Wilson-Hardy: “One game at a time”

Amy Wilson-Hardy has a temperament that is distinctly at odds with her presence on the field.

The modest and polite England number 12, who openly admits to being a “youngster” in the squad, has a lot to offer Simon Middleton’s side and is looking forward to performing on home soil during round five of the World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series in London this weekend.  

Wilson-Hardy is in the spotlight leading into the London event, after exploding out of the blocks at the last round in Canada, scoring a raft of tries and ending up in the tournament dream team. The Bristol player wasn’t always a starter in the England squad but really laid down a marker in Langford last month.

“I was happy (to be in the dream team) - it was a boost in confidence and personally it was great for me to get more time on the pitch and show what I can do out there.

“I’m one of the younger players in the squad and I’m constantly learning off other players around me. To be honest, once I’m improving from tournament to tournament…I feel like I took a huge step forward in Canada.”

She certainly did, and some of her tries were crucial to England's results in Langford. This weekend's final and third place play-off will be held in front of a massive crowd in the iconic Twickenham Stadium on Saturday after the men’s matches finish – quite a prospect for England if they were to run out in front of thousands of their home fans. 

“It would be crazy to say we haven’t thought about it, but let’s take it one game at a time,” said Wilson-Hardy.

“I’m really excited to see people who haven’t seen me play for a long time, or at all, so hopefully we’ll get a really good home crowd behind us.”

It’s a mark of how much Wilson-Hardy has learned over the last few seasons that, despite the difficult pool games England will face at the weekend, she’s not daunted by the prospect of playing Canada, Russia and South Africa on day one at the Twickenham Stoop.

“All teams are improving at every tournament and every game is a hard game. It’s going to be a physical pool, we’ll deal with South Africa first up and we’ll just take it one step at a time.”

The Bristol ball carrier got into the game at a young age and learned her skills in school, especially the skill of exploiting space.

“I’ve always loved the game of sevens. I played at school, more because there wasn’t enough players to field a 15s side and I loved the extra space,” explained Wilson-Hardy.

“I was always told to run with the ball and told to play to (my) strengths. I had head coaches that made me realise that sevens was the game that I enjoyed.” 

Wilson-Hardy got involved with the England sevens camp as they trained for Rugby World Cup Sevens in 2013. Despite the step-up in skill and intensity, her confidence grew as she kept her head down and focused on her role. She was rewarded by captaining her side on the European circuit and was then included in the England elite squad, making her Women’s Sevens Series debut in Dubai (pictured above).

Her team are now focused on Olympic qualification, going into this weekend in London and Amsterdam next week knowing that the top four will qualify for Rio 2016 - and England currently lie in fifth. Her team captain Abi Chamberlain yesterday admitted they need “two huge weekends” to cement their place in the Olympic Games.

“Aww…to play sevens in the Olympics is incomprehensible,” said Wilson-Hardy.

“It’s something you grow up thinking about and watching on TV and seeing the athletes brimming with pride at the opening ceremony. To have a taste of that would be absolutely phenomenal.”

Big dreams. But she, and her England team-mates, are taking it one game at a time.