Rowland praises 'standout' Morrall after Breakthrough Player of the Season nomination

Helena Rowland understands the hype around her Loughborough Lightning teammate Carmela Morrall.

Last week the 21-year-old centre was nominated for Premiership Women’s Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Season at this year’s Rugby Awards.

Morrall, 21, was nominated for the award alongside Haineala Lutui, 19, who made her Red Roses debut at this year’s Guinness Women’s Six Nations.

The centre was part of John Mitchell’s wider squad as the world champions claimed an eighth Championship in a row but did not make an appearance for England.

So far in the 2025/26 PWR season, Morrall has started in all 16 of Loughborough’s league matches and made her 50th appearance for the club against Saracens in December.

Handed more match minutes after the retirement of the legendary Emily Scarratt, Morrall has thrived in the midfield for Loughborough this season as a gainline runner and midfield distributer.

Regularly partnered by Alev Kelter in the midfield and playing outside of Scotland fly-half Helen Nelson, it has been a coming of age campaign for the young centre.

“I think she has been massive for Lightning this season,” Rowland said. “She has played every game, she has been so consistent, and this year, there has been a real opportunity for her to step up and lead. She has had that vice-captaincy role, and also directing around the pitch.

“Losing Scaz [Emily Scarratt] from that playing role, and I have only played three or four games this season as well, so there was a lot on Cam’s [Morrall] and Nelly’s [Helen Nelson] shoulders to direct the team around. She has really stepped up into that role.

“I think she has been a real standout for us and you can see just how much she has developed. Having that regular starting role has been massive for her, she has been around for a few years without necessarily nailing that down.

“There’s incredibly exciting things to come from her. She is only young, and fully deserves to be on that shortlist for Breakthrough Player of the Year.

“She has had an extremely good season, she has been a massive part of everything that has gone well for Lightning this year and it is not always easy, she has been huge.”

Due to injury, Rowland has only managed two PWR appearances this season, meaning that the most the 26-year-old saw of Morrall was in Red Roses camp.

In a campaign where England boss John Mitchell handed out debuts to Lutui, Demelza Short, Millie David, Christiana Balogun and Haidee Head were all handed debuts, the midfield combination of Rowland and Meg Jones remained so strong that Morrall was largely surplus to requirements.

As a result the 21-year-old bounced between the senior England camp and the Under-21 set-up. While the young Roses finished third after losses to Ireland and France, Morrall started in two fixtures and captained the side in their loss to the French in Bedford.

“She obviously wasn’t necessarily expecting to come into the senior squad, or have quite as much time in camp as she did, but she fully took her chance with both hands,” Rowland said.

“The way she stepped up in training, how vocal she was, the way she was bossing people around that are way more experience than she is, that is the type of player you need in these environments.

“It is something I wish I would’ve had the confidence to do when I first came in, to come in and be that vocal, and boss people around, it was very impressive and I think she trained really well.

“I hope she gets another opportunity come the autumn. She went and play a bit with the U21s and was a big part of their success against Scotland, and played a big part in everything that went well in the other games, coming off the bench against Ireland especially.

“It was probably quite tough bouncing between the two, doing a lot of training with the seniors, she fully embraced it and it looked like she had been there for years, not weeks.”

Bonus point wins required

This weekend’s Lightning host Saracens at cinch Stadium @ Franklin’s Gardens in their penultimate game of the PWR season.

As things stand, head coach Nathan Smith and his team hold faint hope of reaching the semi-finals. Eight points adrift of fourth-place Trailfinders Women, the East Midlanders require bonus point wins against Saracens and Leicester Tigers across the next fortnight and for other results to go their way.

“We’ve probably made it a bit difficult for ourselves, which is probably the classic Lightning way,” Rowland said. “Things are largely out of our control now, but we still have something to fight for. We know Saracens is a massive game; it always is.

“Nothing less than a win will do for us, so that’s a massive focus for us this weekend to go into the last weekend with a fighting chance. We’ve got an important couple of games left to finish the season, so attention switches back to that now, but we’re fully prepped to go this week in a big game.”