We'd just won the Triple Crown but were so apprehensive we'd have been delighted to miss the plane.There was no question about us arguing about money, because in those days there wasn't any. In fact, we were in debt, because we spent fortunes ringing home to complain about our lot.. When Tom Palmer made his first visit to New Zealand, as a rugby-playing student, he travelled at the back of the plane, his knees not unadjacent to his chin. Last week he flew business class, rubbing shoulders with the other XXL members of England's party to the Antipodes. It should have included Danny Grewcock, but the Bath second-row was dropped after his sending-off for punching Lawrence Dallaglio in the Parker Pen Challenge Cup final.So Palmer got the late call, which meant a change of travel plans.

Instead of visiting Vancouver with the England shadow squad for the inaugural Churchill Cup against Canada and the United States, he joined the big boys for the brief but heavy tour of duty that takes in the New Zealand Maori in New Plymouth tomorrow, the All Blacks in Wellington next Saturday, followed by the Wallabies in Melbourne a week later."There are a number of good players ahead of me and I'm probably fifth or sixth in the pecking order,'' Palmer said. "At least I've got half a chance of showing myself at this level.'' After the game against the Maori - he will probably make an appearance off the bench - he expects to join half-a-dozen players who will take a detour from New Zealand to Canada to join the Churchill Cup contingent. His goal, naturally, is to make England's World Cup squad of 30, which will be named in September, but to achieve that would require a leap of the imagination.Nevertheless, Palmer has made huge strides in the past 14 months. This time last year, his right leg was in plaster after he had broken the fibula playing for England A against Wales at Ashton Gate "I got tackled from behind and snap, that was it.

It was a clean break, and as fractures go it was a good one to have.'' He was sounded out for the summer tour to Argentina but was not quite ready. "Instead, I had a really good pre-season last year and came back in very good shape.''All things considered, Palmer and his club, Leeds, have enjoyed a remarkable change of fortune. They finished bottom of the Zurich Premiership last year and were saved from relegation by Rotherham's failure to pass a means test. Because of his injury, Palmer sat out the last seven matches, which Leeds lost.