Abi Burton: 'I'm fighting to go on a Lion's tour next year'

One more win. That is all that is needed for Abi Burton to complete a perfect season – Women’s Rugby World Cup, tick. Guinness Women’s Six Nations starter, tick. Women’s Six Nations winner, tick. Premiership Women’s Rugby winner?

Of course, to do so Burton, and her Trailfinders Women teammates will have to overcome a Saracens team that is packed with players who are hoping to achieve the same thing – with Marlie Packer, Sophie de Goede, Jess Breach, Olivia Apps and Zoe Harrison are among those aiming to complete a similar clean sweep of the trophies on offer.

Saracens are no strangers to PWR finals. They were champions in 2022 and runners-up in 2025. This season they won home and away against Trailfinders, but the West London outfit are in the mood to take the final step in a season where they reached the play-offs for the first time and ended Gloucester Hartpury’s hopes of a fourth consecutive title.

“Excitement levels are through the roof,” Burton told RugbyPass. “It’s something that we set out for at the start of the season. We wanted to make top four. Anyone who plays rugby in the PWR wants to get to a PWR Final, but ultimately we wanted to be able to go out there and show who we are as Trailfinders with our best attack and defence, see where it gets us and it’s got us to a PWR Final.

“As someone who’s been at the club the past three years, since its inception, it’s a really special place to be, and the excitement levels are definitely there.”

Burton has been with Trailfinders since their inaugural season in 2023/24 when they finished sixth. A year later they finished seventh, albeit it with more points than the previous season.

After a mixed campaign in 2024-25, the 26-year-old has firmly established herself as their first choice No.8. This season she has played 13 PWR matches and has weighed in with seven tries.

Her role as one of Trailfinders’ chief line-breakers is proven by the 160 carries she has made so far, with 18 defenders beaten and 390 metres made after contact. Add in her 167 tackles and it is little wonder that she is one of the team’s go-to players.

At the Women’s Rugby World Cup, Burton made one appearance, completing 80 minutes against Samoa. Come the 2026 Women’s Six Nations though, she found herself thrust into unfamiliar territory when she answered the call as an emergency second-row when pregnancies and injuries ruled out four first string players.

In Trailfinders’ head coach Barney Maddison she had someone she could immediately turn to who knows all about life in the engine room. After she came off the bench in the back-row in the Red Roses’ opener against Ireland, she donned the loosehead lock shirt against Scotland and Wales, before returning to more familiar territory against Italy and France.

“This season has definitely been a turning point for me,” Burton said. “Last season I broke my hand and unfortunately got a red card early on into the season. I had no playing consistency going into the Six Nations, and I was trying to find my feet in the England squad, but then also trying to make the World Cup as well. I didn’t really have the opportunity to play a lot of club rugby.

“I absolutely love Trailfinders. I love the brand of rugby we play. I love the girls, I love the coaches, and they allow me to be me. Ultimately, I feel like that’s shown with the performances I’ve been able to put out this year. I’ll do anything for the girls, and hopefully I show that when I play.

“I thoroughly enjoy walking onto the pitch, and that’s ultimately why I left sevens, because I wanted to play rugby. Trailfinders have allowed me to do that, and in a space where I feel like I can grow as well.”

Trailfinders Women’s rise has been rapid and their progress this season was reflected when Maddison was named PWR Director of Rugby of the Season last week. The former Ealing Trailfinders second rower has been at the helm for two season now and approaching what he describes as “the best thing of my coaching career so far.”

Earlier in the season Burton was flanked by two international captains, with Scotland’s Rachel Malcolm on one side, and Kate Zackary of the USA Women’s Eagles on the other. Malcolm’s season-ending injury means she will miss the final, but Haidee Head has more than filled the gap and was rewarded with her England debut in the Six Nations, a sign of the depth the squad is building.

“Abi has been class for us,” Maddison told RugbyPass. “She’s very durable, she can play in multiple positions. In a few games, she’s actually been covering 12 for us as well. The fact in one season she’s potentially played six, eight, 12, and then in the second row for England – it’s a good kind of something to have in your armoury.

“There were a few injuries in the Red Roses squad, a few knocks and things, so she got asked to do it, and like any good team player, she did it. She did a fantastic job, probably too good.”

One thing that Trailfinders’ rise and the Leeds-born Burton’s part in it has meant, is that she is no longer recognised solely as the player who survived being put into an induced coma after she contracted autoimmune NMDA receptor encephalitis. A rare and serious autoimmune condition where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks healthy brain cells.

Her return was emphatic and started with her earning a place in Team GB’s seven’s team for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Then came the World Cup win. It means she is now simply seen as one of the best No.8s in the PWR.

“I have a duty to keep sharing what happened to me and be able to spread awareness of it,” she said. “I want to be known for being one of the best No.8s in the world. I don’t want to be known as the girl who woke up from a coma and learned how to play rugby again.

“I’m very appreciative of my journey and understand the journey that I went on, but now I’m fighting to start in an England shirt. I’m fighting to go on a Lion’s tour next year.

“I’m fighting to go and win the next World Cup. That is my story, and that is what I want my narrative to be. If I can keep raising awareness for encephalitis along the way, I will do that until the cats come home, but I want to be recognised as a rugby force.”