Brendan Gallagher: Girls go full-time and and full-on for big prize

Without fanfare or fuss a minor revolution has been taking place in and around Surrey Sports Park in Guildford this summer with the England Women's rugby flirting with professionalism as they attempt to end New Zealand's recent monopoly of the World Cup. With the latest tournament hoving into view in Paris early in August it's time to get really serious.
Up to this point England's dedicated collection of teachers, plumbers, physiotherapists, lecturers, vets, community workers, DJs, construction workers, personal trainers, accountants, gym managers, operations managers and policewomen have had to somehow marry up the demands of international sport with living in the real world.
Bleary pre-dawn fitness sessions and post-work training have long been the norm while every last day of their annual holiday has been devoted to the cause, often at the expense of family and friends not to mention pockets. Amateurism par excellence, but this is 2014 not 1914.
This summer, though, there has been a sea-change.  The well-heeled RFU have raided their considerable war chest and made the funds available for England to live the dream and once the genie is out it can rarely be re-bottled.
It's been full-on since the end of the Womens's Six Nations. A bonding week in Portsmouth under the supervision of the Royal Marines and four week-long training blocks at Surrey Sports Park in June and July with Quins on the pitch next door doing their pre-season stuff.
Trial matches follow against the USA with World Cup selection on July 10 when the squad will be trimmed to 26 and then it's all eyes on the French National Rugby centre at Marcoussis where France are hosting the group stages.
It's all laid on in Guildford, one of the best equipped sports halls in the country and a well-appointed sports friendly hotel five minutes walk away. And here's the rub, this summer not only is the larger England squad ensconced in a superb training environment, but all the women will get fully reimbursed for the work they are missing.

Over a century ago such ‘broken time' payments heralded the great schism, now they represent a welcome and necessary development in the women's game.
And it could just be the tip of the iceberg as the Olympic factor kicks in. Holland, Spain, USA, Canada, Russia, Australia and New Zealand already have fully funded ‘professional' Womens Sevens squads with their respective Olympic associations financing the programmes ahead of Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 along the lines of our own Lottery-funded schemes.
Many of those same players will be doubling up at the 15s World Cup in France. Once Great Britain turn their attention to their women's Sevens squad for Rio next year that situation will be fully replicated here. The reality is that a small but significant number of women are now effectively full-time professional rugby players.
“It's been a great development,” says the England women's coach Gary Street. “In the past it has been pretty much a case of gathering on the Friday for a quick team run before a Saturday international, a hurried debrief on Sunday morning and then back to normality. You try your best but that can only take you so far. This summer we have been given the chance to basically live the life of a full-time athlete and really work at specifics in our game, the skills and strategies that really make a difference.
“It's actually presented a few challenges. Suddenly you have all this time to work with and the planning process for that starts six months in advance. Getting the balance is important.  The temptation is to rush around trying to do everything because everybody is on site and the facilities are superb but, equally, when you have consecutive blocks of a week to work, you need to structure it carefully and keep things fresh. The quality of the work needs to be as high for the last session on a Friday as on Monday morning.
“I've worked with the fitness and conditioning guys, the nutritionist and the medics to pencil in every hour of the week, even if that hour is just rest and downtime. We outline the basic structure but I also like to keep a little bit of flexibility.
“If a session is going really well and I feel the need to push on we'll keeping going, that's one of the beauties, the clock isn't ticking. If we need a rethink or for whatever reason it isn't working we'll take the foot off the gas and can come back tomorrow. Communication skills have improved out of sight. When you start to ‘work' with somebody day-to-day and get to know them, that just comes naturally.
“A lot of the women are used to being stretched mentally week-in week-out at their jobs and busy lives but a series of dedicated training weeks is a bit of a novelty and when we clock off with our final meeting in the evening there are a lot of tired bodies. They organise one social night a week on Wednesdays – there's been a fancy dress party and a barbecue and there's a film club – but generally they all turn in very early, totally shattered.
“Quality rest, sleep and recovery is probably the biggest single advantage of the professional lifestyle and I fancy that is what they are all enjoying the most.
“The RFU have been fantastic in getting behind this. Working back from our basic aim, which is to win the World Cup for the first time in 20 years, I went to the RFU a year ago with a wish-list of what we needed to make that possible.
“Practically, we couldn't expect the girls to put their lives on hold for six months or a year but if we can fund these camps at the Sports Park, make them of the highest quality and at least make sure nobody is actually out of pocket, it would help immensely. They came back almost straight away with an emphatic Yes.
“The recompense helps a good number of the girls but it doesn't work for everybody. A number of the squad have decided the only way they can really fulfil their rugby ambitions is to give up work and some have even moved back in with their parents because it's the only way they can make the finances work.
“That's still a pretty big personal commitment in my book and, bear in mind that nobody has even been picked for the World Cup squad yet, they are all making that commitment before they have even been given the nod.
“The women's game internationally is getting stronger all the time – New Zealand, France, Canada, Ireland, USA in particular will be strong – but we undoubtedly have the players and athletes to win.
“We did learn a very valuable lesson in the Six Nations, however, about the need to execute, which we just didn't do away to France, a defeat that cost us the title. Fail to perform on the day and you will get beaten. End of story.
“Spain turned up in Brazil as soccer's reigning World and European champions – and lost their first game 5-1 to Holland!”
*This article was first published in The Rugby Paper on June 29.