'It’s the reason it’s where I am in my career': Alysha Corrigan on Saracens' winning formula

Alysha Corrigan and Saracens have bounced back from opening round disappointment in emphatic fashion.

Since a heavy loss to Gloucester Hartpury in Round 1 of the new Premiership Women’s Rugby season, Alex Austerberry’s side have wrapped up impressive wins against Harlequins, Bristol Bears and, most recently, Leicester Tigers.

“It was a slow start for us,” Corrigan told RugbyPass. “The first week, everyone was coming back from a World Cup.

“I think it’s been fun, it’s been nice to take the pressure off and come together with so many players who were at the World Cup and try and combine, find our identity again with Saracens.

“The London Derby was massive; it was a lot of fun and to have a record-breaking crowd for our first home game was huge.

“It just goes to show how well the World Cup went, England put so much effort into the World Cup to get fans to come and watch the games and to promote it.

“It just goes to show the success of that. Sale Sharks had their first ever sold-out stadium in the first week, we had a record-breaking crowd – it’s an exciting time for the PWR.”

Last month Saracens confirmed the signing of Corrigan’s international teammate, Olivia Apps.

Corrigan revealed that the arrival of the Canada scrum-half in North London was a tough to keep under wraps before the official announcement.

“Honestly, I’ve been so excited to have her, it was so hard to keep a secret for so long!” Corrigan said.

“You can tell when she’s on the field the pace that she brings, she’s so athletic. She almost brings a different style as a scrum-half.

“She has all the qualities of a winger or a thirteen. She beats defenders, she keeps defenders on their toes because they don’t know if she’s going to snipe around the breakdown.

“She’s so quick. She’s incredible to have on the team, she brings so much experience on and off the pitch at Saracens – we’re super lucky to have her.”

It has nearly been two months since the Red Roses won the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup against Canada in front of a women’s record crowd of 81,885 fans at Allianz Stadium, and Corrigan often still takes time of reflect on a heart-wrenching afternoon.

“It was surreal,” Corrigan said. “Reflecting on it, in the moment, you’re thinking there’s a lot of people here and this is crazy. We realised how special it was.

“If you’d have asked us three years ago, at the last World Cup, there’s going to be close to 82,000 people in a World Cup final watching you guys, we’d have been like, I don’t know about that, so I think that it was super special to be part of.

 

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“The hometown I’m from where I live is 160,000 people in total so half of my hometown was in the stadium which is pretty crazy to think about.

“Looking back, whether we won or lost, the fans were incredible, signing autographs and taking pictures is what it’s all about at the end of the day.

“Those people came to show up for us. Being able to share the moment after the game was special as well.”

The Women’s Rugby World Cup final in September was not only the most-watched women’s rugby union match ever on UK television, but als0 the most-watched rugby union match of the year so far.

Corrigan shares that she can already see an increase in fans at stadiums across the first four rounds of the new PWR season.

“We’re seeing it a bit right now in the PWR,” Corrigan said. “We’re getting fans out to enjoy rugby; we’re getting bums on seats and that’s helping grow the game massively.

“Back in Canada, we don’t have a league that people can show up every week to but I hope that we can just inspire people to pick up a rugby ball, sign up to a club, get involved and whenever we do have those opportunities to play for Canada.

“We get bums on seats but really our job is to make sure that we’re just helping grow the game back in Canada and people are still tuning in to watch our games over here.”

The wing returned to StoneX Stadium last year with an Olympic silver medal to her name, two years after she last played for the North London club in the 2022 Premier 15s final. She then re-signed earlier this year.

Speaking about how she has developed as a player, she also acknowledges how her Saracens teammates are a great group of mates to be around.

“The club has helped developed me massively,” she said. “If you rewind to the first time I played at Sarries, it was during Covid, the development Sarries has given me not only as a player, but a person has been huge.

“It’s the reason it’s where I am in my career. The whole reason I came to England was to make the last World Cup and get game time. I knew that’s what I needed and I came back because I loved it so much.

 

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“It’s been massive for my career. I’ve been very lucky to be part of Saracens. It’s a very special club. The memories I’ve created both on and off the field have been amazing. I’ve been very lucky.

“We have such a good core group of girls that have been around a long time. It’s a club where people want to be at. It’s a very competitive environment because we want to win and we want to be the best, that’s the expectation.

“Sometimes, training is harder than a game, just because we have such a competitive environment and that’s something that I thrive in and I love.

“When you’re a Canadian moving away from home, you need that and we have such a great group of girls who want to go out and have pizza on Friday nights or they just make us feel like we’re at home, it’s lovely.”