England's Tamara Taylor: 'We Want Women's Sport on TV To Be Normal'

The women’s Six Nations is finally starting to get the recognition it deserves, says England’s 98-cap lock.

Women’s rugby in the northern hemisphere has been on the rise for several years, but 2017 could see it enter a brave new world. This year the entire women’s Six Nations tournament is being broadcast live on TV or streamed on social media for the first time, and England lock Tamara Taylor couldn’t be more delighted.

“It’s fantastic that we’re finally getting more coverage,” she said. “I really think it’s going to grow over the next few years. It’s about time.”

While France treated coverage of women’s rugby last year no differently to the men’s game, the same could not be said of the other Six Nations countries, with limited digital TV, online streaming and radio coverage on offer.

Taylor said: “There’s been a lot more momentum maybe in in the last three to four years, and this year’s obviously the greatest coverage, so hopefully that’s set the marker.

“Next year it will have to be better – and it will then become normal. That’s the hope, that we’re not pushing for women’s sport to be on TV, it’s just normal.”

Taylor, who was part of England’s 2014 World Cup-winning squad, believes there’s an appetite for women’s sport. She said: “I think the media do have a duty to put it out there and make sure that it is just ‘I want to watch a game of rugby’.

“I think that for a lot of sport, in terms of male or female and even disability sport: until you’ve watched it, how can you form an opinion on whether you want to watch or not?”

Ironically, Taylor thinks the lack of media attention to date has benefited England’s women, and the prospect of cameras won’t faze them. “The boys, they’re used to it, they don’t really think about it. We’re at the other end of the spectrum: we’re not used to it, so we don’t think about it.”

That may change when England kick off their campaign on February 4.

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For Taylor, that first match against France at Twickenham – which kicks off shortly after the men’s game finishes – cannot come quickly enough. “I love the Six Nations because you’ve nearly got an international every week. As a squad it’s a fantastic opportunity to get everyone together and try to build on past performances. It’s always been a competition I’ve loved.”

There’s a lot riding on England this year: “It’s a World Cup year, too, so there is a lot more pressure. When we won the World Cup  in 2014, we actually lost the Six Nations, which I think people forget, but it is one of those things where people expect us to be up there.

“France won the Six Nations last year and Ireland have been previous winners. I think it’s going to be a really exciting year.”

The 2017 tournament kicks off as the 2016 tournament ended: with ‘Le Crunch’, a fixture Taylor relishes. “The French have always been a massive rival of ours.

“We’ve looked at the analysis from the summer and autumn again this week, just to see if we can get ourselves on top of the game. Most of it is about trying to react to what happens on the pitch for 80 minutes.”

This year is not just a watershed one for the women’s game in the northern hemisphere, but for Taylor personally – who is two matches away from a century of caps. “I didn’t even really think it was a thing that people did – get to 100 caps,” she  said. “To be two away from it at the moment is sort of surreal.

“I supported Rocky (fellow England player Rochelle Clark) coming up to her 100th cap, I was so excited for her. I’ve known her for a long time, that was a big, exciting thing, and now to be about to do the same thing feels a little bit strange.

“It’s also highly pressured because I’m on 98, and you never know what’s going to happen with selection and stuff. Everybody’s talking about it but I’m just keeping my head down and hoping to get through it to the other side.”

The ‘other side’ includes the World Cup in Ireland, which kicks off in six months. This year, the England squad boasts more players than ever on professional contracts. “They have made a huge difference,” said Taylor. “For me, not to have to go to work on a Monday morning, having played club rugby five hours away from home is massive.

“The most important part is we’ve got time to train together. We’re together this week and next week, which will be the most amount of time ever, pre-Six Nations. It’s normally just a long weekend. If you add up all the hours, we’re putting ourselves in the best possible place ahead of the World Cup to know each other as a team and to have gelled.”

Taylor said she was looking forward to hopefully meeting the Black Ferns in the World Cup final: “Having played in three World Cups and lost to New Zealand in the first two, I’d like to beat them in the final. I think gone are the days when they were way out in front and no one could catch them.

“I think the strength of the women’s game across the whole world is immense. Sevens has really helped raise the profile and skill level. The main thing is I want it to be us in the final and I want us to win gold!”

For 35-year-old Taylor, the post-World Cup landscape  is an uncertain one: “I’m knocking on a little bit, and I’m not sure how much more international rugby I’ll be able to play – I want to play forever, as long as my body would let me.

“I don’t want to say I’m definitely going to do one thing or another, but I probably do need to start thinking about the real world, and what am I going to do with my weekends when I’m not playing as much rugby or travelling up and down the country. If anyone’s got any suggestions, that would be great!”

She added: “I coach at the moment I work for the governing body as a coach locally in Newcastle. It’s something I’ve done for quite a long time, in bits and pieces. Whether I continue to do that as a full-time job, I don’t know. I’ll always do it, I’ll always volunteer, it’s just making a decision whether that’s the way I go or if I go somewhere else – but I’ll definitely always coach.”

For the moment, Taylor and England’s focus is on the Six Nations and the World Cup – more than enough to be getting on with.