Emily Chancellor: 'You don't want to be doing the jersey a disservice'

When it comes to the blossoming history of the Wallaroos, few players have given more to the jersey and the Australian women’s game than Emily Chancellor.

On Monday, the 35-year-old announced she will retire from international rugby after this weekend’s WXV Global Series clash with Scotland.

The 41-capped Australian has packed plenty in across an 11-year career at the top; appearing at two Women’s Rugby World Cups, playing in England and Japan, winning seven Super Rugby Women’s titles and a WXV 2 title. She also captained her nation four times and the Barbarians earlier this year.

With the Wallaroos set to transition into a full-time programme at the end of the year, for Chancellor, who doubles playing with working at a construction company, now was the right time to bow out.

“It’s been such a rollercoaster of emotions,” Chancellor said. “Not many people get an opportunity to make this decision themselves, so I’m really proud to be able to walk away on my terms. I’ve been inundated with messages today.

“I’m just really proud of my contribution to the game and I’m excited for what’s to come next for me and also with the Wallaroos, but the pathway that the Wallaroos are going down I think I know deep down in my heart it’s not where I want to go with my rugby.

“I love the balanced life that I’ve been living with rugby and work, and I’m starting to get excited about what could be my future. You don’t want to be doing the jersey a disservice. So, it’s time to look elsewhere.

“I’m so excited for the future of the girls on the field. I’ve said for the last couple of years that I had two more years left in me – before I did my ACL, and I got through that World Cup [in 2025].”

It was an unsurprisingly emotional announcement for Chancellor when she told the team on Monday – the flanker revealing she had played alongside an astounding 108 capped Wallaroos across her career.

“Then there are many more we have trained together with, the girls that toured and don’t play, there’s a big chunk of girls that I’ve been able to be a part of a program with,” Chancellor added.

“It’s a special place. We’ve seen the growth, we’ve been part of some crazy experiences. It’s not just the on-field, it’s the off-field experiences, the memories. It makes you keep coming back for more.

“The emotion is a good representation of how much this team means to me.”

After initially making the squad in 2015, Chancellor hit the ground running on her debut in the Wallaroos’ 50th test in 2018, playing the Black Ferns at Accor Stadium in Sydney and was later awarded Wallaroos Player of the Year that season.

Picking up the sport aged 21 after playing netball, Chancellor took to it quickly.

“My first memories [are] of going to that Come Try Rugby Day,” Chancellor added.

“I’d been a rugby fan for a long time, gone to games with my Dad and Mum all the way through growing up. I just didn’t realise that you could do it as a girl.

“That first session when they said, okay now you’re gonna you’re gonna get tackled, I just stood there with the ball, someone hit me and I went back straight away! I was like, that was absolutely terrifying… but I want to understand how to do this better.

“This game is full of incredible people. I just remember my first experiences coming into the program in 2015, sitting with the likes of Cookie [Louise Burrows], Cloughy [Rebecca Clough], Alicia Hewitt and just thinking, these girls are incredible! They do this for love, I want to be a part of this team.”

For Chancellor, her memories around her debut in 2018 were clouded by the pure adrenaline of earning her first cap, but the flanker will savour several amazing moments across her career.

“I was so terrified. The emotional roller coaster I went through that week was crazy,” Chancellor recalled. “It’s one of my favourite games from a mayhem perspective – I got an intercept, I had a couple of good offloads.

“I made a little line break and popped a ball off to Alicia Hewitt to score our only try that game – the little moments that I’m really proud of. Adrenaline can do some crazy things to you.

“That was a really special debut and then to do it again [in Sydney] last week, a full-circle moment, even though I’m hoping to get one more run this week.

“That opener against New Zealand at the 2021 Rugby World Cup, playing that first half and silencing the crowd at Eden Park was pretty special. It felt like a manic game beating the French in the [2023] WXV series in New Zealand.

“Captaining my country last year against Wales, then that opener at the World Cup was an incredible experience. I don’t know how you put that in words. I wouldn’t have pushed myself and my body and made the choices to choose this lifestyle for so many years if it wasn’t worth it.”

With the announcement confirmed, Chancellor will now turn her efforts to helping the Wallaroos secure a clean sweep of Scotland this week in Canberra – earning her 42nd and final cap.

“Selfishly, it’d be really lovely to finish on a win, but from a team perspective we know that Scotland didn’t put out their best performance last week,” Chancellor added. “We’d be silly to be coming into this with any kind of cockiness.

“We’ve produced some really good attack, but we know that they’ve now watched us play twice. They’re going to be cluing into the way we’ve been playing, so we need to respect them, focus on our physicality to earn the right to play wide, and let our speedsters do what they do best.”

While the flanker will transition into working with her construction company, she will be open to continue playing rugby domestically in Super Rugby Women’s and for Sydney University, and plans to keep her feet firmly planted in the rugby world.

“I knew from the start that this was a game that I wanted to be involved in,” Chancellor smiled. “If you told me then that I would have been playing internationally for eight years, I would probably laugh at you.

“[I’m] definitely looking for ways that I’m going to be staying in rugby. To have played alongside 108 different girls across eight years; wow, what a sisterhood we have. I’m very privileged to be a part of it.”