Loughborough Lightning and England star Lark Davies fell in love with rugby when she started playing tag rugby at primary school.
She had watched the sport on TV with her family and enjoyed playing, but never dreamed of being a professional player as the women's game didn't offer contracts until January 2019.
Now Davies is a fulltime player, having been a teacher before being awarded a contract.
She says: “I never played any rugby until year 5 or 6 when a teacher came in and introduced tag rugby. At the age of 12 or 13 I knew my local club was Worcester which was about a 45 minute drive. They had a girls team.
At that age they had U15 and U18 rugby. I went along there and went through country and regional.
“The time I started to think I could play at a high level was when I went to the talent development group. I went through pretty much every pathway you could. The talent development group, U20s and then onto the England playing group. It wasn't until three years ago that professional contracts were announced.
“In the run up to that I was like ‘this is really what I want to do'. I had been a teacher and absolutely loved that. But the opportunity to become a professional rugby player, that was something I would have never dreamed of. But when I saw there was an opportunity I thought ‘actually yeah this is what I want to do'.”
Davies, 26, will be taking to the field once again when the Premier 15s season kicks off on September 4. Alongside the regular league fixtures this season is the new Allianz Cup.
The competition is being introduced as a way to give other players more game time during the international window.
Davies said: “I think it's definitely a massive positive for all the clubs to showcase and use different players. You've got a large squad in most teams and it's great to see people get more game time.
“There's so much young talent out there it'll be exciting to see what the games look like when the cup gets running.”
In the regular league, Lightning will play defending champions Harlequins in their opening game on September 4.
“It's a great way to start the campaign. It's always a massive game when you play Harlequins.
“If you look how well we did last year, it will make for some really competitive games at the start of the season.”
SARAH RENDELL
