How valuable is this extended period on the road together?

Yeah, the, the test schedule this year is really exciting, um, particularly as we head into, uh, British and Irish Lions last year.

Um, I think that extra time, um, girls getting used to our style as well as, as we talked about earlier, embedding, um, some of those new girls into our systems, uh, will mean when we come to the British and Irish Lions, um, we're a pretty cohesive bunch.

They, uh, know what's required to, to play Black Fern style.

How do you see the transition, uh, from Sevens to Fifteens and back again now in the women's game?

Yeah, I think it's got a lot tougher, um, because of the demands of, of both game.

Um, obviously Fifteens is a bit more tactical, um, particularly around the backfield, which is massive for Brax and her role, um, at fullback around covering kick space, um, but also looking at her picking options to put us in the right area.

Um, so that's massive.

How is it as a balancing act early in a World Cup cycle to be blooding those new players, but also wanting to get this new style of play with a different coaching group embedded? Or do they go, I suppose, hand in hand with each other?

Yeah, I think firstly, how exciting were those three girls on debut? All had great performances.

But that's something, yeah, we've discussed at length, not only around each game, but obviously looking at the campaign as a whole, just making sure we get that balance between cohesion and making sure we put the performances on when it really matters, but also giving people opportunities.

So we know that come British and Irish Lions and going into the World Cup, we've got an experienced squad there.

How do you see the transition from sevens to fifteens and back again now in the women's game?

Yeah, I think it's got a lot tougher because of the demands of both game.

Obviously, 15 is a bit more technical, particularly around the backfield, which is massive for Brax in her role at fullback around covering kick space, but also looking at her picking options to put us in the right area.

So that's massive and then also a big change around the physical demands as well.

It's just something I've thought about quite a bit because I see fear as the obstacle in almost everything.

And I deal a lot with fears.

I've dealt with a lot of my own fears and I deal regularly or almost daily with fears that other people have.

But oftentimes what we might think is one fear can be a combined fear.

You know, we often hear people, you briefly referred to it, your fear of speaking in public or speaking in a group.

But that's generally not what the fear is.

The fear is maybe of being judged or the fear of feeling foolish, if I say something foolish, or the fear of not being able to speak or get the words out or be coherent.

There's a handle and there's a rod and it's spinning around.

But before we get into the book, I wanted to ask you about, was there a past life you remembered where you died on the battlefield?

Actually, yes, there was.

And, um, a number of years ago now, I was going to, um, Chartres Cathedral in France, where there's a famous labyrinth on the floor in the cathedral.

Now, I, I'm not sure again if this is where I died in the battlefield, but I was certainly, um, certainly wounded on a battlefield, but I actually crawled into a barn on a, on a, um, in a farm.

So when I was...

The whole story is, and is that when I went to Chartres, I was awake one night at 3:00 in the morning and went for a, a long, long walk.

Um, I could see the cathedral flooded in the distance, so it didn't matter.

What sort of cases do you remember that stand out for you of that?