England flanker Marlie Packer returns to work as a plumber just four days ...

“I’d miss this,” she says, as she slips protective plastic covers over her

work boots before addressing the cistern. “Plumbing will always stay with

me. See, every day’s a school day. You always get something new, something

to learn from. Even if the women’s game did become professional and I got

the chance to go full time, I’d like to keep my hand in with the wrench.”

Mind, Packer was playing rugby long before she first encountered a leaking

stopcock. When she was five, living in Yeovil, a family friend offered to

take her to a junior rugby session.

“I think my mum thought I was just going along to watch,” she recalls. “But I

came back home covered in mud and from that moment on, really, I was

hooked.”

She made her way up through the age groups, battering boys along the way,

strong, quick, powerful, a rugby prodigy. She was picked for the England

team as an 18 year-old in 2008.

“I’d just left school and England’s rugby development officer asked me what I

planned to do as a career,” she recalls. “Plumbing just seemed to come up in

the conversation. In the three-year gap between my first and second

international cap I had done my apprenticeship and had become a qualified

plumber.”

By then, she had been signed by Wasps Ladies, and moved from the West Country

to London. With her qualifications, finding work in the capital was not a

problem.

“I got a job with Homeserve, as part of the team covering south west London.

When I first started it was shift work, doing every other weekend, even when

I had a match on. Some Sundays I’d work eight till eleven in the morning,

then go play for Wasps Ladies, get changed, then get in my van and go

straight back and work another five hours. Then I managed to speak to the

head of Homeserve, told him what I did and he allowed me to arrange my

shifts around training and games rather than the other way round, which has

been brilliant.”

Indeed her employers now regard her rugby career as a major commercial

benefit.

“We’re delighted to have her back at work,” says the company’s Mark Round, who

was there to welcome her on her return from the six weeks of unpaid leave

she had taken for the World Cup. “She’s fantastically customer driven, a

real ambassador for the firm. We’re not at all surprised she has become a

World Cup winner. It’s a testament to her character and hard work.”

Not that the job is always easy.

“I think the worst thing I had was a blocked lavatory, a bit of a nightmare,”

Packer recalls. “Usually when a blocked lavatory comes up on your line, you

know you just have to get on and get it done. But this one I was there

nearly a day trying to sort it. It wasn’t pleasant.”

Unpleasant or not, it presented the kind of conundrum which she feels is

entirely relevant to her rugby career.

“I think there are a lot of skills that are transferable,” she says. “When I

turn up for a plumbing job I have to think on my feet. And you have to think

on your feet in rugby, make quick decisions that aren’t planned. You have to

see what’s in front of you, assess it and overcome it.”

And what is ahead of her now is a Six Nations campaign, followed by a

determined bid to become part of the GB rugby sevens squad for the 2016

Olympics in Rio. Before that, there will be plenty of leaks to resolve.

“I think the advantage I have with my day job is I can switch off when I go to

a match or training. A teacher may have to come home to a load of marking.

Me, I shut the van door on my tools at the end of my shift and that’s that.

It’s just rugby then.”

Though this week there has been a lot more than just rugby in her life. Since

the victory in the final – celebrated until the early hours in a bar in

Paris with friends, family and supporters – she has found herself a sudden

point of intrigue.

“The amount of coverage has been awesome,” she says, the croak in her voice a

testament to the scale of Sunday night’s victory party. “But I do think

people are interested in us because we’ve got full time jobs. It makes us

just very ordinary. We’ve got vets, teachers, police officers, a plumber. We

don’t just train we’ve got lives outside the game. That sets us apart from

professional sportspeople. We’ve even got some of the girls who are mums.

Going to a World Cup and not being able to put your daughter to bed for

three weeks that must be tough going.”

As she talks, Packer swiftly, efficiently and with minimum fuss, finds the

leak, replaces a damaged pipe and clears up, ready to chuck her tools back

in the van and head off to her next job.

“Ooh well,” says the lady of the house as her visitor disappears with a cheery

smile and a signature on her paperwork. “It’s nice to have a celebrity come

and sort your piping.”

Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/28822882

England flanker Marlie Packer returns to work as a plumber just four days ...