New Zealand captain Kennedy Tukuafu and I interviewed each other at Allianz Stadium, otherwise known as Twickenham, on Wednesday.
We spent about three hours in photo shoots and interviews, and when you have big set-piece scenarios like that, it only cements the fact that a massive game is around the corner.
Matches do not come much bigger than England versus New Zealand at Twickenham, which will stage a game under the new Allianz Stadium name for the first time on Saturday.
In the women’s game we all want to get out there, talk about the sport and capture the momentum all the time, so it is both great fun and extremely important to embrace opportunities like spending time with Kennedy earlier this week.
Normally when we interact with players from other teams it is when everyone has their game faces on, so it was nice to have a chance to have a chit-chat with Kennedy.
It was a chance for both of us to see things from another team’s perspective really, she was telling me about how she recently got married, and was asking me about my son, Oliver.
We were sharing how we both think and feel about things, which is always cool when you have those rare chances. And then she let me in on what at the time was a bit of a secret that the Black Ferns were going to Buckingham Palace.
By now, everyone has seen the pictures and the video of New Zealand meeting King Charles. I think it is amazing that they were not just invited to the palace, but that they also were able to meet the King.
And of course the hug has gone viral, which is fantastic on every level.
Personally, I love the royals, and I would love to go to Buckingham Palace one day.
It is a huge honour for New Zealand, and the fact that a women’s rugby team can tour over here and receive an invitation like that is massive.
I can only imagine that is something they will always treasure and remember forever from this tour.
Like I said, I love the royals, and I have met Prince Harry and the Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton, both briefly and as part of bigger groups.
They were both epic encounters to be fair, but I tend to take a very British approach to meeting people like that, in that I do not want to bother them too much so I try to take a low-key approach.
There will be nothing low-key about England versus New Zealand on Saturday, and that is exactly how both teams will want it.
To face the world champions at home is huge, and we will have a number of players taking on New Zealand for the first time. In fact, Gloucester-Hartpury flanker Georgia Brock will make her Test debut off the bench, and I can think of few better ways to do that than against the Black Ferns.
New caps have to sign an initiation song after the match, and crucially it needs to be something no one has sung before.
Amy Cokayne will make it very clear very quickly if the song has been done before, and then the debutant has to switch.
Try scorers or player of the match sometimes have to sing as well, especially if we’re at a venue where we have a bus journey afterwards.
Every rugby club and probably every sports club has little touches like that that are designed to be inclusive and make everyone feel welcome and part of the group.
I hope by showing that we are no different it can help people relate to us a little bit, in that we might be at an elite level, but some elements of sport are the same everywhere.
Something else that is the same everywhere is the fact that everyone has things outside of the day job that make them happy and help make them tick.
Often of course that is family or wider responsibilities, and one of the real strengths of head coach John Mitchell’s tenure is understanding what we need beyond the boundaries of rugby in order to thrive within them.
Everyone is still very much enjoying Mitch’s time in charge. Some of the training can be chaotic, on purpose, to cause problems that we must solve that then bring the best out of us in match situations.
He is always challenging us as players but also people, but while we work hard and pushes us he rewards us as well.
Mitch is a big advocate for people spending time with loved ones and being able to do what they need.
I think we are developing all the time as a result, and now it is time to take that to the field.
We went well in victory against a very strong France team in Gloucester last weekend, but we also know this is another step up now.
There are a few fix-ups and tweaks required from last week, like making sure players are not isolated and turned over at the breakdown.
We have a really good balance of where we want to go and how we want to get there, and we cannot wait to keep showing that on the pitch.
