Losing Women’s Rugby World Cup 2010 on home soil gave the England team all the motivation we needed going into the 2014 tournament. Yes, we were Women’s Six Nations champions but we couldn’t yet call ourselves the best team in the world. It’s hard to put into words what it felt like when we finally achieved that goal with victory over Canada.
We went to France the fittest and smartest prepared that we’d ever been – and we’d also had the experience of playing the top nations a lot more regularly between tournaments, whereas in 2010 it was still something of a novelty to play the likes of New Zealand.
We kicked off WRWC 2014 against Samoa and, as expected, they provided us with just the sort of physical challenge we needed. After an improved showing against Spain we played Canada in the final pool match. We had played and beaten them twice in November but they pushed us to the very end and a draw was probably a fair reflection of the match.
Clean slate
It was a case of wiping the slate clean again for the knockout stages, where we faced an Ireland side who had shown just how good they were by beating New Zealand. Thankfully, we played our best rugby of the tournament and put 40 points on them.
We enjoyed a good build-up to the final against Canada. Training was well structured, it was specific and had a purpose. Our psychologist also played an important role too by helping us to mentally prepare for any scenario.
Canada pushed us all the way again, and there was a major sense of relief when the final whistle blew. It was a massive weight off my shoulders, as I’d seen New Zealand celebrate before and always wondered what it felt like to be a world champion.
Without doubt the World Cup gave women’s rugby huge exposure. The French did a great job as hosts, the media coverage was great and the tournament was followed by a lot of people, not just your typical women’s rugby supporters but the top men’s professionals too. To see people like Jonny Wilkinson and Johnny Sexton following women’s rugby or coming to watch the event was pretty cool.
When we won the World Cup we were on the front pages of newspapers. What was even more pleasing was people were watching the World Cup and forgetting they were watching a specific gender, but just a great game of rugby. It was another step forward that women’s rugby was being acknowledged for the quality of the players on show. Young girls playing the game now have role models to aspire to.
Competitive
I think the good thing about women’s rugby is that it is so much more competitive and there are more and more teams capable of winning the Women’s Rugby World Cup. A lot of games could have gone either way which made is so exciting for the spectators.
Ireland’s win over New Zealand, who were going for a fifth title in a row, was reward for the incredible hard work they have put in over the last four years. They have always been so close to taking other teams on, but they did everything they could to become a better squad. Canada are the same, they have invested a lot in their programme.
Now that sevens is in the Olympics we’re going to see the athleticism and standards of players go up and up and that will filter back to 15s. Going into the next World Cup in 2017, the level of competitiveness is going to increase even further. The likes of USA are not far away from developing into a really good outfit. Samoa, Wales, Kazakhstan and Spain will only improve so it is going to be exciting to see.
I decided to retire after the tournament because I’ve always wanted to be a World Cup winner and now I’ve finally achieved that I’m happy to step away and see other girls experience what I’ve been fortunate to experience. All I ever wanted to do was to just play rugby. People’s perception of the women’s game is that we’re not physical enough, not aggressive enough like the men, when actually watching myself and other women play now all those stereotypical views have been dispelled.
Hopefully I’ve helped push the boundaries of what women can do.
This is abridged from the World Rugby Yearbook 2015, which is available to buy HERE
