Sarah Hunter Achieves Rugby Dreams - page 2

5 months ago 18th Jun 10:40

Hopefully this will increase the levels of participation in the sport and get them to continue a sport that they enjoy, just walking around here today they are having such a brilliant time and you wouldn't even notice the difference between the boys and girls and some of them are out-sizing the boys which is really good to see.

- And how did you get involved with rugby yourself?

I started playing in primary school when I was nine, it wasn't as well organised in terms of national competition but we had a rugby coach come in for a four or five week period and introduce rugby into our PE lessons.

We didn't have a national run programme or competition to go from there but I was fortunate as I had a local club that I would go and play for and I just continued to play through there, but there were only two girls on the team so it wasn't as accessible as it is now for girls and that programme is brilliant for that.

- To a certain extent the women's game is still very much in the shadow of the men, it's the same with cricket and football, but how has that changed in recent years?

I completely agree with that but the time that I have been involved we are overcoming that but with sport, and women's sport n particular we are going to struggle with that over the next couple of years.

We now have links with men's premiership academies so we are sort of getting recognised there and we are getting more coverage, press coverage, through TV, I mean our games aren't shown live but we do get air time on the Premierships Total Rugby Club so we are getting more time that way.

The sport is also becoming more and more accessible via the internet we just need to raise the profile, and the fact that we have won the Six Nations four times in a row now people are starting to become more aware of it.

Next year we have got our World Cup ,and it's going to be based in London, so there is a lot of publicity time to be dome on that and Sky Sports have agreed to show our games live which is fantastic for us, we have never had that opportunity in the past before, so that's step in the right direction.

We also now run parallel to the men's RBS Six Nations so when their games are on our games are on so it's slowly raising the standard, awareness and image of the game but I agree when the women cricketers won the World Cup how much coverage did they get compared to the men?

So it's a continuing fighting battle but it's not just rugby it's women's sport in general but hopefully changing the perception of the women's game will influence that as well.

- Opportunities aren't widely available to girls at school so what advice do you have for girls who are interested in the sport?

Well there are now junior clubs, which I didn't really have; we only had one or two in a hundred mile region, but now the RFUW, our governing body, are working really hard to set up links between schools and clubs so after playing rugby in PE they have somewhere to go after that.

It's just about the girls being quite pro-active in finding a club that's near to them where they can go an play because there are certainly clubs out there that now how junior clubs to continue after school.

- You play for Lichfield and England did you always want to pursue a career in rugby and what else do you want to achieve in the sport?

Because I played from such a young age I always wanted to play rugby but unlike a lot of the girls here to day I wasn't sure that there was a women's international team to play for. But as soon as I did find out, I think most sports people who are competitive aim to achieve the best and be the best, and as soon as I found out that was my dream; to play for England.

Fortunately I have managed to achieve that and my next goal is to play in that World Cup final next year and win that with England. But as well as playing rugby I do have to work, it's just an office job, so it allows me the time off and the flexibility to carry out my training and ultimately achieve my goal.

Who knows after that I would quite like to work in coaching and coach development and work within the sport and get people fit and active and maybe help other achieve and pursue their dreams.

- Finally what's next for you?

Next for me we have got England camps in the summer and then we are off, hopefully depending on selection, off to Canada for a competition out there between ourselves, Canada, USA and France.

In November we have the All Blacks coming over for an autumn open series, which will be our biggest competition and biggest test since the world cup final last time. So we have got a few busy months ahead of us and some tough games so it will be  good fun, hard work but good fun.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw