Burford eyes Red Roses return on comeback
Rachael Burford, the Harlequins captain, says she is hopeful of reviving her international career ahead of next year’s World Cup in New Zealand after overcoming a serious injury at the age of 33.
Burford played a key role in England’s Six Nations Grand Slam last year as one of the original 28 players contracted full time on the XVS programme by the Rugby Football Union in 2019.
But the 84-cap centre was then sidelined for much of last year and, after missing the opening four rounds of the Tyrrells Premier 15s following hamstring surgery, her contract was not renewed.
“I’ve always said that when I announce my retirement, that will mean for club and country,” Burford told The Daily Telegraph. “I’m not ready to stop playing at the moment. I’ve been playing with an injury for a long time and last year I got it sorted out.
“On the back of that I wasn’t contracted, which I understand. They [England Rugby] have a certain amount of contracts, I wasn’t going to be fit and there were other players coming back in the fold.”
When asked if she would prefer to win a first Premier 15s title with Harlequins at the third time of asking or break back into the England squad, Burford said: “If I put myself into a position to create that, then that will be amazing.
“But I understand the place England are in. Their squad seems pretty solid. If I can knock on the door by playing some good rugby at Harlequins, then great, but I’m not chasing that at the moment.”
Burford’s comments came as research by Harlequins found that boys are four times more likely to want to be a full-time athlete than girls, in a survey of 1,000 school pupils across the UK.
The research was carried out in the lead-up to the club’s annual Game Changer event, when they play Wasps at Twickenham Stoop in their final home game of the campaign, on April 11.