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Premiership Women's Rugby - Harlequins v Loughborough Lightning
Venue: Twickenham Stoop Date: Friday 24 October Kick-off: 19:00 BST
Coverage: Live on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport app
The Red Roses were last spotted looking tired, emotional, happy and glorious.
After beating Canada in the Women's Rugby World Cup final on 27 September, they celebrated long into the night at Twickenham's Cabbage Patch pub, before emerging bleary-eyed the next morning for a news conference and a public celebration at Battersea Power Station.
"It's been a bit of a whirlwind, I don't think I have taken it all in yet," said fly-half Holly Aitchison, nearly a month on.
A week of media duties followed as the squad surfed between breakfast TV sofas, radio studios and podcast appearances, while also sneaking in some more celebrating. A trip to see Lady Gaga at the O2 strained vocal cords.
The weekend after winning the final, all members of the Red Roses squad travelled to various grassroots clubs for Rugby Fest, a nationwide open day designed to draw more women's players into the sport.
Second row Lilli Ives Campion went to Macclesfield, with team-mate Morwenna Talling.
"The amount of people who turned up was insane, actually crazy. There were girls coming over from rugby league teams and all over," she said.
Then, four months after their first Rugby World Cup training camp, three weeks before the start of the season, there was a brief window for players to get away.
Captain Zoe Aldcroft squeezed in two holidays, taking in the Spanish city of Malaga with her husband Luke, before joining a 10-strong Red Roses' trip to Ibiza.
"Both different, both fun!" she said.
Hannah Botterman, Emily Scarratt, Natasha Hunt, Tatyana Heard, MacKenzie Carson, Campion and Abbie Ward (a late joiner after missing her flight out) were among the Red Roses on the White Isle.
"We had a great time, we did all the classic Ibiza things, went to O Beach, which was fun," said Botterman
"After years going through it, chasing one goal, and then to achieve it, to be able to celebrate that with people who have done the same thing is really special."
Not everyone's celebrations were as exotic.
"I would say my celebrations have been long, but not as intense as the Ibiza crew," said prop Sarah Bern.
"I felt I needed some downtime to regulate myself and just to drink water for a start!
"And I actually did a bit of DIY."
Campion says the interactions and invitations have brought home how much the team's Rugby World Cup win cut through with the general public
"I went to Northampton's win over Leicester in the Prem and the guy sat next to me messaged me after to say it was incredible to be alongside a World Cup winner," she said.
"I have also been to my first film premiere – it was for Christy, a film about a female boxer – and it was pretty exciting.
"You could not predict how any of this would have gone, but to do it with these incredible girls is amazing."
Fewer than four weeks on from Twickenham glory though, the celebratory glitz and glitter shifts into a brand-new Premiership Women's Rugby (PWR) season with the stars on show for their club sides.
It begins with Ellie Kildunne and her Harlequins team-mates taking on Sadia Kabeya's Loughborough Lightning in the campaign opener live on BBC Sport on Friday evening.
Saracens' Sophie de Goede, Canada's World Player of the year, also went away after the World Cup final, travelling to Portugal with three international team-mates.
"We just kind of tuned out of everything, but when I got back to London and turned my phone back on, there was this big flood of messages, showing the excitement about the whole of the World Cup," she said.
"So, I feel a big mix of things, pride at how well the tournament went but also devastation and disappointment and frustration at how we played in the final. It is a funny feeling holding both those emotions at the same time.
"We have four more years of fuel now though, so lots to look forward to."
De Goede says that PWR was key to Canada's run to the final and future hopes.
She was one of five Saracens players in Canada's World Cup final squad, with another six of their matchday 23 also playing in the English top flight.
Saracens coach Alex Austerberry was part of Canada's backroom staff during their World Cup campaign as well.
"PWR is a strong league globally and we want to be able to play in the preeminent leagues and to continue to get better and learn winning habits," said De Goede.
"We needed to learn how to win big, tight games when there are lots of fans in the stadium."
De Goede says the level of fan interest has been "helpful" in upping the quality of rugby, both individually for players and as a team.
"Hopefully we've helped the PWR continue to grow and get stronger as a league and put out a better product on the field," she added.
In the wake of lifting the World Cup, England coach John Mitchell stressed that the league had to provide a conveyor belt of talent for the Red Roses.
"I love seeing 100 English girls playing in PWR, I would love to see more play because then I can have the opportunity to select more," he said.
"The league is a great competition because we are playing against other world-class players, but we have to be mindful that we are still growing our English players."
Clubs are required to have an average of 13 England-qualified players in their 23-strong matchday squads.
However, De Goede has been joined by other global superstars in the league this summer, with Ireland back row Aoife Wafer moving to Harlequins, Canada's Laetitia Royer coming to Saracens, Scotland wing Rhona Lloyd signing for Sale and New Zealand duo Alana Borland and Georgia Ponsonby linking up with Trailfinders.
Loughborough Lightning captain and England back row Daisy Hibbert-Jones made her PWR debut as a teenager for Firwood Waterloo.
She believes overseas stars have elevated the standard of the league and also lifted the age profile of the English prospects who appear in it.
"The international players make our league really exciting, they bring a different brand of rugby and new faces," she said.
"I think the rules around English-qualified players mean you have to invest in your pathway and young players otherwise there is no longevity for a team.
"Previously people may have made their debuts younger, but that doesn't happen so much now with how professional the league has become."
There is another league that wants to recruit the biggest names in women's rugby.
R360, the planned global series featuring all-star franchises sides, aims to run four women's teams as part of its event which is slated to begin in October 2026.
It has been reported by the Daily Telegraph, external that R360 has made approaches to a number of Red Roses.
"I have heard very little about it," said Aldcroft.
"My thoughts on it? I am not really sure, at the moment I am just full-on Gloucester Hartpury and happy to be in the PWR.
"The amount we have grown the PWR over the past few years is incredible.
"Who knows what this league is going to bring? Maybe they could invest in our PWR, that would be good."
League boss Genevieve Shore has said that she could fully understand if any PWR stars did opt to sign a larger contract in R360, but claimed a four-team competition lacked the depth and variety on offer in England and would not develop the stars of tomorrow.
England, along with seven other leading nations, have ruled out picking R360 recruits for their national side.
