England’s record points scorer Emily Scarratt dreams of achieving the “ultimate goal” of winning the Women’s Rugby World Cup on home soil next year.
The 34-year-old, who has scored 749 points in 111 matches for the Red Roses, was part of the squad that finished runners-up of the 2010 World Cup, which was hosted in England.
She was a winner four years later in the 2014 edition in France and hopes to enjoy similar success in 2025 when the tournament is back on these shores.
Asked what winning a home tournament would mean, she told the PA news agency: “The big grin on my face probably says enough.
“That is literally what we’re all striving for. You want to be fit, you want to be selected, and then you want to reach that ultimate goal in terms of achieving that as a team and becoming world champions at home, which would be pretty mega.
“There’s a long way to go until then, but I’d love to play at home World Cup. I was lucky enough to play in the 2010 World Cup when we hosted it at home.
“The landscape of the women’s game and rugby back then was different, so it was amazing at the time.
“And I can only imagine how good this one’s going to be. I think it’s shown already, like the pre-sale tickets have sold out, the pool draw was on ‘The One Show’.
“Stuff like this is already giving us a very small insight into how amazing this could be as an English person in England, but hopefully for the rest of the world coming as well.”
Scarratt’s popular podcast ‘The Good, The Scaz and The Rugby’ has teamed up with Vodafone to expand the landmark EmpowHER talent pathway, helping to make the route into elite rugby easier for university students.
“I think it’s really exciting, because so often in the women’s game, there’s a lag between potentially the top professional version of our game, and maybe what comes underneath it,” Scarratt added.
“And hopefully this is really connecting that university programme to the league and hopefully making it seamless as possible.
“I don’t think there are issues with the pathway, it’s just a bit slow.
“Traditionally not as many women and girls play the game. The infrastructure, therefore, isn’t as strong as potentially in the men’s game.
“So I think there’s definitely more areas we can improve on to really connect that young girl, get her playing to start with, but then make sure that her route, if she wants to go on to play professional rugby, is seamless and pretty easy for her to follow.
“I think the university game has a huge part in that, with how, generally, girls start playing the game, pick it up, and really can kick on with it.”
:: Emily Scarratt, England rugby player is providing mentorship as part of their podcast, The Good, The Scaz and The Rugby, and Vodafone’s EmpowHER talent programme. The initiative is designed to help university rugby players transition into the elite game, which has just expanded to include all seven BUCS Women’s Super Rugby teams this season.