Claire Garner goes from police helicopters to the rugby pitch - and says the Women’s Super League is ready to take off.
Garner’s Castleford Tigers have been leading the way in this year’s newly expanded competition, with four-figure crowds trumping several in the second tier of the men’s professional game.
In her day job as an air observer - which has seen her feature in TV programme Police Interceptors - Garner gets to track down the bad guys around the Wakefield area.
And she is just as tenacious on the field with the Tigers currently topping the table after an eye-catching start to the season.
Garner said: “I’m the voice behind the helicopter on the TV - that’s my dulcet Yorkshire tones.
“It’s quite a fun job, no two days are the same and I love saving lives and catching criminals.
“It’s definitely better being up in the air watching than down there stuck in traffic.
“At Castleford we’re getting there, but there’s loads to work on still which is exciting for us.
“We’re critical of ourselves and our performances and we know that everybody wants to knock us off our perch, so we need to stay grounded.
“The club has led the way in terms of promoting our matches and it’s been great to play in front of some of the crowds.
“At first I think some of the girls were in awe of it when we walked out for the Leeds Rhinos game, but we soon settled into it and the crowd are like a 14th player for us now.
“All credit to the Cas fans for coming down watching us, but I don’t think they would carry on if we weren’t playing entertaining rugby.”
Half-back Garner was a member of the England World Cup team that won just one game from four in 2017 and was thrashed 52-4 by New Zealand in the semi-finals.
But she and others already have eyes on making amends on home soil in two years’ time.
She added: “I think we underperformed massively - we had potential as a squad but let ourselves down.
“It was a huge learning experience to watch the likes of New Zealand and Australia, it was amazing to see how quick they play.
“Now we know what we’ve got to work towards and what we’ve got to fix up.
“Players are starting to realise that it’s only a couple of years away and are already thinking about fighting hard for their position.”
