During the 2008/09 season I was fortunate to train with the Saracens men’s academy team on a number of occasions.

The thinking was that the England women’s squad would improve dramatically by training with the best young talent in the men’s game, and my team-mates and I were welcomed into Academy setups across the country.

I learnt so much from those sessions, many of which were overseen by Eddie Jones, who at that time was Saracens’ director of rugby.

It certainly helped that the Saracens academy side was packed with players who were clearly destined for great things. I remember thinking that George Kruis was fantastic, Jamie George was clearly going to be a brilliant player and Will Fraser was a serious prospect, too.

Then there was Owen Farrell. He would have been around 18 then but even at that stage we knew he was going to be special - he just had an aura about him. He had a Justin Bieber style haircut he would probably rather forget but apart from that he was exactly the same person as he is now: calm and collected but also extremely self-critical and filled with a drive to maximise his immense talent.