‘We have so many people with different leadership qualities’
England’s World Cup finalists find strength in diversity, Kate Rowan discovers in Belfast
Plumber, PHD student, teacher, occupational therapist, personal trainer, history graduate, RAF reservist: these are just a few of the diverse educational and occupational backgrounds among members of the England Women’s World Cup final-bound squad.
Much has been made of the players’ status as the only fully professional side in the tournament and their contracts not being renewed after the World Cup.
The players, the majority of whom have either been contracted for a number of years on the sevens programme, or for the past year or eight months, have come from a broad spectrum, and this life experience has helped to shape a self-described “eclectic” squad.
Throw in a number of Olympians from Team GB’S sevens squad including Katy Mclean and Amy Wilson Hardy and there is a formidable bank of knowledge for players to draw from.
As the men’s game has become more and more professional, young academy players have had much more homogenous backgrounds. England’s women are a well-oiled machine but they are also a collective of women who celebrate their differences off the field. This would seem to be their secret weapon.
Test centurion Tamara Taylor, who is taking part in her fourth World Cup, believes that having a diverse group of individuals actually helps in the professional environment in which they train, eat and compete together.
“Sometimes, the more time you spend with people, the more irritating they are, but we have got such an eclectic group that we tend not to get irritated by each other. The more time you spend with each other, the more you know each other. So, actually you will know to think how this person is a bit upset, so I will give her a bit of space. Whereas with someone else who is upset, I could know I need to look after her and put an arm around her shoulder.”
Captain and No8 Sarah Hunter, who, like Taylor, works for the Rugby Football Union in helping to develop the sport, celebrates the diversity of her squad.
“We have such an eclectic mix. We have Heather Kerr, who was a prop, who has worked hard over the past few months to train up as a hooker, and she is doing a PHD in soil. Marlie Packer is a plumber.
“You have people who are interested in all sorts of different things. Zoe Aldcroft is at university studying science and is at her first World Cup and doing fantastically well. “Then you have Rocky [Rochelle Clark] on 100-odd caps – she is doing a fantastic job to inspire the next generation.”
Tapping into such a variety of perspectives is something Hunter relishes as captain.
“It makes my job really easy as we have so many people with different leadership qualities within our side that they can see things from a different point of view and add so much.”
Hunter says England have two leadership groups in the squad: ‘T1 – Team First’ are the off-field group who organise everything from team logistics to how players are thinking and feeling. Then there is the match-day leadership group, who “work really closely with the coaches. It is the half-backs, captain, vice-captain, line-out leaders – the people who will lead the game around the pitch”.
She adds: “The match-day group is very much about positions and how people are going to contribute and actually lead – more game plan-specific. The off-field leadership group is stuff that doesn’t necessarily relate to rugby. People might have other strengths, and it is representative of that eclectic group of people.”
Fly-half-cum-centre Amber Reed, 26, niece of former Scotland and British and Irish Lions lock Andy Reed, and a PE teacher, insists that younger team-mates “don’t have to do anything different”. She adds: “Just be yourself and bring that to the pitch.”
‘We have such an eclectic mix, people interested in all sorts of different things’