WOMEN'S GAME IN FOCUS

Sarah Rendell takes a weekly look at some important women players

World Cup winner and Worcester Warriors backrow Alex Matthews began playing rugby aged three when she joined her local club Camberley with her sister.

The 28-year-old lived close to the club and said it was a way to burn off energy as a child.

“I was three and my sister was seven, our dad just chucked us over the hedge to our local rugby club! We were causing chaos around the house, we were constantly play fighting and sort of being in the garden. We were very fortunate that our house backed onto the local rugby club.”

From Camberley she played for various clubs including Dorking, London Irish and Reading. While she was capped internationally for England 15s first, she is also a star on the Sevens stage - winning a Commonwealth Games bronze medal in 2018.

She was contracted when the Rugby Football Union pulled funding for the programme last year amid the pandemic. This meant she switched back to 15s, signing for Worcester and finding a place within Simon Middleton’s England squad. But how did she feel having to switch codes?

“It was a bit overwhelming because I still had Sevens at the back of my mind. Wanting to go to the Olympics, not knowing what was going to happen. Then just so much information in 15s. The phases of play, the patterns, there’s a lot more structure to it. All the line-outs, the line-outs got me.

“But to be honest going to Worcester every night I absolutely loved. My highlight of the day was, obviously we were still restricted, but we were fortunate enough to go to club and play rugby. I enjoyed it, it was my let out.”

Matthews did secure a place on Team GB for the Tokyo Olympics and finished just outside of medal contention with a fourth place finish. The RFU have now restarted Sevens funding and while Matthews has returned to Worcester, she has a big decision on her hands - stay with 15s or switch back to Sevens.

“It’s hard, it’s been something I have been battling with. There’s a 15s World Cup next year but then there’s also a home Commonwealth Games and a Sevens World Cup in South Africa. It’s hard. I would love to do both but the games are dividing and they are getting more and more separate in their own right.

“My family never got to travel the world to watch me play and the fact it’s a home Commonwealth... I think that would be one of my main driving factors. But I think the world is up in the air at the moment with Covid and not all the teams are at the World Series so the level of the competition is a bit up in the air as well.

“That makes you want to come to 15s and do the best I can for them. It’s a bit of a pickle. But right now I’m focusing on 15s.”