Red Roses preseason: 'There were times when I thought I wasn't on track'

We had two of our XVs girls, Meg Jones and Ellie Kildunne, involved in the Olympics this year which was really exciting. Because of the relationships we all built last year, we felt really proud of them and we were supporting them to go and do as well as they could.

People don't really realise how much effort you put in in that four-year cycle to make sure that you're fit and ready to go when it does come to the big event. For those girls, they've had to mix and match between different types of training and they played really well in the tournament, we were really proud of them.

The girls are obviously going to be bitterly disappointed that they didn't come away with a medal because that's what they were aiming for. There were a few surprises with the USA beating Australia for example, and I think it just shows how far women's rugby has come and that you can't take it for granted, you have to leave everything on the line.

At the same time, sometimes in rugby, the ball bounces slightly differently and it goes into someone else's hands and that completely changes the result in sevens. I think the main thing is that we're all so proud of the girls and how much hard work they've put in and I'm sure they'll get another chance in a few years' time.

You've got the Australian women's sevens team who have a massive profile out in Aus, you've Ilona Maher and she's been massive for women's rugby in the Olympics, giving quite a normal view of what it is to be an athlete and normalising it.

She also defies stereotypes as such and she's definitely shown that she's her own person and has her unique ways. It's made the sport more exciting, the stadiums have had world-record crowds for women's rugby and it's amazing to see that people are now investing time into female athletes and seeing how good the game actually is.

For us, we've just started our preseason for WXV but before we go away we've actually got two "warm-up" matches. Although they're seen as warm-up games for WXV, we're actually playing the World Champions and France, who are an incredible outfit as well.

We've got to be ready for those games so it's not so much seen as a warm-up. We don't want to be beaten, we want to win those games because it also shows where we stand. The first record we're hoping for before RWC 2025 is that we get a new record crowd when the Black Ferns come to Twickenham in September.

It is definitely the pinnacle game of women's rugby. Lots of people, both men and women, and children, it's something that if you're a rugby fan and want to see a Haka for example, a women's game is an accessible way of seeing that spectacle.

That's the first place we want to get a new record crowd, and then hopefully that puts us in good stead for the year to come with the final being held at Twickenham. I definitely think we have the potential now with the way the women's game is going and the profiles of athletes growing online, you can tell that people want to get involved. I think it could be possible for the Rugby World Cup final to sell out in 2025.

My aim was to make it into pre-season fully functional and I've managed to do that. I did a lot of thumb rehab over the summer, a lot of fitness training and gym as well as actual rehab sessions with physios.

There were times when I thought I wasn't on track but actually the physios have been really reassuring and told me I'm in a really good place. It was one of those moments when I came into camp where I just wanted to throw myself in.

I knew I'd done all of the hard work to get to where I wanted to be so just going to training with a good mindset of giving it a go. I've definitely dropped a few balls and it's frustrating because it doesn't yet feel fully natural and I'm having to get used to playing with a splint on my thumb.

I'm focusing on doing the extras I can to try and get it there and I'm hoping I've got a few weeks now to really reinforce that strength and get it feeling more comfortable.

It's really nice to be back in camp with everyone. On Monday I think we all had those 'first day of school' nerves again because we hadn't seen each other in a while. It was also our testing week so on Monday we had DEXA scans and then on Tuesday, we had our 12,000-metre testing, sprint testing, and a few things in the gym as well.

It can always fill you with a lot of nerves and I think the reason we feel those nerves is because we care. We've been on this programme for the last five weeks and we all wanted to all beat our scores and come back with improved muscle mass. It was our most successful in terms of turnaround on results so the coaching and strength and conditioning staff were really happy with that.

Now that that's out of the way we can start enjoying the rugby and playing and moving the ball around again. That's definitely what we prefer over running!

 

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