How did you first get into rugby?

Rugby was massive in my family as my dad, my uncle, and my cousin all played, and my grandad would take me down to my local club South Shields to watch, so I’ve always been involved in the game. Then as soon as I got to an age where I could play, maybe five, I wanted to be involved, so he took me down and I was hooked.

What do you find the hardest part of being a captain?

I think for me the hardest part when I was doing it was definitely managing myself and I had to work really, really hard some times not agreeing with things but not having that written all over my face. Always making sure that I’m managing myself and then having to ask everybody else to do the same [is important].

How did it feel to win the World Cup last year?

The World Cup was amazing. It was a dream come true for a lot of us and actually the history of the women’s game in terms of how many finals we’ve been in just added to that. It was just one of those things that we really wanted, but you also really worry that it will never happen. So for that to happen with all our friends and family there as well cheering us on, you can feel the hard work and the hours that everyone’s put into it, so it was it was amazing.

You mentioned the hours you put into it. What difference has it made to you and to England Women’s Rugby getting professional contracts?

So it’s only the Sevens’ girls that are full-time, as the Fifteens’ girls still work, but I think it’s easier to rest and recover. For the majority of the Fifteens’ girls and the rest of us when we were working, you basically went from work to training then home to bed and you never really got a chance to chill out or relax and for us that’s made a massive difference. I think just the time to focus on skills as well. So rather than always trying to do fitness, or a speed session, or a weights session, they’re all done in the day, so we’ve got time to go and do a good quality kicking session or passing session, which we wouldn’t have had the time for in our normal daily routines.

Do you think England Women’s Rugby will continue to improve because of these professional contracts do you think you’re playing better because of it?

I definitely think the skill level has improved and I think the RFU had to match what was already out there from different nations, as there were a lot of nations that were professional in the women’s Sevens a lot earlier than us. So I think it definitely increases the quality of the rugby that we play, because obviously the more we have time to practise and train then hopefully the better we’re becoming. But I think you want the game to improve for the Fifteens World Cup in 2017 and hopefully we’ll have more support and more funding for that so more of the girls can take time off work and focus on rugby.

Do you think there’s much difference between the way that men play rugby and the way that women play rugby?

Yeah I think the game’s very different, because of the physicality of the men’s game and the size of some of the guys that play, I think they rely on that a lot more so it’s a lot about the big hits, the big collisions. I think possibly with the women’s game it’s not at that level yet so it’s a bit, not more skilful, but there’s more space on the pitch and because our skills are getting better, we’re getting better at exploiting them. The boys spend a lot of time kicking the ball these days which you get less of in the women’s game; it’s not kicked as much.

Do you have any advice for young women who might be looking to get into rugby?

I think just enjoy it. There’s so many forms of the game now, so you don’t necessarily have to go straight into contact. I think that’s great, you can go and play touch, you can go and play tag. It’s a really sociable game as well and I think for me when people ask why do you love the game that’s a massive part of it. Also, because it’s so inclusive it doesn’t matter about your size, your shape, your skill set, there’s a place in the sport for you and I think that’s really nice. Not many other sports offer that. You kind of have to fit and mould to play them, whereas rugby incorporates everybody. It’s really nice that you get such a good mix of people, and you get different people because of different people’s strengths, so it’s great.

Rachel King 

Featured image: The Guardian