Baa-Baas victory gives Katy the perfect send off

KATY Daley-Mclean insists she will not be doing a U-turn on her playing career because England can win the World Cup without her.

Fly-half Daley-Mclean, who has 116 caps and 542 points for the Red Roses, signed off from her illustrious rugby career with another try-scoring star turn in the Barbarians 60-5 thrashing of South Africa last weekend.

The former England captain is now content to help Sale Sharks develop the stars of tomorrow in her role as performance lead which is offering her “new challenges”.

She said: “I’ve retired and I intend to stay that way – it is the right time to move on. I’m 35 and I would have to do more now in terms of keeping myself fit enough to play than I used to. I still had the same mental drive but my body doesn’t match my thought process nowadays – I couldn’t touch my toes the morning after the South Africa match!

“The team is in such great hands now so it was the time to move on. I’m confident they will do well in New Zealand next year because we have such great depth in talent. They will be one of the favourites to win it.”

On her farewell match with the Baa-Baas, in front of a record 29,581 crowd for a women’s game, she added: “Twickenham was the icing on the cake of everything I have experienced and enjoyed during my career. I’ve never seen the stadium like that for a woman’s game – it was amazing to see all those fans making such a noise.

“It showed just how much the women’s game has grown that they were happy to move the game forward after the unfortunate cancellation of the men’s one. Hopefully, the access more people had to watch the game will help inspire more to enjoy and take up the game.

“And it’s great for me at Sale. This is a challenge I’m getting my teeth into and really learning about the culture of it. It’s good to discover how you drive performance teams from the other side. I’ve always been on the playing side so to learn all the other bits is great.”