YOU wouldn’t think that rugby players and astronauts have much in common, but a group of school children discovered that isn’t the case as they joined three England Sevens players to reach for the stars.

This weekend’s Marriott London Sevens World Series leg has a galactic theme, but the links between rugby and outer space doesn’t stop there as a handful of St George’s School pupils found out.

They joined England Sevens stars Sam Stanley, Sam Blanchet and Jack Walsh at the Lensbury Club in Teddington as Heathrow Express and the UK Space Agency joined forces to put them through their paces with an education programme called Mission X- Train Like an Astronaut.

Mission X UK uses astronaut training to teach how diet and exercise play an important role in human performance in space and on the Earth.

That's where the England Sevens players came in with the similarities between space and rugby training – mainly dexterity under pressure, operating under fatigue, being agile and generally fit and healthy.

England Sevens player Stanley is adamant the astronaut training can help the squad continue the fine form that saw them triumph in Tokyo and finish third in Glasgow as the World Series rolls into Twickenham this weekend.

“Astronauts, like rugby players, need to be quite agile – they have to work in cramped conditions when fixing the shuttles while we need to be equally agile to evade defenders on the pitch,” he said.

“They also need to monitor their diets and their nutrition, which is very important to us too.”

Kids (under-16, accompanied) travel free at all times on Heathrow Express with our ‘Kids go free’ deal. Visit heathrowexpress.com or follow @heathrowexpress on Twitter to find out more.