Having topped the leaderboard last week, the gymnast and the pro dancer will dance the American Smooth to Nathan Carter's version of Wagon Wheel this evening as part of Country Week, still waiting for a 10 from judge Brian Redmond - and still their own toughest critics.
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When asked if they agreed on which of them was the most competitive, McClenaghan smiled: "Actually, no! I think we're both kind of in the same boat there! Laura's even been into the gymnastic gym sometimes and learning some skills. I can just see that kind of competitiveness coming in - more so just to be better rather than beat somebody [else]."
"Even when we go in on the weekend into the show and we're looking at rehearsing and doing it on camera, our competitiveness comes in watching ourselves and we're like, 'Come on - we need to do that better! We can make that better!'" Nolan said.
"Obviously, it's nice to get great scores, but from the other side, for us, it's really important that we come off the show saying, 'We did everything we could. And that was the best we did it on the live show'," she continued.
The formidable partnership has also become a firm friendship, and both say they're feeling "more relaxed" as the semi-final and final loom.
"I feel the mixture of my competitive gymnastics and Laura's competitive career in dance - it's mixed really well," said McClenaghan.
"We've both been through somewhat of a high-performance system. We've been through coaches giving us criticism our entire lives near enough! I give Laura criticism, she gives me probably more criticism because I'm learning the dances, but we both take it really well."
"We're really good friends now," Nolan enthused.
"From the very beginning, we had a good dynamic between the pair of us," she added. "We both have a really good work ethic, so we've always got on and saw eye to eye on that. There's never been any frazzle or anything like that between us. We know each other really well now. We get on like a house on fire."
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