As Tamara Taylor gears up for a Six Nations campaign when she is likely to become the third woman to reach 100 caps for England, it is worth considering how far the second-row has come since her debut 12 years ago. “It was just the basics … the kit we had was absolutely massive, it was one size fits all,” she says. “Whether you were a scrum-half or a prop, everyone had the same shirts. If you look at how everything has changed, it’s massive.”
Taylor and England have made considerable progress since 2005, not least a World Cup triumph three years ago, but for the 35-year-old this year is seminal. In the next eight months England will seek to regain the Six Nations title they won seven years in a row, but not since 2012, as well as defend their world title in Ireland in August.
Accordingly the first 29 professional contracts for 15-a-side players have been handed out, taking the total to 38, and the sevens players, who made a priority of their (unsuccessful) quest for an Olympic medal at Rio 2016, have been fully reintegrated. All that combines to make England the side to beat having lost out on a grand slam on the final weekend in France last year.
“When you’re training individually all the time but playing a team sport it’s hard, mentally and physically,” Taylor says. “To get people together makes a massive difference to your training and to the bonding of the team. The impact is going to be huge.
“We’re not going to know until the end of this eight-month period just how much of an impact it has had but not having to go to work on a Monday morning has been an absolute highlight for me.”
England begin against France at Twickenham on Saturday – when Taylor will win cap No99 – after edging out the French in a scrappy contest in the autumn. They also thumped Canada and were pipped by New Zealand but go into the competition as favourites, even if they may have to win the title in Ireland on St Patrick’s Day.
“There has always been pressure on us. For years we won the grand slam and we won the World Cup and we came out of that with a massive target on our backs,” Taylor says. “It’s just something that you have to take if you want to be the best in the world. Every game the opposition really wants to beat you. So yes, we have got that pressure but it’s a good thing because we can’t be complacent.
“We’re really close to France in terms of our progression. They pipped us to the post at the last Six Nations and that was absolutely heartbreaking after how that squad had come together and worked so hard for that two-year period post-World Cup. It couldn’t be a more exciting start to the tournament.”
For the first time Sky Sports will broadcast all of England’s matches this year but Taylor, whose day job is as an RFU community coach, believes women’s rugby still has a long way to go to match the exposure afforded to their male counterparts.
“Ultimately all I want is for women’s sport to be on TV and no different to men’s sport. Just ‘oh there’s a rugby game on, I support that team and watch them’. As soon as it becomes normal like that we won’t be fighting for women’s rights in sport any more. It’ll just be people watching sport because they love it.”
And what of her impending landmark, which will bring Taylor level with Amy Garnett on 100 caps but still behind Rochelle Clark, who reached 117 during the autumn campaign? “I’m not there yet. I’m thinking about it because every time you get a cap your number goes up. I can remember Rocky’s 100th Test. She was super emotional about it. She led the team out in front of a massive crowd and I can remember being so immensely proud of her. I’ll ask her for words of wisdom.”
Jenny Murphy’s last-gasp try clinched a dramatic 22-15 victory for Ireland to open the Women’s Six Nations at Scotland’s Broadwood Stadium on Friday night.
More than 80 minutes had elapsed when Murphy crashed over between the posts to ensure that the champions of 2013 and 2015 got off to a winning start.
Scotland – without a Six Nations victory since 2010 – led 15-10 at half-time thanks to two Jade Konkel tries, but missed second-half kicks from Sarah Law and Helen Nelson cost them dearly as Ireland fought back.
Sene Naoupu, Ali Miller and Lindsay Peat had touched down for the visitors, leaving the scores level before Murphy’s late intervention.
