England's Lark Davies puts Welsh family ties aside amid bid for 'special legacy'
National allegiance will be temporarily suspended amongst Lark Davies’ relatives when England step up their pursuit of a fourth successive Tik Tok Women’s Six Nations title.
The Red Roses play their first home game of 2022 when they host Wales in front of a 12,000 crowd at Kingsholm on Saturday with one team poised to lose their perfect start to the tournament.
But while the Anglo-Welsh rivalry will burn as fiercely as ever on the pitch, Davies’ nearest and dearest will come out in full support of the Loughborough Lightning hooker as family loyalty trumps patriotic ties for one weekend only.
“My mum’s side are all Welsh and then my dad’s family go back to being Welsh too,” Davies told the PA news agency.
“But a lot of our family members will definitely be supporting England because that’s where their alliances lie!
“My mum and my sister would probably call themselves Welsh, but not when it comes to women’s rugby.
“My eldest sister swam for Wales and she still lives in Wales. My 92-year-old granny lives in Wales too.
“She gets a bit confused sometimes in terms of what team I’m playing for so I have to remind her – ‘I’m definitely English granny!’. They will all definitely be supporting us on Saturday.”
England are aiming to record a 21st successive victory in a sequence that includes two victories over world champions New Zealand.
In two rounds of the Six Nations they have amassed 21 tries and history points to a third victory being delivered in Gloucester against resurgent opponents who this year moved 12 players on to professional contracts for the first time.
England have not lost to their Celtic rivals since 2015, yet Davies insists her team-mates feel a responsibility beyond delivering results.
“The winning run is unbelievable and we don’t want to take a backwards step. I don’t see it as a burden at all. If anything it’s a challenge because we want to leave behind a special legacy of the team that we are,” she said.
“We want to inspire younger generations. We want people to watch the rugby we’re playing and talk about the Red Roses.
“We want to be a team that’s remembered not just for the results, but for the people that we are too.
“I come from a teaching background so if I get messages from parents of the children that I used to teach saying they tuned in to watch at the weekend, then that’s what it’s all about.”
While still early days, Wales’ move to professional contracts appears to have been reflected in their bonus-point victories over Ireland and Scotland.
Lark appreciates the value of being able to give up the day job after her decision to reduce her hours as a primary school teacher in Worcester ultimately led to being recruited full-time by England in 2019.
“I actually made the decision a year before getting a contract to go part time with teaching. I knew that I wanted to put more into rugby and give my all to it,” Davies said.
“Being a teacher as well as a rugby player was really difficult. I probably wasn’t getting a lot of sleep and I was rushing around, doing gym sessions and making sure I’d done the marking.
“Going part time was really difficult because there’s the financial impact of that, but it gave me more time to train, recover and do my analysis. After that was when I started to get capped more regularly.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Ben Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
19 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
7 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
19 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
26 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
19 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
26 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
19 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
86 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
2 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
9 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
19 Go to comments9 Brumbies! What a joke! The best performing team in Oz! Ditch Skelton for Swain or Neville. Ryan Lonergan ahead of McDermott any day! Best selection bolter is Toole … amazing player
14 Go to comments