Poppy Cleall: 'Once you’re not picked, you can’t really do much about it'

When Poppy Cleall was told that she had lost her RFU contract she decided to do everything possible to play at the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup.

A couple of months after that conversation with England Red Roses boss John Mitchell, the 33-year-old won her 66th cap against France at Kingsholm. She was not entirely out of the conversation.

Upon announcing his squad for 2024’s WXV 1 in Vancouver, Mitchell even said, “there’s still light at the end of the tunnel for her to make it.”

A stalwart of the England pack from virtually the very moment she won her first cap in 2016, Cleall had nearly done it all in a Red Roses shirt. It did not feel like long ago she was considered undroppable.

Over the years Cleall has been a two-time Women’s Rugby World Cup runner-up, seven time Women’s Six Nations Grand Slam winner, England captain, a Women’s Six Nations Player of the Championship and was a World Rugby Women’s 15s Player of the Year nominee in 2021.

In the 14 months after she lost her contract Cleall’s every waking hour was consumed with holding herself to a professional standard with Saracens. Even if her income did not match her dream of playing at a third Women’s Rugby World Cup.

Ultimately the forward did not get back into the squad. And after she had watched players wearing the jersey she treasured become world champions against Canada, it was time for a change.

Out came an application to become a trainee police officer with Thames Valley Police.

“I lost my contract a year and two months before I got this job with the police,” Cleall said. “I decided to try and put myself in the best place to still get selected for the World Cup.

“I didn’t get another job outside of rugby, so for 14 months I didn’t really have a salary. I just concentrated on playing, recovering and all the stuff that full-time athletes get to do.

“Then, after the World Cup, it was just like, time for the next journey. The next purpose. That’s probably what the police have given me, more of a purpose and sense of achievement.”

It has been a long-held ambition of Cleall’s to join the police force. As an 18-year-old she had applied. That time her application did not go anywhere. Instead she joined the prison service before spending seven years as a professional rugby player between 2017 and 2024.

Working life is not without its foibles. Her drive to the training centre in Reading is one hour from home, then there’s a nine hour shift, another drive to train with Saracens for two hours and then back home. Then she does it all again the next day.

But there is no hint of complaint in Cleall’s voice. If anything the inflection with which the Red Roses’ speaks is one of enjoyment.

“If four years ago, I’d had a career-ending injury, it would have been the most horrific thing that ever happened to me,” Cleall said. “It would have been so hard. But I feel like when you can start to accept it and you do get to a point where you’re like, okay this could be my last season, you do start thinking about it.”

PWR

P

W

L

D

PF

PA

PD

BP T

BP-7

BP

Total

1

Saracens Women

11

10

1

0

50

2

Gloucester-Hartpury Women RFC

10

10

0

0

50

3

Exeter Chiefs Women

11

5

3

3

35

4

Harlequins Women

11

5

5

1

33

5

Trailfinders Women

11

4

5

2

32

6

Loughborough Lightning

10

3

5

2

23

7

Sale Sharks Women

11

3

7

1

23

8

Bristol Bears Women

11

3

7

1

20

9

Leicester Tigers Women

10

0

10

0

1

A big reason for that enjoyment is the Norwich-born forward’s long-standing ambition of joining the police. Because as much as it is a job, it is something that provides a sense of identity.

“I think it stems from wanting to help people, plus not being scared to put myself out there to do that,” Cleall said. “I feel like I’m the sort of person that just gets stuck in and faces things head on. That sense of duty to do something.

“It’s given me that drive and structure after seven years of being a professional rugby player. There was one thing I never achieved in my career that I’d have wanted to, and that was to win a World Cup.

“I wasn’t picked to be part of the team. Once you’re not picked, you can’t really do much about it. Whereas in policing, it’s where I want to go and what I want to pursue. That’s nice.”

Everything about Cleall is matter of fact. There are no airs or graces. That is possibly one of the main reasons that she has enjoyed such a storied career. And why she is so comfortable with her decision to balance work and rugby again.

She described the choice to not work for 14 months as a “decision” and not the “sacrifice” that others may perceive it as.

When she was coming through the ranks with Bristol in 2010 as an 18-year-old the No.8 had to work. Professionalism for women’s rugby players did not exist.

For the most-part it still does not. Plenty of players plying their trade in PWR arrive at training sessions with their club of an evening having just completed a day’s work. It is only the lucky few that are able to call themselves fully professional and enjoy all the benefits that job title includes.

“I was a receptionist for a fancy dress company,” Cleall chuckled. “That didn’t last long. I worked as a prison officer. I worked for Amber Reed’s dad doing admin. I worked in the Co-Op. In one of those boxes in a supermarket where you buy travel money for 12 hours a day.

“When I first got my debut for England I was working in the prison and used my normal holiday as time off. That was normal. Then when you wanted to go on holiday you couldn’t because your holiday was used to play rugby at the weekend.

“You pulled in favours and even worked overtime to get the semi-final off so you could play in the Prem final. That was normal back then.”

Even though Cleall is more than content in her decision, she does admit that if a call was to come from a certain head coach’s office in West London, she would come running.

 

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“If Mitch rang me and said, ‘hey Pops, we’ve got loads of injuries, do you want to come in?’, I’d be in,” Cleall said. “It’s not saying anything is shut off. It is just saying that I’ve got to the point that I’m happy to leave being a professional rugby player behind and being semi-professional and doing something new.”

Cleall was one of the 81,885 people at Allianz Stadium the day that the Red Roses finally scratched an 11 year itch and became world champions again.

The 33-year-old has not missed a Women’s Rugby World Cup final for the best part of two decades. In her late teens she was a volunteer for the 2010 tournament. Although she describes it as “the worst job” because she could not actually watch the games, only open the doors for players at Surrey Sports Park.

Four years later she camped in the French countryside ahead of watching England beat Canada at a sodden Stade Jean-Bouin. Three years later she was a runner-up in Ireland and the same again five years later in New Zealand.

Basking in the final dregs of summer, sat in the stands for a Women’s Rugby World Cup final for the first time since she was a teenager, Cleall did get a sense of satisfaction watching her friends lift a trophy into the pale blue sky.

“You’re so close to it and so far away at the same time,” Cleall said. “But you do get a sense of achievement because no one can ever take away the last two World Cups.

“I wasn’t buzzing about second, but I still look back and say ‘wow’. I was still a runner-up in a World Cup.”

In the months since that storied day in TW2, Cleall has busied herself getting to grips with balancing working life with rugby again. As well as contending with the M25 of an evening.

Saracens currently top the PWR table after their 45-7 win over Exeter Chiefs in Round 12. In that game Cleall was front and centre of things as the North Londoners ran in seven tries against Steve Salvin’s top four contenders at StoneX Stadium.

The first two of those tries were ran in by Cleall, whose pièce de resistance was saved until the second half when she collected her own chip-and-chase from the back of a scrum. Hauled down just a couple metres short of the try line, Tori Sellors finished off the move in the corner. All in a day’s work.

But that performance was no aberration. All season Cleall has been lobbing 20 metre passes, hoovering up carries and leaving defenders clutching at air as she hopes to win a fifth English league title with the North Londoners.

So far this season she has made 163 carries, made 524 metres, completed 22 offloads, beaten 24 defenders, made 145 tackles and even won 11 turnovers. It has been otherworldly stuff.

The reason why? Well, a lot of it has to do with rugby not consuming her every thought. It is far better to enjoy things.

“I don’t have to worry about the stats,” Cleall laughed. “I don’t have to worry about whether I did enough tackles. Did I get off the floor quickly? I did that stuff because I knew somebody’s on their computer looking at it and deciding if I get picked that weekend.

“It’s a bit more freedom. You’re happy if someone else gets picked and they’re making their debut. We got the Canadians coming over, when it’s their first games, you’re happy they’re playing.

“It more of a nicer environment. I still enjoy going out to play rugby at the weekend. But then I’ve got other things to concentrate on. When I get home on a Sunday I’m charging my work phone, my work laptop and going straight to bed for work on Monday.”

At the start of this season Cleall’s twin sister, Bryony, retired covered in red confetti as Saracens won the PWR Cup to start the campaign. A few months on, Bryony is “loving” retirement. But weekends with no rugby are not calling for Cleall just yet. No matter the five star reviews.

Cleall still has a few things she wants to achieve. These days, those goals come both on and off the pitch. And, honestly, if the past one and a half decades are anything to go by, you would be better off backing the 33-year-old.

“I’ve got to win the Prem again before I go,” Cleall said. “I want to win it before I leave. If I don’t, I wouldn’t be too heartbroken. You know Georgie Gulliver? The way she went out (in Saracens’ Premier 15s final win against Harlequins in 2019), I was envious. It could not have been any more perfect for her.

“I want to be the best I can in police work. In the community that I can help. I know what I want to do. I just need to get my head down, work hard and prove myself. We’ll see what happens.”