Powell joined Stuart Pearce and Mark Warburton as part of League Managers Association trip to watch England train ahead of their Six Nations clash against Scotland in February 2018, and the women’s first-team manager said the emphasis was already on the World Cup.
She said, “I was invited by the LMA to watch England train, and the detail that went into the session was quite phenomenal, in terms of how they processed and planned everything.
“We saw their preparation around their activation sessions, and then watched how it was broken down on the pitch.
“After observing them, we were able to have lunch with them afterwards, and it proved to be a very insightful day.”
The Albion manager also spoke more about Eddie Jones as a character and being able to exchange ideas with him and his staff.
“He [Jones] was really nice and quite casual, as were all the players. You get a little star struck by certain people, but they were just players doing their jobs.
“What was quite clear, was that they were interested to learn and exchange ideas. Stuart Pearce was with me at the time and he was also keen to understand what it’s like in rugby regarding how the selection process is managed compared to football.
“It was all very meticulous and structured in a sense that they said they were going to do two minutes on this, followed by two minutes on that.”
“Their target was to prepare for the World Cup at that early stage, and they had already started a countdown clock to Japan.”
Powell is now wishing the team all the best of luck in this weekend’s final, and is delighted to see the team’s preparations on that day ultimately paying off.
“As an England supporter it’s great to see them in the final on Saturday and I’ll be wishing them all the best.
“The good thing is that you see that the messages back then were all about the World Cup in 2019, and now they’re in the final.
“They knew exactly what they wanted to achieve, and it’s great to see them progress to this stage.”