Cling film, fake tan and Block 16 - welcome to Red Roses' Hogwarts

Women's Rugby World Cup semi-final: France v England

Venue: Ashton Gate, Bristol Date: Saturday, 20 September Kick-off: 15:30 BST

Coverage: Live on BBC One, Sports Extra and BBC Sport website and app

For Megan Jones, there is a corner of this England team that is forever Block 16.

"We lived in different blocks, but we always congregated there, before, after and between training sessions, on weekends, and I think that is where the special moments really began," the England centre tells BBC Sport.

"A lot of the same stories we tell came from there, the same jokes resonate from then.

"You don't forget about those times."

Those times were more than a decade ago. Jones, now 28, was a teenager.

But many of the same players are alongside her still, all the way from Block 16 to a Rugby World Cup last four.

Block 16 is part of the student accommodation at Hartpury College and University.

And its women's rugby academy is a talent factory, taking in 16-year-olds from all round the country and tuning out Red Roses with stunning regularity.

A kind of Hogwarts, the school attended by Harry Potter, with deep heat.

Sarah Bern, Holly Aitchison, Zoe Aldcroft, Tatyana Heard and Zoe Harrison were among Jones' contempories.

Ellie Kildunne, Hannah Botterman, Alex Matthews, Amy Cokayne, Abi Burton, Jade Shekells, Emma Sing and May Campbell also went through the programme.

Aldcroft, England's captain, has seen many different players come into the Red Roses camp and explain their route to the team.

"So many girls stand in the room and say 'I am from Hartpury'," she says.

"Those two years have added so much to them. You are 16, alongside your mates but also in a professional rugby environment, while also doing your studies.

"There is nowhere else where you get to do that. It is a special place."

The programme started in 2009, and appointed England full-back Danielle Waterman to run it the following year.

"I remember losing to New Zealand in the 2010 Rugby World Cup final at the Stoop," says Waterman.

"I was absolutely devastated and I walked over to where my family were sat to get a hug from my parents.

"And one of the first fans that worked their way to the front of the queue to see the players was a young girl called Siobhan Longdon-Hughes.

"She shouted 'Nollie, Nollie!' I looked over and she said, 'You're going to be my coach, I'll see you next week.'

"If there's anything that brought you back down to earth as a women's rugby player back then, it's being reminded about your new job when you've just finished a World Cup final!"

One of Waterman's most important tasks was making sure each year's intake of approximately 10 students from 50-60 trialists were the right people, as well as the best players.

"There was always all sorts of things that I would look at when making those calls," Waterman remembers.

"I would make the time to try and speak to parents and see the relationship they had with the girls.

"I would turn down very talented players if I didn't think the program was quite right for them or they weren't quite ready for it."

A family holiday meant Bern, now a rampaging prop for England, initially couldn't make a trial.

"I remember speaking to her dad saying I could speak to Maggie Alphonsi [Waterman's former England team-mate] because she's coached Sarah at regional level in the South East.

"I said 'No, for me, I have to meet every player - this is a special program. So even with someone as talented as that, I thought it was important."

Waterman was just as exacting once term had begun.

Her course would encompass not just the rugby side, but nutrition, gym, video analysis, media management and psychology, all alongside academic work.

"It is so beneficial to our journeys, but at the time you don't realise it, you are just having a kickabout with your mates," says England centre Tatyana Heard.

"To have that connection before you have even got on the pitch is massive, then when you add the value, drive and determination that become innate in us.

"Danielle Waterman taught us so much about how to be a professional and how to work hard and how, as she said, 'when you are tired, you are not tired'.

"It shaped us so much, as rugby players, but also as individuals."

Morning training would start early.

If any of Waterman's young players weren't on the touchline by 6:30am, the gate would shut and she would exclude any latecomers from the session.

"I lived in Gloucester, so I would travel to Hartpury and get all the equipment out before each session," she said.

"I said to the girls if I can be here and be ready for you on time - you only have to walk 200 metres to get here.

"I was pretty strict with them, but for good reason - if you turned up to an England session late, you wouldn't be training and you wouldn't be selected.

"I would much rather they learn their lessons with me in that safe environment.

"Living that far away from home at that age, they needed a coach, a mentor, various elements of being a psychologist, a bit of a mum in some ways.

"I was called 'Mummy Nolli' quite a lot! There was a bit of a running joke that not many could come out of a meeting with me, without having had a little bit of a cry.

"I think I was just that consistent and constant person that they could come to and talk to about anything."

It was serious. But, inevitably, it was also silly.

Waterman remembers one player having their possessions covered in cling film. Another had their legs turn orange when one of her team-mates swapped massage oil for fake tan.

"It was the best time of my life," says Jones. "It was such an important time, it set us up for now."

Waterman reluctantly left after three years in the role, struggling to balance being a player and a teacher.

Nine months later, she scored the opening try in England's 21-9 win over Canada in the World Cup final.

In nine days time, she hopes to see her former charges become the first England team to win the title since then.

"They deserve everything that comes their way because they are not just incredibly talented rugby players, but more so because they are brilliant women," said Waterman.

"They are exactly who I want my son, along with so many young girls and daughters across the country, to be looking up to. They are mega."

Whether or not Waterman's former pupils end up posing with the trophy on 27 September, it won't be the image that means most to her however.

"They are at an age now where some are having had children or are getting married and I see the photographs - and, years on, there is always a photograph of them with their friends from Hartpury," she says.

"The lifelong friendships that they all have are so special. To me, that is one of the biggest and most precious things I've taken from my time coaching them - my friendship with them, but also the friendships and fun that they have still together."

You can find out more about Hartpury's influence on the Red Roses on a special report to be broadcast by BBC Bristol on Friday, 26 September.