After England lifted their first women’s rugby World Cup in 20 years last August, one image seemed to be played on loop for days: that of Emily Scarratt collecting the ball just outside Canada’s 22 and then – in a feverish blur – barging through the gain line, shaking off one oppressor and sidestepping another, and leaping over the line for the match-winning try. Never mind that the World Cup trophy is silver; having scored 16 of England’s points in their 21-9 victory over Canada, Scarratt was hailed as the golden girl.
Nine months on, Scarratt still isn’t entirely comfortable with being singled out as a supremely talented individual in a team sport. “Er, well, I’m happy to push our game to young girls, women and everybody else who wants to listen, but I’m not sure how the term sits with me,” she tells the Guardian. But when it comes to her future ambitions there are no such stumbles or hesitations. The golden girl is chasing gold. “The Rugby World Cup was brilliant for us and our sport, but you can’t keep looking backwards,” she says. “Our focus now is on the Olympic Games next year. But we have to get there first.”
Scarratt is part of the England sevens squad which has been criss-crossing the globe for the IRB Women’s Sevens World Series hoping to earn Great Britain a place in Rio. Next stop on the journey is London, with qualifying rounds at The Stoop beginning on Friday, and the final and third-fourth place play-offs in front of 86,000 at Twickenham on Saturday. Yet as Scarratt stresses, a trip to Rio is not yet in the bag. England sit in joint-fifth in the world series standings after four of six tournaments, and only the top four countries automatically qualify.
“It will be an extremely exciting tournament,” she forecasts. “That’s something sevens definitely brings to the party. We believe we are capable of winning it, but there’s not much between the top teams.”
In their pool, England face Canada, who are ranked second in the world, as well as the dangerous Russians and South Africa. New Zealand, the champions and runaway leaders in this year’s standings, are naturally the favourites. “They are definitely the team to beat,” Scarratt admits. “They’ve got some extremely good individual players, such as Kayla McAlister and Portia Woodman, who are capable of sprinting 80m and not being caught. But we played them twice in Canada recently and ran them quite close. They have been together a lot longer than we have, so we are playing catch-up.”
The England sevens squad is now able to train full-time twice a day because of lottery funding, which should accelerate that process. Before the World Cup, Scarratt had to cram rugby in with teaching PE at King Edward’s School in Birmingham. Now they can devote more time to skills and, in particular, cardiovascular fitness. “The skills are the same between 15s and sevens but physically they are different games,” she says. “One of the biggest changes we have had to make is making sure our aerobic fitness is right up there.”
But whatever the format, Scarratt senses that women’s rugby is gaining in momentum. “There has been a huge shift,” she says. “Obviously the Rugby World Cup helped no end but the fact we get to play at Twickenham after some men’s games gives us greater exposure too. I’m sure it helps those people who have a bit of a hang-up about it change their minds.”
In recent months she has also enjoyed going into schools with Jonny Wilkinson – “he’s a lovely chap” – although she hardly has need for any goal-kicking tips having nailed 79% of her kicks during the World Cup. “I practise extremely hard,” she says. “I am quite OCD about a lot of things – how you put the ball on the tee, and the routine of it – but I don’t need to finish on a good kick during practice. Sometimes if you finish on a bad one it makes you buck your ideas up for next time and you don’t get complacent.”
Complacency is not a word that Scarratt entertains for long. And as talk returns to Rio, she lays out in the starkest terms. “No one enters a competition wanting to come fourth or fifth,” she says. “We want to get there – and when we do, we want to win gold.”
