Olympics, was approached by Ashton when he was running England's rugby academy squad at Bath. Then once Ashton was appointed head coach of the England team, he continued the association. Before the current World Cup, she helped with the fitness work and core stability as well as introducing judo moves which could help rugby players, giving both the forwards and the backs four sessions each.

She says: "We suggested how they might roll with the tackle so that they could release the ball to a colleague and also worked with grappling techniques on the mat. We showed them kesa-gatame, the basic scarf hold-down, which they tried to get out of. They were really impressed with the fact that I could hold down Andy Burns, a member of the judo squad at Bath who at 100kg was more than 20kg heavier than me."

‘We helped them to learn to hit the opposing player under the rib cage’

She also demonstrated her favourite technique, morote-gari, which looks like a frontal rugby tackle and is the move with which she won the final of the 1997 World Championships. "I showed them how in judo we do the throw driving up, whereas in rugby, they take them down. By taking opponents up in rugby, you can decide where you want to put them on the ground and it also gives them less opportunity to lay the ball off.

"We helped them to learn to tackle on both sides and also to hit the opposing player under the rib cage, so as to knock the wind out of them (left). We had to do the exercises on crash mats (thick inflatable mattresses) because we didn't want them injuring each other - not with the World Cup coming up."