Mackenzie Carson: The England prop returning to her birthplace in WXV 1

Out of six teams competing in WXV 1, England’s Mackenzie Carson is the player whose birthplace is closest to the Canadian venue for this weekend’s fixtures.

Carson, born in Langley, is one of only a handful of players who were born in British Colombia and are competing in WXV 1, the rest of whom are all playing for Canada.

Once capped by the Maple Leafs, Carson became the first player to play for England under the World Rugby birthright amendment when she made her debut last year.

Carson, who qualified to play for the Red Roses through her English mother, moved to England with the intention of taking a year out from university to play in the PWR league.

Fast forward six years and she in fact never moved back to Canada and now calls England home, has played for three Premiership Women’s Rugby clubs, and will win her 20th cap in a Red Roses jersey this weekend if she comes off the bench.

Carson’s career to date has had the two countries intertwined throughout. She represented Canada u18s and u20s in England, made her senior debut for Canada against England in Doncaster in 2018, and even scored her first try for England against Canada. The final weekend of WXV 1 could also provide her with the opportunity to face Canada in Vancouver for the first time.

Ahead of England’s WXV 1 matchup against New Zealand at Langley Events Centre, the Gloucester-Hartpury prop spoke to RugbyPass about being back in Canada for WXV and how her life has changed since she made the move to England.

“It's an interesting one because when you're growing up you dream of playing for the country you were born in, that's kind of a normal thing to go through, but also because I never really knew any different. I didn't really know there were other opportunities, and I do feel that sometimes when you're 18/19, deciding what to do with the rest of your life, that's pretty daunting,” she explained.

“For some people, with that birthright rule, me included, my life has changed a lot since I first played for Canada. Having the ability to take a different path has been really cool for me and really exciting.

“It's really important because you want as many good players playing international rugby as possible and especially in the women's game, it's a lot different to the men's where you don't really have players who are capped for a certain amount of years when they're younger and then they still play professional rugby.

“International rugby is kind of the only way to play full-time professionally right now for women. It's definitely opened up a completely different opportunity for me and I'm able to do it as my job now which is pretty great. The way my life has taken its path, I probably hadn't predicted it to go this way and I didn't really think it would go this way but I'm super grateful for the opportunity to do it.”

Carson was in the starting front row for Englnad’s opening-round victory in WXV 1 against the USA last weekend, which was held at Vancouver’s BC Place.

The match was the first time women’s international XVs match was played at the iconic venue that is a popular stop on the HSBC SVNS Series.

Carson shared earlier in the week that she used to play rugby at the very venue where she would eventually run out for England, playing in the breaks between the sevens games when she was younger.

“It was super cool, I actually had coffee with my old coach from that time this morning. It felt really strange actually, I was a bit like woah, this is weird, I didn't really think I'd actually do this. Obviously, I played sevens when I was younger, but I'm a front row and I've put that life behind me,” she said with a laugh.

“I never really thought I'd come back to BC Place and play rugby at all really, to be honest, because there's only really sevens there. It was quite cool to actually be able to play for England in Canada and have my family there, so it's quite special.”

Without WXV, it may have been far longer before the 26-year-old was able to play at the stadium again, if at all.

The tournament, which is now in its second year, allows for increased international competition for 18 teams across three tiers.

Carson discussed the benefit of the WXV in creating depth in the women’s game in addition to the opportunity to play in venues they haven’t visited before.

“It's a really cool opportunity to also travel and see different places. We had been to New Zealand for the last WXV and the girls that went to the World Cup prior had also been, so it was kind of going back to the same place. We don't get to travel a lot in XVs a lot, we go to the same places for the Six Nations and things like that, so it's really cool to be able to travel to different places and Vancouver is somewhere most people wouldn't go.

“Even when I was in the Canada setup, I didn't ever play internationally in Vancouver, that was never really an opportunity. It's been really cool and it's a great way to grow the game in Canada especially, and for us to travel and face different opposition.

“We haven't played the USA in quite a few years for example. It's definitely one of the harder tournaments that we're in throughout the year and it's really good preparation for the World Cup coming up.

“It almost builds the anticipation for the World Cup, because you face this team a few more times and know what they're about but also it can build that rivalry a bit more. In women's rugby usually, you don't really get to build those rivalries just because you face some teams once every four years and it's one game that they might beat us in.

“Now, I feel like we get more opportunities to play top-notch teams and different teams throughout the year to build those rivalries and that edge of competitiveness. For the fan base as well it's really good because they get to actually watch players play multiple times a year rather than just once or twice, it's really good for the women's game.”

A return to Vancouver with her England teammates has additionally allowed Carson to introduce them to her local friends, as well as spending time with family.

She said: “It's been kind of like two worlds colliding a little bit, I've been getting to show my university friends my friends from England and vice versa which has been pretty cool. The best part has been having my family there and being able to see them after I play and such, that's been really cool.

“Most of my family are from like an hour or two away from here. I went to university in Vancouver, but I'm from the lower mainland which is a little bit out from here. Most of my family lives around the area.

“I was born in Langley, it's quite cool that they're playing [WXV] games there. A lot of my family lives in that area and kind of a bit further out. It's kind of interesting that I'm playing for a different country but have the closest place of birth."

Given the dominance of the likes of ice hockey and lacrosse in addition to other popular sports, many people in Canada grow up without rugby on their radar. Carson however explained that the place where she grew up, just outside of Langley, was a rare rugby hub which led her to start playing at the age of nine at Abbotsford RFC.

“I'm from a place called Abbotsford, and there's a really weird pocket of people that play rugby there. I don't know why, but growing up both my brother and my dad played, and the school I went to was really big on rugby. It was a strange little pocket of lots of rugby people, I got dragged along because of my dad and my brother mainly and then I just kind of never really stopped.

She added: “I think if I'd grown up anywhere else in Canada I probably wouldn't have played rugby. If I had been born in England, I don't know what my path would have looked like. I was lucky enough to grow up in a place with lots of rugby people.”

Carson’s desire to play for an English club is one not dissimilar to many of those who travel from abroad to play in the Premiership Women’s Rugby league, but her career since the move is unique in the way her international career has morphed.

Starting off at Bristol Bears in 2018, Carson moved to Saracens in 2019 before joining Gloucester-Hartpury ahead of their 2023/24 title-winning season. While at Bristol, Carson still represented Canada, but after the mandatory 36-month standdown period from international rugby, she was available for selection for England. In March 2023 she became the first player, male or female, to represent England as a result of the birthright amendment.

Moving thousands of miles away from her family didn’t come without its challenges, but Carson persevered to continue her rugby-playing journey.

“At the beginning it was tough, I really only thought I'd go there for a year, take a year off school and then go back to Canada, but then obviously I never left and I'm now playing for England! It definitely took some twists and turns that I didn't really expect it to, but at the time I just wanted to travel a bit and the PWR is one of the best leagues in the world so I wanted to be a part of that.

“I wanted to play rugby and do it as a semi-professional or professional player, but when I was playing for Canada it was really tricky because I always had a crossroads where I was like okay what do I do, do I get a full-time job? How do I balance it all?

“It's really difficult for players when you don't have that financial support and you don't have the security of having your family there. Now, being full-time, it's a little bit different, but having to balance work and stuff like that was definitely challenging, but we do it because we love it so that's why you keep going.

The PWR recently shared the ‘Powered Differently’ campaign ahead of the 2024/25 season which shone a light on players who combine playing top-level rugby alongside other careers, as Carson herself has experienced.

While praising the campaign, the Gloucester-Hartpury player also hopes that professionalism in the women’s game, particularly at a Premiership level, will increase in the near future.

“It's amazing that people can have this versatility and be able to do it all, but as women we're often forced to do that, it's not necessarily something to be highlighting in a sense of 'Look at all of these things that we do'. That's great, but why is it that way?

“We can probably challenge those beliefs a little bit. It would be amazing if in the next five to 10 years we could have a fully professional team that people could live off of and they wouldn't have to balance it all. With that being said, especially in rugby, we kind of just find a way to do it, needs must.

“People also have careers and passions outside of rugby which probably prepares us for life after rugby a lot more than the men, which is also a positive. It's a great campaign to be able to highlight where the league is at right now but hopefully, in a few years we won't have to talk about people having to go to work after doing a full week of rugby.”