'The classic one is always, are you a hooker? That is just so out of date. Unbelievable'
Rachael Burford isn’t one for comparing women’s rugby to the men’s game. After all, it’s forever like comparing apples and oranges. However, one thing is certain. That winning a World Cup will be a life-changing experience if Eddie Jones’ men’s side can get the job done next Saturday in Yokohama versus South Africa.
Burford knows from experience. It was five years ago in Paris when England’s women conquered the world and players who went to France as relative sports unknowns came home to embrace attention they never imagined getting.
“Initially there was a lot of coverage around it [the RWC win],” Burford told RugbyPass, thinking back to the balmy August Parisian evening when rivals Canada were beaten 21-9 at Stade Jean-Bouin eight days after the same two countries played out a 13-all draw in a pool-closing fixture.
“People wanted to know about you and hear your stories, you got invited to a lot of great places and met a lot of good people and those relationships have continued now. I think about the amount of events I got invited to speak at, that was massive, doing public speaking. Now I do all of that away from the pitch career-wise, so it opened up new doors and new challenges for me that are still going strong today.”
On Tuesday night, for instance, the 33-year-old veteran of four women’s World Cup campaigns was part of the television coverage for the new RugbyX tournament that took place in London. Nice exposure for her at the end of a month where her academy is busy over the school half-term and she herself only recently returned to playing for table-topping Harlequins following a lengthy lay-off with hamstring surgery.
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The bottom line is that after so many years of blood, sweat and tears trying to be the best she could be as an amateur, rugby is paying the bills despite the recent setback of her injury being a contributory factor to her not being included in the latest list of 28 players centrally contracted full-time by the RFU for 2019/20.
“I have done so many different types of jobs,” she recalled. “I have been a multi-sport coach, a personal trainer, a sales assistant, a nanny, I worked part-time as a nanny during the 2010 World Cup just so that I could have the afternoons and evenings to myself. Just an array of stuff like that.
“For the majority of my life my career was always rugby and I just did work to facilitate being a rugby player. It was worth it,” she said before explaining the decision surrounding the launch of her own rugby academy. “There was lots of worries initially. It was kind of, I needed to have something to help supplement being a full-time player because you never knew when you were going to get your next contract or you weren’t.
Insane night! What a spectacle @RugbyXOfficial was!!! We had it all! Awesome to work with the pro’s @benshephard and @ugomonye and all of the @ITVRugby crew. #RugbyX #heretostay https://t.co/R1o27aFhg8
— Rachael Burford (@RachaelBurf12) October 30, 2019
“I wanted to have something on the side and at the time I was doing it on my own and not really sure it was a jump for me to take. It just took a couple of people to actually believe in me and say, ‘Yes, I think the content is really good’. I just threw myself into it and now it has been a really good success.”
Burford is one of many role models for aspiring young girls growing up nowadays looking to get involved in the sport, a situation that simply didn’t exist when she first picked up the ball aged six and went on to spend 10 years learning the game at Medway.
Filling the void were the likes of Mickey Skinner, an early 90s bulwark on the England men’s scene. “I just remember watching as a young kid him making the crunch tackles,” she explained. “Dan Luger also visited my rugby club, but no women ever did. That is another factor, all the England girls are now big role models and they get out to all the clubs, work with schools and things like that to try and inspire the next generation.
didi rugby has launched a partnership with the @BurfAcademy.
See why @vixter15 and @RachaelBurf12 have joined forced to get more children having fun and enjoying rugby.https://t.co/2ttRZjMH3Y
— @didirugby (@didi_rugby1) August 19, 2019
“If you go back to when I was younger I didn’t really know what was going on in an international sense, never mind imagining the idea of it being full-time. That would have been quite remarkable. It is inspiring that more girls and women around the world and the country now see rugby can be a profession.
“It can be a full-time job it they want it to be. You now have this opportunity whereas if you rewind five years ago that would not have been the case. It is a great mindset and a great place to be. Hopefully, we can improve year on year.”
With it, some terrible sexist attitudes that surrounded the women’s game have been confronted and are being eradicated. “The classic one is always, ‘are you a hooker?’ That is just so out of date. Unbelievable. The difference? If you’re sat at a table and one bloke says it, it is actually the other people at the table who will say, ‘mate, that is not okay, that is not where the game is now’.
? Re-live Saturday's drama by taking a look back at all six of our tries from our match against Loughborough Lightning! #COYQ pic.twitter.com/rZyCg3v8JT
— Harlequins Women ? (@HarlequinsWomen) October 28, 2019
“It is rare now that you hear it but it is still out there. They think they are cracking a joke and having a bit of banter, but it is really poor banter,” she explained, calling on those sceptical about women’s rugby to come and take in a Tyrrells Premier 15s match over the winer.
“Come and challenge your own perception. Come down and see what is on offer. The skill level is actually always commented on compared to the men because it is a little higher – we don’t have that brute strength and speed, so we have to be a little bit better technically.
“Just come and take an opportunity to challenge yourself in what you think women’s rugby is. Our skill levels have to be higher because you haven’t got 110-kilo players running around in our sport, using just brute strength to get through.
The scores on the doors ahead of the international break make good reading for @HarlequinsWomen and @SaracensWomen who are separated by just ONE point ?
Who is going to be the first to slip up ? #Premier15s pic.twitter.com/yWKFaPmnEX
— Tyrrells Premier 15s (@Premier15s) October 26, 2019
“You have got to be a little more agile and a little more thinking on your feet. That side of it complements our game,” ventured the Harlequins skipper whose optimism for the success of the elite club league in England isn’t mirrored by her current outlook for the sport at Test level where there is a growing gap between certain countries.
“If we are honest the imbalance is already there,” she said. “If you look at Six Nations, England are very far ahead and that is not England’s responsibility to make other internationals in other unions to try and catch up and come up to speed with them.
“Unions have to take responsibility for what they do in their domestic game and what they are doing with their international game. What we don’t want to do as a club [Harlequins] and as a country [England] is just sit still and wait. We want to keep pushing on and push the limits as much as we can.”
WATCH: The acclaimed RugbyPass documentary Saracens Women – Going Pro, which takes a behind the scenes look at their 2018/19 Tyrrells Premier 15s title defence
Comments on RugbyPass
We’re building a bridge but can't agree where the river is.
2 Go to commentsfirst no arms shoulder or helmet tackle into his rib cage is going to be so very painful even to watch. go back to RU mate.
1 Go to commentsBulls by 5. Plus another 50.
3 Go to commentsJohan Goosen avatar. Cute. Surely someone at RP knows how to do a google image search?
3 Go to commentsCan’t these games play a little earlier? Asking for a friend.
3 Go to commentsIt’s impressive that we can see huge stadiums with attendance in the 40 000 to 50 000 region. It shows how popular this competition is becoming. What is even more impressive is the massive growth in broadcast viewership. The URC is one of the two best leagues in the World, the other being the Top14.
7 Go to commentsChristie is not Sottish, like the majority of the Scotland team.
2 Go to commentsHold the phone, decline over-rated. Is it a one game, dead cat bounce or the real thing? Has the Penney dropped? Stay tuned.
45 Go to commentsTotally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
2 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
7 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
45 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
45 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to comments