The stars of two great games from two great nations strolled over to each other and shook hands at the side of the training pitch for what felt like a diplomatic mission of discovery.American football kickers Brad Maynard and Robbie Gould are household names as celebrity players for the Chicago Bears. They greeted Robyn McBryde, Neil Jenkins and Nicky Robinson with courtesy and respect as they knew these guys represented the Welsh national team.
Their knowledge of rugby union was less far reaching as Robbie pointed out: "I know the ball is bigger, it's a bit more like a balloon."
But that was just the ice breaker because the Welsh contingent soon got down to some serious fact finding as they took full advantage of the opportunity. McBryde wanted to know about training regimes and how the preparation time is filled while for Neil and Nicky it was down to fine detail of the kicking game.
They were all soon the best of mates as the discussion focused on the shape of the boots, the number of kicks taken in practice, the moment of connection between foot and ball, etc, etc, etc.
The Welsh boys were not going to miss their chance.
At one stage there was almost a ceremonial exchange of artefacts as Brad was handed a rugby boot and proceeded to show the boys how he bent his new boots double and taped them like that to create a curved sole which helped his kicking technique.
No matter what the differences or the quirky oddities about methods and processes there was clearly a close bond between elite athletes from both sports who were united in their desire to be excellent at their games.
American eyebrows were raised when Neil mentioned that a big international at the Millennium Stadium commonly attracted a full house of 75,000 fans and he noted their approval.
"You should come over to Cardiff and watch a game," he suggested. "A Wales England test is pretty special and you would love the atmosphere."
The whole event was something of a feast of information for the whole Welsh contingent who seemed ravenous for information.
The visit to the Chicago Bears training ground had been arranged through the Wales kit suppliers Under Armour who boast commercial links with the famous American Football team.
Some eighty footballers all wearing their familiar head gear were put through their paces through the morning in a series of playing patterns and skills.
For the Welsh boys there was plenty of similarity to observe as the elite athlete regimes in the Wales camp at least match up to any other professional sporting environments.
Neil commented later:"Professionally we will all have picked something up from watching that session and speaking to the players so we will take that back and use it to our advantage.
"There were a lot of similarities in the way we all approach drills but if we note something of use that is good because our aim is to just keep getting better and better."
The bank of American TV cameras at pitchside were there to spot their own stars like new quarterback signing Jay Cutler and line backer Pisa Tinoisamoa, but they realised something special was happening and trained their lenses at Jenks and the boys as well.
The aims of diplomacy achieved the visit ended on a note familiar to both these elite athlete environments.
The American players went into their lavish changing room building attracted by the smell of hot food and the next meal became the talking point for the Wales players. Modern training methods may change body shapes, power and stamina levels but a constant side affect of all that hard work, no matter what the sport, appears to be ravenous hunger.
