Emily Scarratt joins call for women’s British & Irish Lions team

EMILY Scarratt has urged World Rugby and the Home Unions to throw their weight behind the inception of a Women’s British & Irish Lions team.

In March, the Lions unveiled a new partnership with Royal London that saw the life insurance and pensions firm bankroll a feasibility study into the formation of a women’s side to follow in the tradition of the Lions men’s team in touring overseas.

World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont has stated his intention to see the women’s game grow and Scarratt – the 2019 World Rugby women’s player of the year – believes the formation of a women’s Lions team can boost interest, pointing to the success of the women’s Barbarians team.

Scarratt told The Rugby Paper: “It is something that needs to be looked at and Royal London have explored interest in a possible tour with their feasibility study.

“The thought of having a Women’s British & Irish Lions team would be awesome and you could speak to players from across the Home Nations and if you offered them a Lions tour, I’m sure they wouldn’t turn it down.

“It is bucket list stuff that you haven’t really given much consideration because you didn’t think it was possible. But it continues to show the growth of the game and the interest to try and get something like that off the floor.”

Scarratt added: “The Barbarians did it a couple of years ago by having a women’s side playing double-headers at Twickenham, and the game is in a really good place and should lend itself more and more to those opportunities.”

Currently in camp with the Red Roses with the World Cup a little over 12 months away, Scarratt says the Lions tradition of a quandrennial cycled between New Zealand, Australia and South Africa would not be the way for a women’s team to go. Instead, suggesting the Black Ferns, USA and Canada or France as more suitable opposition.

She says: “They are in the top three or four in the world, along with England. The premise of a Lions tour is the best of the northern hemisphere going to face the south and touring countries with a huge tradition and following.

“World Rugby have to figure that one out with the Unions but they all have to get a wriggle on because I am getting older now! Hopefully, it can get sorted in the my career.”

Scarratt is also keen for more media work after appearing on Channel 4 in their coverage of Champions Cup and international rugby.

“It is something that I enjoy doing,” she says. “It is hard when you’re still playing and the time commitments that come with that. I just have to make sure that playing rugby is my primary focus.

“You can see Nolli (Waterman) and Maggie (Alphonsi) are involved now in their media work and we’ll see if there is space for me when the time comes. It is an area I am interested in.”

Emily Scarratt on…

Premier 15s uptick in competitiveness…

“If you look at some of the results and the scorelines, you can see that Saracens and Harlequins have not had it as easy as in the past with some losses coming their way. It is the first time we have seen that and, so, from that point of view it has been the most competitive season.

“The two new sides, Sale Sharks and Exeter, really got stuck in and posed some difficult questions – Exeter, certainly. So it is a really positive league to be apart of at the moment and some of the games are tougher than others during the season. There are a lot of England players in the league but also a lot of other internationals that have helped to develop the standard of women’s rugby across the country.”

Loughborough Lightning’s season and semi-final against Saracens…

“We came up a little bit short which was disappointing but we can be reasonably pleased with how good a crack we gave it against Saracens in the semi-final. We weren’t far off from beating them and now we can look ahead to the new season without restrictions and a bit of normality returning.

“We went into that game wanting to win and knowing we could do, but they are a very tough side. We were pleased in how we played though, because I think there were games in the season when we didn’t play the kind of rugby that we want to base ourselves on. That wasn’t the case against Saracens and I think we showcased what we are about.

“As with the highest levels in sport, it usually comes down to the small margins and they are just a very good side who know how to win.

“The crowd was amazing, 90 per cent must have been Saracens supporters and I don’t think that mattered to us. It was the first time we were back in front of fans and when the full-time whistle went Sweet Caroline started playing, and while we were disappointed we couldn’t help but have a little smile on our face just to have supporters back and a part of games again.”

Harlequins being deserving champions and seeing old England pal Rachael Burford lift trophy…

“It was really cool to see them win both titles, wasn’t it? To see their Men’s team win the Premiership was maybe a little more surprising but to see both their teams lift trophies was very fun.

“With Quins, they have been very good in every Premier 15s season but, like us with semi-finals, they have found the final difficult to get over the line in. They definitely are deserving of a trophy and if you ask anyone who watched that final, they wouldn’t argue any other way.

“Both teams were littered with internationals and the final was a good advert for the game.

“Although, you don’t like to say that about Saracens too often – they didn’t deserve it! They will be back strong next season.

“‘Burf’ has given a hell of a lot to the game and to Quins. It was tough to see her go off so early on with a pretty major injury, but I was chuffed to see her out there handing out the medals and lifting the trophy.

“They have fallen short a couple of times before and for them to go and do it against Saracens, and change their habit of winning, must have been extra special – good on them.”

England’s three-way battle at fly-half after the retirement of Katy Daley-Mclean…

All three players have had really good seasons for their clubs, Helena (Rowland) and Megan (Jones) both play sevens so they were a little in  and out at Loughborough and Wasps at times.

Meg Jones was top point-scorer in the Premier 15s this season and all three are totally different in their styles in how they play the game, and the skills and attributes they possess.

They are all fantastic young talents and Katy held the No.10 shirt for a very long time. It was always going to be hard to replace her but all of those three players will be putting their hand up for a long time to come.”

By ADAM ELLIS

■ Emily Scarratt uses Oro – the personalised health, fitness and meal planning app. Find more at weareoro.com