning of, are among the hardest times we endure as professional sports people.

The boredom is something cruel (I can hear you think, 'what simple troubles we have?' and you'd be right). They're filled with box sets, gossip, movies, walks, coffee, eating, drinking and even more coffee!

The build-up usually starts with a final review meeting...a recap on the referee, weather conditions and a last look at tactics. Then we go for a walk. We usually play a little game, backs v forwards of course! Let's just leave it at that!

Then the forwards walk through lineouts, as the backs do what backs do best...nothing! They chat, gossip, fix each other's hair and whatever else they get up to! After more eating and final preparation, we meet for a final talk with Deccie (Kidney). Then it's iPods at the ready as we head to ground.

After this each player will get into his own personal routine. Walking on the pitch, strapping, stretching, eating (props again) etc, etc. I find this personally a very enjoyable time as the anticipation and nerves start to kick in, even though most players find this the hardest part as they are generally eager to get on with it at this stage.

We were met with a loud roar as we ran onto the pitch for the warm-up and I was surprised at the number of Irish present.

The warm-up was quick and snappy and before I noticed we were back in dressing room again. I was lucky enough to earn my first two cap on last summer's tour to Canada and the USA and without sounding disrespectful - as it's something I will treasure for the rest of my life - in my eyes this, to me, felt like my first cap!

When I reached for my jersey with 'New Zealand 12/06/10' embroidered on it, I got an instant rush of adrenline, I couldn't wait to get going. I must admit I really enjoyed facing the Haka and it's something I'll remember for the rest of my life.

After that there isn't too much of the match worth talking about! We had a horrendous start, Rob Kearney letting the ball slip out of his grasp, Jamie (Heaslip) getting sent off, Ronan (O'Gara) getting sin-binned and then when I thought it couldn't get any worse, I break my forearm.

I don't remember too much (about the incident), just that I went to smash one of their lads and he ducked into it and I caught him flush on the head. I knew instantly that I had broken my forearm and my tour was over.

Unfortunately, we conceded in next few phases and as Doc (Eanna Falvey) came over to me, I told him my arm was broken. He squeezed my arm and ask me to twist my wrist, the shooting pains came instantly and he diagnosed it immediately.

As I walked off the pitch, I knew my tour was over and the I'd be out for a few months. This is by far the hardest thing to deal with as a pro athlete (don't mind what i said earlier - I'd do boredom a million times over to have an intact radius!).

Injury is part and parcel of sport but it is a hugely frustrating time. It's kind of ironic that injury helped to get me this chance and now robbed it from me too! As I waited in the ambulance, I managed to ring home to inform them I was alright and I'd see them sooner than expected!

I was moved to New Plymouth Hospital and had my X-rays. They informed me that I would require an operation and that they had sorted Bruce Twaddle, one of the top surgeons in country, to do it in Auckland on Monday.

He works with the New Zealand squad and manages all their breaks so I knew I was in good hands. I would sincerely like to thank all the staff in both hospitals who looked after me so well and especially the A&E nurses who picked me up when I was absolutelyy gutted on arrival and also the night nurses in New Plymouth who kept a constant flow of morphine to me when I was in pain (I ain't as tough as you think!).

This will be my last diary entry as I'll be leaving New Zealand in the coming days and heading home. It reminds me a lot of the video 'Living with the Lions' back in 1997, on their succesful tour of South Africia, when Doddy Weir took a cruel blow to the knee that ended his tour and he had to go home early (coincidently, I had just taken up rugby and got this as a present and it got me rugby mad!). I know now how he felt that day he realised his tour was over.

But I'm on the road to recovery and I'm looking forward to my couple of weeks off on holidays. I've had a great experience, some ups and some downs.

As I said, injury is part and parcel of sport, but I managed to get a man-of-the-match award against the Barbarians, got to travel to New Zealand and Australia (well, New Zealand anyway!), wore an eye patch for two days (forgot that in earlier diary piece - from a scrape on my cornea from the Baabaas game), got picked to play against the All Blacks, faced the Haka, might have got stitches in my head and broke my arm but the most importantly thing is I've had a great experience and I didn't get any complaints from my role in running the cinema club!

John Muldoon's diary is reproduced with kind permission from Connacht Rugby.

Rhys Ruddock gets his opportunity following the broken arm suffered by John Muldoon and the five week suspension given to number 8 Jamie Heaslip for his red card in Saturday's Test against New Zealand.

With both players out of the tour, Ruddock will fly from Argentina immediately and will join the senior squad in Rotorua on Monday evening ahead of the game against New Zealand Maori next Friday (June 18).

The unfortunate Muldoon will undergo surgery on his broken arm in Auckland in the next 24 hours before returning home with Heaslip.

Second row Mick O'Driscoll suffered back spasms which forced him to leave the pitch during the first half of the All Blacks game. The injury has improved and he will continue to receive treatment over the next 48 hours.

Winger Shane Horgan has also recovered from the stomach complaint that prevented him leaving with the balance of the squad from Ireland and has arrived in Rotorua.

He joins hooker Jerry Flannery who flew out to meet up with the squad in New Plymouth following the calf strain he sustained in the Barbarians game.

Ireland head coach Declan Kidney said: "We are obviously disappointed to be losing John following his injury. I felt any replacement should be one that would benefit from the experience.

"There were other options in terms of back row replacements, but rather than bring in somebody who we were already aware of and what they could bring (to the squad), we felt Rhys would be a different option.

"He has performed very well for the Ireland Under-20s and with Leinster when he has had the chance to play this season, so this will be a good chance for him to gain experience and we have every confidence in him."

Wednesday, June 9:

Wednesday was our day off so it was down to the 'activity club' to come up with options for the lads - I'm not sure but I think Gav (Duffy) was involved there somewhere even though he didn't seem to be doing much. Being a cute back, he probably delegated it out to David Wallace.

Wally really embraced the role and left no stone unturned. The options were golf, shopping, cinema, sky tower, sleeping and eating (for props!), bungee jumping off the harbour bridge (absolutely no chance I was doin' that, Portumna Bridge would be too high!), sailing and, for the management, a visit to a vineyard to check out the local wines.

But, as I mentioned the last day, we had our Connacht team-mate Troy (Nathan) and his girlfriend Eimear as our host for the day.

They were perfect hosts and we had a very good day. We saw some sights, shopped, ate and basically just hung out and enjoyed our day off.

We finished off the day with a lovely romantic meal...for five!

Thursday, June 10:

It was back to business on Thursday. Meetings and training were the order of the morning, and we also said goodbye to Auckland and hello to New Plymouth.

New Plymouth is a lot like Galway, I reckon. It's on the west coast with big winds and seemingly a lot of rain. And there was I thinking it was gonna be a few months before I'd see those conditions again!

The New Zealand media aren't too pleased that we have left it so late to arrive in New Plymouth so we've been taking some flack in the national press - added to that they also saying the All Blacks will dominate the forward battle...interesting!

After a short flight, we arrived to a welcome from the local mayor and also a song and dance from local Maoris.

Our management played a joke on us telling us that we had to sing back to them after, and that they would be highly insulted if we didn't. I had to physically hold Sean Cronin back as he wanted to do a solo effort and he was quite annoyed afterwards. I think he was going to do a number by Lady Gaga.

Thankfully, our bagman Rala (Paddy O'Reilly) came to our rescue and belted out 'The Contender', before our manager rescued the whole situation and cut him short after hearing enough for one day.

Sean and myself are head of cinema club so it's our duty to keep the lads happy tonight. These are not an easy group to please.

They expect everything done for them...reviews of films, tickets booked, taxis sorted to and from the cinema. And they are not too happy unless they get gold club, which basically means there's a waitress there to bring your popcorn to you, etc. As I said, they're hard to please. Not so easy when you're in a three-screen cinema!

Friday, June 11:

Friday is a strange day. We have a light run through which only lasts 30 minutess or so to stretch out and make sure everybody is happy. But apart from that, it is a boring enough day. Some final video analysis, some complusary R&R (as if I don't sleep enough!) and lots of food and water is the highlight of the day.

I also have a new roomie in Ulster's Andrew Trimble. I've never roomed with him before. He's a really nice guy. I don't envy him as he's on the music club with Paddy Wallace. He has to have a CD ready every second day for the bus to and from training.

It's not as easy as it sounds and I've listened to a lot of music today. As I said, this crowd is hard please.

Thankfully, it's coming close to game day. It's been a long few days. It just won't go quick enough. I want to be in the dressing room already. I feel like a seven-year-old on Christmas morning.

The anticipation is killing me. Hurry on Santa, I'm ready...!

John Muldoon's diary is reproduced with kind permission from Connacht Rugby.