Touchdown for the team was around 3pm local time, following a midday departure from England and the flight was soon put behind them with a visit to the training base for the next week, prior to our matches in Nevada, North Carolina and Florida.

It wasn’t only the location and the scenery that had changed from the previous week at Cobham. So had the make-up of the squad. For all those players who had been in action for their nations in June, this was the very start of their pre-season.

However while the new arrivals will need a different fitness programme for the coming days compared with those who have been back in training for an extra week, it was all together for this first session in LA – with stretching and some light running on the agenda to get moving again after the long aeroplane journey.