If you’re good enough, and hungry enough, there are careers in sport for you.
Emily Scarratt never dreamed she would be a professional rugby player back in the mid 1990s when she followed her older brother along to the local club for a kickabout. Mad into sport and competitive as hell, Scarratt took to it immediately.
It was 2006 when the thought first crossed her mind – I could play for England. She made her debut two years later and has been a massive star for the reigning world champions over the past few years.
At UCD, as the Women’s World Cup kicked off, Scarratt came off the bench to help her country to a 56-5 victory over Spain. Within 133 seconds of being Sprung from the bench, Scarratt was on the scoresheet.
Boom. 💥💥💥 @EmilyScarratt of @LichLadiesRugby scores for @EnglandRugby making it 29-5. #ENGvESP #WRWC2017 https://t.co/n0yJTomUWI
— Women's Rugby Comp (@WomRugbyComp) August 9, 2017
We caught up with the 27-year-old after the game and found her honest and engaging when discussing her career to date.
“None of my family are here at the moment,” she said. “My family are farmers so, back home, they’re right in the middle of harvest. It’s a pretty busy time for them, unfortunately, but I’m sure they will have found time for a little tea break so they could watch the game.
“Dad is out on his combine and my brother is cutting corn. If anybody knows anything about farming, it’s a pretty busy time but it’s fine as long as the sun is shining.”
Many of the current England and Ireland rugby sides took circuitous routes into the game but Scarratt’s path was set at an early age. She quickly found that she not only loved rugby but was good at it. She commented:
“It wasn’t always something I wanted to do. I sort of fell into it. I went along [to the local club] at five years old because my brother started playing. I had no real intentions of playing but I was asked if I wanted to join in and run around. I loved it from there on.
“I always played lots of sports through school and made all the teams. I played at every opportunity I got. I played lots of sports through the years but rugby was one of the first ones.
“When I was around 16, I realised there was genuine potential that I could make the England squad. Obviously it wasn’t professional back then but, after the 2014 World Cup, the Sevens contracts were offered. That was the first time you could do it as a job and it is definitely the best job I ever had.”
Winning the World Cup in 2014 was massive in terms of profile, says the Leicester native.
“It was huge. We were in a little bubble over in France and, when we came home, we were front page of the newspapers and it was everywhere.
“Everybody almost wanted a piece of you which, for us, was a bit of a shock but it was amazing for our sport. Amazing to spread the message, show everyone what we are about. It has definitely helped develop the game at home, in terms of age group rugby and more people playing rugby. It’s awesome for us and we hope this can do the same in our country and in other countries as well.”
Remind Scarratt that she began with England in 2008 and she shakes her head.
“It’s my ninth season, which is madness because you look at the young girls coming in now – 18 and 19 – and you wonder where those years have gone a little bit. I’ve been really fortunate with my career to still be going and have some good years under my belt.
The game has changed. The girls that are coming in are ready to go but the girls back then were ready for that game at that time… if that makes sense? The girls now are far more developed and they’ve got a far better skill-set because that’s the game moving on. It’s all relative. We’ve got some fantastic young talents – Sarah Bern and Zoe Aldcroft, who were out there today – so it makes for a few exciting years ahead.”
Scarratt was fantastic as soon as she entered the fray. Aside from her try, she made numerous incursions through the Spanish lines, set up another score and kicked the ball back with interest. There were gasps from the crowd at the length she pinged her kicks.
“A lot of my kicks weren’t that great today,” she modestly replied, “but everyone often says that I’m able to kick the ball reasonably far because I’ve got long legs.
“All of us – Katie, Amber, all of us that kick – have worked hard on our kicking game. It probably didn’t quite show in today’s game as we would’ve liked it to but, if in doubt give it a whack down the field, get ourselves further down the field and go from there.”
England’s major flaw, though, was goal-kicking. Scarratt nailed one from the touchline but missed her second effort. All told, the champions missed seven of their 10 conversion attempts. “It is something we’ll be looking at through the rest of the week,” the England back insists.
As for the squad’s time in Ireland so far, Scarratt says ‘there is a real buzz about the place’ but she is not too enamoured with the ‘hit and miss’ Irish weather.
Scarratt is friendly with a number of the Ireland players having come across them frequently on the Test and Sevens series’. “We know a few of them,” she says, “and they’re good craic.”
There are still plenty of permutations but don’t be surprised if the old foes of England and Ireland meet again. If they do, it will either be in the semis or final. If they do, Scarratt will feature prominently.
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