91Èȱ¬

Buoyed by their successful Viennese Waltz last Saturday, Austin, and in particular Erin, are in high spirits from the get-go. By the end of their training session, their morale is sky high as Austin takes to the Quickstep like a prop forward to an all-you-can-eat buffet. He mentions that he's been looking forward to performing the dance for ages, and that as a light-footed rugby player, the Quickstep is the most natural dance for him.

Although the challenging choreography and fast tempo gets to Austin on occasion, he copes well with everything Erin throws at him; chassez, atillas, pepper pots, the lot. The pair have loads of energy and stamina, and they run through the various stages of the routine over and over again. Austin copes well despite his injury problems, and there's a constant undercurrent of banter between the pair. Austin's never slow to make a quip or throw in a play on words, but Erin gives as good as she gets!

She's keen to keep Austin at the top of the leader board and is hoping that their Quickstep will be a winner, "It's got the potential to be greatest dance we've done. I want to make it so good the judges are speechless and they can't drop one point!" Austin is also dreaming of delivering Strictly's first ten of this series, exclaiming, "it would be like a childhood dream..."