WOMEN’S GAME IN FOCUS
Sarah Rendell takes a weekly look at some important women players
Rosie Blount had her heart set on being an Olympian and was on the fast track to success as part of the Team GB Olympic academy until injuries, and resulting loss of form, saw her leave the programme to go to Leeds University.
Wanting to pursue a team sport, she ended up at a rugby training session and within three years was making her debut on the wing for Darlington Moden Park Sharks.
“I had been track cycling since I was 15/16 and around the time I was applying to university they said that I had a place on the GB Olympic academy,” says 26-year-old Blount who is a doctor.
“That was super exciting. I managed to defer my place at university to go and be an athlete full-time and experience that. But unfortunately over those two years I had a couple of injuries and wasn’t getting the results I needed to continue on the programme. to take my place at university. It would have been difficult being in Leeds with the track in Manchester – I wouldn’t have been able to continue track cycling at the level I was at so it seemed like a good time to move on.”
She adds: “I enjoyed road cycling still but I wanted to do a team sport and found it was a nice team environment in rugby.
“I never played or watched rugby before starting at university. Essentially the first friend I made played rugby and I was quite keen to get into a new sport so I went along to the trial session. I really enjoyed it and got stuck in from there.”
While competing for her university some of her teammates began to go to training sessions at DMP Sharks. She went along and hasn’t looked back since making her debut for the club in 2017.
The club finished bottom of the table last season, recording just one win. Blount says the team have spoken about how to improve their performances for the next campaign.
“At the start of preseason we came together and discussed what we can learn from last season. There has been a lot of talk, as with any challenges in sport you learn from that. We have had a couple of really good team meetings about how we want to attack this season differently which has been really productive.
“We’re getting a new defensive strategy in place and we have Jake Rodgers as our new head coach. We are coming in as underdogs so we have nothing to lose and have an attitude of ‘let’s go for
it’.”