Emma Gardner - Meet the woman fueling Ireland's Rugby World Cup drive

As well as a squad of 33 players and head coach Andy Farrell, you can count another 30 people onto the Irish Rugby entourage at this World Cup.

Between coaches, analysts, medics, catering and admin, no stone has been left unturned in their bid to break new ground at this tournament.

Among that posse working behind the scenes is performance nutritionist Emma Gardner, the woman tasked with fueling the World Cup bandwagon.

It's just over a year to the day since the Lancashire native linked up with the Irish squad, joining the IRFU having helped the England men's cricket team to a World Cup win in 2019, while also working as nutritionist to the GB women's hockey side that won Olympic gold in Rio in 2016.

Her job with the Irish side was a return to rugby, having started out professionally with the Northampton Saints 10 years ago. And speaking from the Irish team camp in Tours, she says the game's relationship with food has changed hugely in a relatively short period of time.

"If I look back 10 years ago in the Premiership rugby in the UK, I think I was one of maybe two or three nutritionists working part-time two days a week. If we fast forward a decade, I think every team has at least a nutritionist and they tend to be full-time.

"I work full-time here with the men. I also lead a department of another 11 nutritionists across the Irish provinces and the other Irish teams in terms of the women's team and the sevens, so I think nutrition as a discipline has obviously hugely grown."

As well as Gardner leading the nutrition plan, she's also working with the team's two travelling chefs that have been brought with them to France, something that's not unique to the Irish side.

And while the benefits of performance nutrition have been