'Letting people understand you as a person as well as a player is fundamental to our success'
Walking through the doors into England camp fills you with all sorts of emotions. On one end of the spectrum, it’s the excitement to see friends from different clubs, catch up and play some incredible rugby. On the other end it’s that pit of nerves for the grueling sessions ahead (including fitness testing!), it’s that imposter syndrome of ‘Am I really one of the best players in England to be in this room?’ But for sure, the excitement outweighs the nerves.
Our most recent camp had a lot of new younger faces which was refreshing. We had the likes of Steph Else and Millie Hyett from Gloucester-Hartpury who put in a shift, as well as Ella Cromack, the young Harlequins fly-half who was incredibly attentive and knew her detail.
It was really impressive to see and they definitely gained the respect of the group. It was also amazing to see Ellena Perry back in camp.
What a journey she has had. I played with Elle at divisional and England U20s level. She was a workhorse and could dominate both in attack and defence.
She’s been through a bit of a ride with rugby; a few head knocks and injuries, a few disappointing selection calls when involved in the EPS setup, but I am so glad that she is back on the pitch and could potentially pull on a white shirt in the 2024 Six Nations, with her little boy by her side.
Off-the-pitch experiences are just as important as on-pitch memories. Being able to share your story and let people understand you as a person as well as a player is fundamental to our success. One highlight for me from camp is that I’m going to be able to tick something off my bucket list… Steph Else lives on a farm in Yorkshire and she has dairy cows – I’m finally going to be able to milk a cow!
We are back at our clubs now, but the season is flying by and before we know it we will be on a plane to Italy, preparing for our first Six Nations fixture.
I am really excited for the second game against Wales at Ashton Gate. The location for this match is perfect as there will be many Welsh fans who make the drive across the bridge to show their support for the Welsh Women. The atmosphere, as like any England v Wales game will be incredible. A day full of passion, great ruby and bitter rivalries.
The game against Ireland on 20th April will hopefully be another history-maker. No, not because it’s my mum’s birthday (I couldn’t possibly not mention it!) but because we are back at HQ for the second year running in a standalone Six Nations game. As always we are wanting to keep moving forward and pushing boundaries, so I’m excited to see what attendance we can reach this year – one year out from a World Cup.
The Dual between Saracens and Harlequins was a massive occasion. The media team at Saracens did really well to promote it and make it really visible for people to get involved in the hype. We did a bit of a promo video of a confession booth and that went down really well. I think it put a bit of pressure on us because there was a bit of hype around it so we had to go out and perform.
There were some really positive bits of rugby, and there were also some parts where we probably didn’t execute. It’s now just a case of learning from Harlequins and taking it forward to the Super PWR weekend that’s coming up for us against Leicester Tigers and righting some wrongs again like we try and do every week.
The Super PWR weekend coming up will also be massive. Like anything, the only way you can get involved is if you can see it. There has definitely been a lot of promotion around it already. I hope it’s a weekend that can showcase what women’s rugby is about again and it’s another stepping stone in the right direction to try and make rugby a sport that’s ever-evolving, and getting us in a good place for the Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2025.
Hopefully it will also help with the PWR’s ten-year plan of trying to make the league professional. It’s a really good starting platform for us and it showcases that there are a lot of stakeholders trying to get involved and make the sport a better place to be.
Looking ahead to our next game, Leicester Tigers have come on massively. You can see that from the last few results that they’ve had, they’ll definitely be feeling good in that sense. We saw the news about them having five points deducted because of the EQP requirements, but aside from that they’re starting to put a really good team together.
It’s exciting that they are being able to do that as a new team next year. They’ll be coming to the StoneX, they’ve got some key playmakers that I actually think will really thrive on an artificial pitch as well. It will be a game that will be completely different to when we played them at Mattioli Woods Welford Road in the first half of the season.
Comments on RugbyPass
It will interesting to know which Irish players said that…
1 Go to commentsNaaaww boys will be boys! Now run along ya wee scamp! Don’t let us catch you at again😏
1 Go to commentsGreat to have Ethan Blackadder back in the Crusaders in the last few weeks. One of the best all round loose forwards around. He played so well last week against the Rebels. Fantastic attitude Ethan has and his comments are spot on.
2 Go to commentsThe author is 100% right. The Springboks know that they don't have near the natural attraction, mana, skill and mystic the All Blacks have. So, Chasing the sun 1 & 2 was concocted to overblow the Boks image on the back of a corruptly obtained “win". It's marketing ploy to force the Boks delusion as the World's Best. I guess World Rugby is also not to be believed when it came out with an apology about how the final was officiated. And if the 2023 final such a superb game by the Boks, then the Boks crying about Referee Bryce Lawrence for decades is also deserves a laugh. Chase the sun and get burned like a moth. A very well written literary piece that tore the Boks and Chasing the sun farce to shreds. 🖤All Blacks🏉
144 Go to commentsI’d say France was far more hard done by in the 2011 final than the All Blacks in this game. Joubert simply refused to call a penalty against the All Blacks in the last quarter even directing an All Black to drop a ball he picked up in an offside position rather than penalizing him. This article also totally discounts the efforts of PSTD. Ask Jordie how well he played. Or the backup flank who played hooker for the entire game. Siya was also a brilliant tackle by Richie from scoring a blinder. Pollard was also fantastic. Look I don’t like the boks style but the only thing more questionable than the content of this article is the timing of it. Get over it already
144 Go to commentsDad Marty was also a handy rugby player for Linwood back in the day. Great bloke. Sensational softball career.
2 Go to commentsWhat ifs are always dangerous. If you look at the game before Sam cane got sent of SA was dominating. You could make the argument the going down to 14 men rallied the troops and made them have to play to win which is always dangerous.
144 Go to commentsOmg… you are bruised And battered Benny. Stop crying … the scoreboard speaks. What a pathetic lover you are.. 🤣🤣🤣
144 Go to commentsPacific Lions, cry me a river
144 Go to commentsThis is the single worst piece of journalism I have ever seen since your last one. As a neutral, who really states that there should be an asterisk next to a win? You are an utter embarrassment to real AB fans, journalism and that joke of a house which pays you for this nonsense. Get a life, Ben.
144 Go to commentsGuys. Cancel the World Cup champions after this analysis. It changes everything. Ben knows. We’ll have to unengrave the Bokke off the trophy and hand it to the ABs, now that I’ve been enlightened about this illegitimate win. This needs to be done. Now!
144 Go to commentsBen is right here though, Springboks were woefully poor with the advantage they had throughout this game. The France match was heroic because that was an even contest this match had it taken place in Rugby Championship would have been an easy win for NZ. If anything this match should tell the Bok coaches that a lot of this team should be changed. They beat this same NZ team by record margin with the same circumstances but with a different core. They bring back the tried and tested guys and they nearly botch this game.
144 Go to commentsI knew who wrote this article from the first few words in the headline…lol. The red card actually did the ABs a favour. It galvanized them, only then did they step up a gear. Before that there was zero momentum.
144 Go to commentsFirstly the foul on Bongi was a planned move just like the NZ master plan with Bryce Lawrence you kiwis are filthy fux perhaps try to play a cleaner game next time I doubt that’s possible tho but don’t worry world rugby is on yr side they trying to take away all the BOKS strengths to help all you weakling as Jeremy Clarkson would say LA OO ZA ERR..🤣
144 Go to commentsAbsolutely spot on Ben. I certainly wouldn't gloat over a win like that. Frustrating as it is it's done and dusted and history will forever show the result.
144 Go to commentsHo hum.
144 Go to commentsNo question they were the better team. But that is the beauty of sport isn’t it!
144 Go to commentsEveryone is into Hurling in Ireland according to Porter, but only 11 of Ireland's 32 counties enter a team into the national competition. Same old blarney.
1 Go to commentsLet’s be honest. The draw and scheduling in the World Cup was a joke but South Africa found a way after having to go the hard (nearly impossible) way to the Cup Final via France and England. NZ had a hard game against France (lost) and had 5 weeks to prepare for the Quarter, 3 weeks knowing it was Ireland. NZ theerfore had to win one big game against an Irish team who played SA and then Scotland 7 days before. They won and it was de facto a semi final because they were playing a relatively weak Argentina team and it was a walk over. In the final a very rested NZ team was playing a very tired SA team and still lost. They couldn’t score more than 11 points. Put another way SA had to find a way to win while tired and they achieved that. NZ should thank their lucky stars that they fixed the scheduling in 2015 otherwise they would be dealing with a Bok treble.
144 Go to commentsPerhaps if Bongi wasn’t targeted and removed from the game in the first 3 minutes it would have been quite a different game. Maybe if NZ also faced the same competition the Boks faced to their win NZ would have looked quite different. The final score shows who outplayed who.
144 Go to comments