Trailblazer Sara Cox on smashing barriers and redefining diversity in Rugby

Sara Cox has forged a remarkable path in rugby union – rising from player to trail-blazer as the world’s first professional female referee, and now holding an MBE for services to the sport.

As a respected diversity & inclusion speaker, Sara brings lived experience of breaking through barriers, challenging norms and creating change in what has traditionally been a male-dominated game.

Her journey offers powerful insights for organisations seeking to embed true equality in sport and beyond.

In this exclusive interview with the Female Motivational Speakers Agency, Sara reflects on the lessons learned on and off the pitch, the importance of visibility and representation, and how teams and businesses alike can thrive by embracing inclusion.

What are the defining characteristics that separate high-performance rugby teams from the rest?

“It’s really interesting because there’s a lot of similarities, but there’s also a lot of differences between teams,” she says. “But I think it just comes back, it comes down to the teamwork element and the environment as well.

“If you can make that environment as good as it can be, and as comfortable as it can be for those athletes, they have the opportunity then to perform.

“You can’t control things around athletes themselves when it comes to their motivation, the way in which they train – that’s up to them.

“What you can control is the environment and the ability for those athletes to thrive.

“So, once you put that in place and you make it so that people want to turn up regardless of whether they’re motivated to be there – because as a professional athlete it’s really difficult to be motivated all the time – what you want is to be in a position where you know that if you turn up, you can still produce a performance.

“And that there, in itself, is really a golden ticket – that you’re there, you have a platform, it’s now over to you as the athlete.”

What lessons from refereeing at the highest level do you think translate best to leadership and decision-making in business or everyday life?

“There’s a few of them, to be honest,” Cox explains. “My job is based around making decisions very, very quickly.

“I’ve got a split second to make a decision, and at times you don’t know whether that’s going to produce the right outcome or the wrong outcome.

“Sometimes you get it right, and sometimes you get it wrong.

“I think it’s about backing yourself and backing your gut. There’s a reason why we say, ‘Back your gut instinct’, and sometimes you’ll get it wrong.

“It’s also about then learning from that as well and taking those things on board to say, actually, it’s not too much of a problem to make a mistake.

“Mistakes are going to happen because we’re human beings.

“Ultimately, it’s actually: how do I analyse that mistake, or how do I analyse something that I’ve done to make the best decision next time? And having a clear rationale.

“So, there’s probably those three things: don’t be afraid to make decisions – and make them quickly.

“Sometimes that can produce the best results. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.

“So, when you do make those decisions, sometimes it might not be the outcome that you desire, but at least you’ve made a decision.

“And then link that in with rationale. Once you have made that decision, why did you make it? Understanding clearly why you made that.

“And I think that as referees, those are some of the three principles that we live around – looking at decisions that we’ve made during a game, going back over them, looking at maybe the outcome, but also looking really and delving deeply into why we made those decisions and what then that can do in the future as well.

“So, having clear rationale and understanding – yep, I made that decision, the outcome may not be correct; however, I have a very solid platform on which I made that decision.”

What key messages or experiences do you hope will resonate most and inspire them in their own fields?

“There’s a couple of things,” she concludes. “I’m hoping that they take away a smile on their face and some enjoyment from how I’ve been speaking and some of the information that I’ve been giving across.

“But hopefully they take messages that relate to them, and that I am relatable to them when they walk away.

“Sometimes, not all the information I’ll give will apply to people or resonate with people, but hopefully there’ll be snippets of information that people take and say, ‘Yeah, that’s inspired me to go on and do something different and put my own spin on it’.”

“And again, this goes back to being a referee as well – you’ve got to have your own spin on things.

“You’ve got to have your own understanding of things, because then you know why you’re doing something.

“So, hopefully the snippets of information that I can give – the little chinks of really valuable bits of information – people walk away and say, ‘Yeah, I’m also going to build that into how I operate as a human, what my personality is like, and make it my own’.”

This exclusive interview with Sara Cox was conducted by Chris Tompkins of The Motivational Speakers Agency.

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