Scarratt: This format has improved me all round
EMILY SCARRATT is doing her best to maintain the momentum generated for women’s rugby by the World Cup last year when England were defeated by New Zealand in a pulsating final.
One of the outstanding players of her generation, the 28-year-old has now switched to sevens, where today she was representing her country at the Commonwealth Games in Australia.
In a week’s time, she will be in Japan for the next leg of the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series, with further legs in Canada and France to follow, along with the Rugby Europe Sevens Grand Prix and the World Cup in San Francisco. It is a packed schedule for Scarratt, a 2014 World Cup winner and captain of the Great Britain sevens team at the Rio Olympics, and she is delighted to be riding the wave of enthusiasm created by the World Cup in Ireland. She also firmly believes sevens is a key factor in developing the sport.
“Sevens is a fantastic version of the game and the inclusion in the Olympics and Commonwealth Games means there is great exposure for this exciting brand of the sport,” Scarratt said.
“Sevens isolates all the skill elements you need in rugby and, hopefully, it can be used as a really strong development tool to push the sport along. At the end of the day it is all rugby and while you wouldn’t swap between the two week to week, it is possible to concentrate on each at various points of the season.
“Our women’s game is in a really good place at the moment and that is also true around the world, because the World Cup opened people’s eyes to what women’s rugby is all about.
“Now we have the Sevens Series, the Commonwealth Games and the World Cup and it is really important we keep pushing things forward. I’ve played in t h re e Wo r l d C u p s a n d the development since 2010 has been phenomenal.
“We have shown what women’s rugby is capable of to so many more people and that is awesome.”