Every week this half term, we will be running an elite Q&A with top women’s sports stars.  In the first of our ‘In Conversation With’ series, we were lucky enough to speak to England Women’s Rugby Captain Sarah Hunter, who has won over 120 caps for her country and was also voted World Rugby’s Women’s Player of the Year in 2016.

Sarah spoke first about her journey from all-round keen sports player to leading her club and England. She started playing rugby aged 9 in mixed teams until 13, managing to combine playing both netball, rugby and athletics to a high standard, before specialising in rugby. Following a pathway from age 15, Sarah achieved county, regional then age graded rugby honours before making the senior England rugby team in 2007 alongside our very own Miss Nicholas! 

A professional rugby player only since January 2019, Sarah told us how far the game had come in recent years, having spent 12 years juggling playing for England with a full time job or education. She spoke passionately about her sport and the opportunities that rugby has opened up for her, including wonderful memories of playing in front of a home crowd in a World Cup Final in 2010, then becoming a World Cup winner four years later in France. As she told us, “I’ve made some great friends along the way – sport has enabled me to do some amazing things that I would not have been able to do without it.”

Then Sarah kindly took questions from our audience, ranging from Year 7 up to our Sixth Form.

Q: How have you changed your routine during the lockdown?

A: Sarah explained that the players still have a training programme to follow, but it’s difficult at home in a flat with no home gym, bike or rowing machine, so you have to be more inventive to get a block of training in. Each week her club, Loughborough Lightning hold a Zoom session, with players taking it in turns to lead the sessions. “It’s hard when you are used to playing in a team sport – you can feel quite isolated when there is no one else to train with, so these zoom sessions are great when you are on your own – I got a real buzz  doing the sessions – you take training up another notch because you don’t want other people to see you are doing less than the others!”

Nutrition-wise –it’s about balance – you don’t want to put on the wrong type of weight or lose your muscle mass. It’s quite easy to go into the fridge or cupboard especially if you are a bit bored. You think more about the amount of energy you are exerting and your protein intake. It’s easy to get into bad habits if you are in the house especially if your motivation levels are down. You have to motivate yourself to do the training even if you would rather watch Netflix and you know that there is no more rugby for the rest of the season.

Sarah’s Top Tip:  “Try to keep learning about a sport as much as you can – read a book, listen to a podcast, watch a match on TV – stay proactive and keep learning as much as you can on what you love doing.”

Q: Have you had major setbacks from injury and how have you dealt with that?

A: “Having an injury seems like the worst thing in the world at the time – it stops you doing what you love. The biggest and best advice I was given was that even though it seems tough, tough times don’t last, but tough people do! Just like now!”

Sarah advised being  diligent and follow your rehab guidelines as you go through a phase in a injury – give it time to recover or you could get end up getting another injury.  Nine times out of ten you will get back to playing faster if you can do as you are told! It’s important to stay in contact with your teammates when you are injured. Can you help on a match day? Maybe analysing a game, being there to support your teammates or running on with some water if you are able to?

Q: Was rugby always your main sport?

A: “Playing other sports has benefited me as a rugby player with the crossover of skills – definitely made me a more rounded and versatile athlete. It’s really important not to close in too quickly on one sport too early.”  When I was younger – I played rugby, athletics and netball to high standard as a young teen – I was always rushing from one sport to another in the evenings. But trying to do GCSEs AND playing three sports competitively became a bit much – so I focused then on rugby only from age 15-16.

Q: How hard to balance a job and full time player?

A: It was hard when I look back on it  now as a professional player, although I only got my first professional contract aged 33! The most challenging time was when I first left university, even though I was fortunate that the first jobs I had let me play rugby. At university there was more time to play rugby and train alongside your studies.  With work and sport, you don’t want to do anything half-heartedly and it was hard to balance things so sometimes either training had to suffer or the job had to suffer. These jobs have helped me in the wider sense though as I have more skills to fall back on and I really appreciate my full time rugby contract too! 

Q: How do you calm yourself down before a big match?

“Great question! The best thing is trying to work out what works for you. It’s not always the same for everyone. If you look around an England Squad before a game they are all sitting around doing different things. So I have found a routine that makes me as relaxed as possible – something that makes me think of the process rather than the enormity of the game.”

I think it comes from practice and I’ve had a lot of practice. I get nerves before every game –  the bigger the game the more nervous you are.

For example on an England match day, I have the same routine depending on kick off time. Get up, have breakfast, do a prep and prime session. We walk through our skills and lineouts, then a unit meeting to recap and go over the game plan. After chilling out we have our pre-match food. This is always the same for me – peanut butter jam sandwiches and a glass of milk. It really helps me feel settled but I get mocked for it every time!  We have our team meeting then my music goes on – I’m in my zone – and we drive to the ground. I always have the same piece of music on as I walk in on my headphones. Then in the changing room I hang up my shirt first, get the warm up kit out, match kit out, then into to physio to get strapped and get ready.  After the coin toss it’s time to switch off and focus into me to prep for the game before the warm up starts. From the process I have gone thorough I know I will be able to click into the match routine and feel comfortable out on the pitch. That gets me ready for a big game!

Q: What happens after a game?

A: Straight after an England game we have a match huddle with coaches and subs with a debrief on how the match went. Sometimes I have to go off to speak to the media. Sometimes, like when we won the last Six Nations, I didn’t see the team for 15-20 minutes after the match! It’s great for press coverage but it does take you away from the team celebrations.

The bigger the attendance (like when we played Ireland at Doncaster, or Wales at The Stoop in March) the more people want to speak to you after the game, whether it’s the press, your team, the fans or your friends and family. Very different from when the crowds were smaller when I first played for England back in 2007!

You might also get called to be drug tested too. After the semi-final in 2017, I got called. But was dehydrated after the game so took ages. The team went to the hotel to eat Dominos pizza but by the time I got there all the food that was left was cold!

Q: Where do you see women’s rugby in 5 years?

A: “I’ll have retired by then! (jokes). 

“I’d love to see club rugby to become more semi- professional – don’t think it’ll be fully pro in 5 years – but I see more players in the game having full time jobs. More national teams having full time professionals will make the global game more competitive too.”

More sell out games and to play at bigger stadiums – maybe get 40-50,000 people watching at Twickenham would “be beyond a dream for those involved.” More premiership games on terrestrial TV and greater visibility for women’s sport with more online sport too. But we need to be realistic on how we get there and how we can achieve that. Football is a long way ahead of us with its sudden growth in popularity. If that could happen for rugby, that would be amazing. The last two years we have made significant progress already and long may that continue.

Many thanks to Sarah for giving up her time to answer our questions, her insights into the women’s game and her perspectives as a world class athlete on the lockdown. It was fantastic to hear how far the sport has come in recent years and judging by the feedback we had for the Q&A, she will have gained many more fans for women’s rugby!