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‘Brooke,’ Bryan says. ‘Come in.’

‘Morning,’ I say as cheerily as I can.

The man smiles warmly.

‘Brooke, this is Sol Baker.’

We shake hands.

‘Nice to meet you,’ Sol tells me.

‘Likewise.’

‘Sol does my job, for England,’ Bryan explains. ‘When the international boys are together, Sol’s the poor soul trying to keep them all under control.’

‘You must have a lot of patience,’ I point out.

‘Or a very large headache,’ he jokes.

I like him immediately.

He has Bryan’s easy warmth about him, but with the slightly weary expression of a man who has spent years asking big, scary men to do things for their own good.

Bryan leans back in his chair.

‘We’ve been talking, about Hood and Royle, their rivalry – you were right to flag it.’

Flag it? I didn’t flag it. I highlighted it, sure, but… Shit. I hope I haven’t messed anything up for either of them.

‘We agree that we should lean into the rivalry,’ Bryan continues.

‘It’s good for the sport,’ Sol adds.

‘You’re right, Brooke, people love a rivalry,’ Bryan goes on. ‘Always have. The experienced veteran against the young challenger. Clashing personalities. Rival clubs.’

‘Different egos,’ Sol adds. ‘Fans are already loving it. They argue about them online constantly.’

‘Half of them probably think they genuinely hate each other,’ Bryan says.

‘Do they?’ I ask.

Bryan and Sol exchange a look. Then Bryan smiles.

‘Depends who you ask.’

‘The point is,’ Sol continues, ‘club rivalries are one thing. International rugby is another.’

‘Okay…’

‘Imagine you’ve spent weeks watching those two trying to flatten each other. Then suddenly they’re both wearing England shirts. People will tune into the World Cup because they want to see what happens, how they transition from fighting to working together.’

‘Exactly,’ Bryan says. ‘We think this will bring maximum visibility to the league, to the World Cup – to the sport generally. So we’ve all agreed that we want more content with Eddy and Jamie, and we want you to be in charge of capturing it.’

‘Right, okay,’ I reply, wondering how I’ll go about that.

‘Which brings us to tomorrow,’ Bryan continues. ‘Jamie is coming in.’

‘Here?’ I blurt.