Like many girls, I had the traditional introduction to playing rugby – which was watching while my brothers played and I wasn’t allowed to. That continued through most of my childhood until Sixth Form, where I was very lucky in having a teacher who’d played rugby at university. She was brilliant – and set up a women’s Team. She got balls and equipment and support from the boys side so we were able to play, and then I went to university and played all through my years at Cambridge, captaining the Blues. That was just fantastic – university rugby was really kind of where it was at. as the Club scene was really pretty small. I then played after university for a couple of years in a couple of different clubs before moving out to Central America where I was a scuba diving instructor in the Caribbean for five years. I went travelling for six months after Uni and came back five years years later! I’m a big believer in taking your opportunities when they appear. When I came back I had small children and so I kind of dipped in and out of the game a little bit. I played for a couple of clubs – I went to Shelford a little bit but really didn’t play much rugby at all until the women’s team set up here and decided that at the age of 42 it wasn’t too late to come back to the game.
As for immediate priorities, it’s tricky isn’t it? If I think about what Cambridge Rugby should look like, I want to see a club that’s deeply embedded in its community that supports performance rugby. My daughter has played for the Rubies, my son‘s currently in the Colts and he’s come through the system. What I really believe in is that connection between the performance side and the community side – I want to grow that and make that stronger because I think it’s by growing those links that you can help really build the performance side and get a really exciting atmosphere around around the men’s first team matches as well. I want to reach out to others in our community to really feel part of our membership. As a child, I was sitting on my dad‘s knee watching rugby at the local rugby club because that’s what you did. At university we used to go and sit at the rugby club and watch 6 Nations matches and the World Cup. I’d just left university in 2003 and I went back to my College to watch the RWC final with my team because that was what it meant – and I’d like Cambridge to be to be to have that feeling again. We have been doing some work on that, we’ve had some good events here around the 6 Nations and I’d like to grow that more and just make the club a place where you want to come and watch your rugby and hang out with your friends.
Whilst it’s not been a vintage season on the pitch for the Champ Rugby squad, obviously there are plans in place for next season. I’m an accountant by training and I’m never somebody who thinks that finance should wag the dog, however strong financial foundations are absolutely key. If I if I look back to when we got promoted, we were promoted in the very last moments of the season. And I think it’s probably fair to say we weren’t fully prepared for what for what coming up to the Championship meant. From my perspective if we do end up going down, it’s an opportunity to reset, to have a look at all our structures and really plan for promotion. That kind of foundation that makes coming back into Champ Rugby a lot a lot more viable. I think if we if we stay in the Champ, then great, we can still do that work. It’s about more than just the players on the squad. It’s about having a club that is built to support those players and also the community side, and it becomes a virtuous circle. That’s what I’d like to see.
Women’s Rugby is obviously my passion – it’s where I’ve spent most of my time – but a huge part of that is because of the women that play. Something we hear from people who join us from other clubs, is how amazing the sense of inclusiveness and support is, and that’s not necessarily consistent across women’s rugby as a whole, although it is probably more prevalent than in men’s rugby. With our development team coming up this year we’ve got opportunities for real beginners. You get a lot of people coming through – it you’ve never touched a rugby ball in your life and think that might be fun, this is the place to do it. The focus is on fun and always has been, that helps enormously, but we’re also extremely competitive. We’ve been unbeaten in the league this year – we’ve got three matches to go so so let’s see how we finish. I don’t think having fun and being at the top of your sport is mutually exclusive! The men’s 1st XV has always been a conduit for players on the England pathway – the international pathway for Prem loan players this season has been great, with four of them in England’s U20s 6 Nations squad. It’s a little bit easier to make the step up in the women’s game because there aren’t as many layers of competition and stand out players really do stand out very early. I think I think the women’s game is maturing. If I think back to when I was playing there were so few women who played at all – and at the age of 18 actually getting into the kind of representative squads, whilst it wasn’t exactly easy, the competition was certainly less.
The growth in the number of girls we have here in the Rubies this season has made my heart so glad – on International Women’s Day here at the Club we had five pitches full and every single pitch had a women or girls game on it and it was brilliant to see. We’ve nearly doubled the number of girls playing at the club this year. Sam and Nickie have done an incredible job at growing the Rubies – they’ve been working with schools, they’ve been working with the Brownies, with the Guides, they’ve done huge school taster events with 300-odd girls coming down and playing rugby, supported by coaches from our amazing Foundation.
I have to say for the 1st XV squad, the resilience that they’ve shown this season has been nothing short of incredible – it’s not easy to perform week after week in such a difficult situation and to keep going. The level of mental resilience that shows is a real credit to them and the coaching team.