A wet Wednesday at base camp: A morning with the Red Roses [Video]

Put simply, spending a few hours at Pennyhill Park on a cold and blustery Wednesday – in between rounds one and two of the Women’s Six Nations, and intermittent showers of cats, dogs, monkeys, devils, and pitchforks – is to watch the best team in the world work through one of their toughest training days.

It’s observing a meticulous warm-up; half an hour of units drills; thirty further minutes where the backs run moves outdoors as the forwards run lifts, throws, and shoves in their cavernous 4G cathedral; and then a relentless chunk of 15-on-15 before lunch.

Ostensibly – it’s the better part of a morning’s rugby, ahead of an afternoon’s battle-hardening in the gym. An impressive operation, featuring 30-plus of the sport’s very best, and a troupe of coaches leaving no stone unturned as they march towards the succession of peaks looming on the horizon.

Wales at Ashton Gate …