How potato picking made a Womens Rugby World Cup winner out of England ...

“This is all just ridiculous. I have felt the attention building since 2010,

when the World Cup was in this country. Now I receive messages saying: ‘You

have my daughter wanting to play rugby’.”

It is said of Scarratt that she can be the sisterhood’s Jonny Wilkinson, in

light of her decisive contribution in the final, but she much prefers the

parallels with Brian O’Driscoll. “Oh, I don’t mind those at all,” she says,

laughing. “We’re very similarly minded as players. We both like to kick the

ball, we both try to release our wingers. I hope, too, that I’m a bit of a

calm head in the back line, keeping everyone at an even temperament in

pressurised situations.” Any attributes she would like to be defined by?

“Oh, wow. I’d like to think I run some reasonably good lines – hard, direct,

bursting through the gaps.”

^{Glory moment: Emily Scarratt scores in the World Cup final}

Far more than a stabilising force, Scarratt was the top scorer of the

tournament, with 70 points. Heralded by England captain Katy Mclean, a

fellow teacher, as a “phenomenal, world-class” talent, the 24‑year‑old is

also formidably versatile, combining her accomplishments in the 15‑woman

game with an aspiration to represent her country in sevens when the sport

makes its debut at the Rio Olympics.

For now, however, the priority is her pupils. One of her class graduated last

year to the Leicester academy, barely 10 miles from the Scarratts’ Desford

farm. She claims, modestly: “The improvement that you see in them is far

more rewarding.”

Her upbringing in this bucolic idyll, deep in the self‑styled ‘Heart of

England’, ultimately proved conducive to the overt physicality that has been

her stock in trade ever since. “My dad was born here, the third generation

of farmers, and this has been the family home all the time I have been

alive,” she explains. “We couldn’t just wander to the local park, but we’re

very fortunate in terms of the space we have around us. I remember throwing

a tennis ball around the house to burn off some energy.

^{On target: Emily Scarratt lines up a kick at goal}

“I can’t confess the farming itself was a big occupation, but I’ve loved being

able to help. When I was younger, I would collect the potatoes. Last year, I

was out on the round-bailer after I came back from a tour of New Zealand.

Sometimes it’s restful just to sit on a tractor and bomb around a field.”

The assimilation into rugby began when Scarratt was seven, when, in an escape

from her harvesting duties, she would follow her elder brother Joe to his

local rugby classes. Seventeen years ago, the women’s game remained a remote

and marginalised province, hidebound by stubborn stereotypes. Indeed, it was

not until the 1998 World Cup in Holland that the premier competition

received any television coverage. Scarratt, placing her love of the sport’s

athleticism above any fear of shuddering hits, did not allow the

preconceptions to deter her.

^{On the run: Emily Scarratt makes a trademark break against Canada}

“For me, and even more so for my mum and dad, this has never been about making

a living, or choosing the sport that would gain you most exposure. It has

genuinely been about doing what I love to do, because otherwise, what’s the

point? When I first started playing, I was the only girl in the team most of

the time, and I had to play with the boys.

“Among the girls, nobody else was playing at such a high level. But until I

was 15, and called to the Under-20 trials, it never even occurred to me that

I might represent England. It just all steamrollered in that direction.”

If Scarratt is at all bothered by the prominent graze on her right wrist, her

only visible war wound from five weeks of confrontation on Parisian fields,

she does not let it show. “Injury-wise, I’ve been very lucky. I’ve never had

anything too serious. We all learn how to tackle, how to fall properly. We

go to the gym, build up strength, so we can deal with contact situations.”

^{Winning feeling: England celebrate in the World Cup final in Paris}

By far the greater anxiety for Scarratt is the conundrum of juggling work

commitments with her duties as England’s talismanic star. She freely

concedes she would “spiral into a panic” if her employers were not more

empathetic. And yet she neatly learned to master this dual existence during

her student days at Leeds Met, where she read for a degree in sports science

and once took her dissertation materials with her to a Six Nations training

camp in Ireland. “I would be sitting there whenever I had a spare moment,

plotting all my graphs and working out my standard deviations,” she recalls.

Hypothetically, she craves nothing more than to make rugby her primary

focus, acknowledging: “If you offered me the chance to play professionally

tomorrow, then I would definitely take it.”

Realistically, the dawn of the professional era is unlikely to come until

after she has ceased playing, but a World Cup victory – one that even drew

recognition from the Prime Minister on his holiday in Cornwall – casts

Scarratt and her team-mates in the role of trailblazers.

It is a responsibility that she is happy to embrace. “If it inspires young

girls to pick up a rugby ball, and if it means more clubs want to introduce

girls’ sections, that is brilliant. All we can do is to continue elevating

the profile. A lot of people didn’t even know we existed beforehand.”

Scarratt, having formed part of the team defeated by New Zealand in the 2010

final at Twickenham, is determined for this euphoric sensation not to end.

Asked if England are capable of cementing their pre-eminence after

vanquishing the Canadians, she replies: “That’s what all of us are working

towards. It’s about dominating rugby, rather than having your name once on a

cup. It’s the ultimate goal.”

If ever her passion should drift through the sopping-wet winter sessions ahead

on the King Edward’s pitches, this ambition alone ought to sustain her.

Article source: http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Exeter-Chiefs-confirm-departure-Bristol-Rugby/story-21147665-detail/story.html

How potato picking made a Womens Rugby World Cup winner out of England ...