Resilience and trademark energy: Mo Hunt's six year wait to face the Black Ferns

While revenge may not be on the lips of the Red Roses this weekend as they prepare to face the Black Ferns, it’s redemption that may be on the mind of their World Cup winning scrum-half, Natasha ‘Mo’ Hunt.

“It was tough. My phone started ringing and they said, “It’s not the news that you’re hoping for.””

Words spoken by Mo Hunt in a club interview this summer, as she reflected on her shock omission from Simon Middleton’s Red Roses Rugby World Cup squad, who finished runners-up in the dying minutes of last year’s tournament at a sold-out Eden Park in New Zealand.

It had been a challenging period for Hunt prior to the delayed Rugby World Cup year, when in 2021 she chose to step back from representing her country, due to being unhappy in camp. Hunt’s trademark energy and dynamism was being over-analysed to the point of paranoia and as the coaches leaned into a more prescriptive game plan, it served to diminish and crush her natural instincts.

A resurgence in form at club, and a return to international duties in 2022, only served to make the pain of missing out on last year’s World Cup more acute. Hunt said, “So many people reached out, so many people were backing me or had something to say on it but I genuinely didn’t have words for anyone.”

Hunt continued, “When something gets - not ‘taken from you’, but when that decision is made about you, it makes you realise sometimes how much you care and how much you want it. The only thing you can control when something like that happens is how you’re playing rugby. I’ve always just wanted to be the best I can be.”

Hunt brought that very best to last season. Rising to the top of the try scoring and try assist charts; her mid-season form for table topping Gloucester-Hartpury seeing her back in the England fold for the 2023 TikTok Women’s Six Nations.

But the Red Roses game plan had not evolved beyond requiring their scrum-half to simply pass the ball away. As Hunt waited to take the field in front of almost 60,000 excitable fans at Twickenham, it felt like some dark final denouement - coercive behaviour even - to see Hunt handed a mere three minutes off the bench. It would have driven many others to throw in the towel.

It merely served to spur Hunt on when she returned to the supportive, adventurous and ‘holm-ly’ environment created under Gloucester-Hartpury head coach Sean Lynn.

The wins kept coming and in June, Hunt and club co-captain Zoe Aldcroft lifted the Premier 15s trophy in the Gloucestershire sunshine at the temporarily named ‘Queensholm’ in front of 10,000 fans. She told BBC Sport, “When you get to your darkest times there are two options. You either spiral into it or find the light and try and go after it."

It was an attitude that saw the new England coaches go after her, and with a new gameplan being instilled by head coach John Mitchell, the opportunity for Hunt to bring her best back to an England shirt opened up.

After a full preseason with the Red Roses, followed by 20 minutes off the bench against Australia and 56 minutes having started against Canada in WXV1, Hunt will start against New Zealand on Saturday - her first time facing the Haka since the 2017 Rugby World Cup final in Belfast.

Interim head coach Louis Deacon commented, “I’ve been really impressed with Mo. She’s been very resilient. Obviously she’s had some huge disappointments over the last year or eighteen months or so, but the way she’s bounced back, constantly working on her game, looking to improve – she just gives us a different dynamic. I’m really looking forward to seeing her play against the best team in the world.”

Red Roses captain Marlie Packer added, “I’m really looking forward to playing with her for what she brings on the pitch but she also brings so much off the pitch. She’s one of my closest friends, I love the buzz around her. I’m really happy for her to be playing this weekend and I just want her to go out and enjoy it. When she’s enjoying it, she’s playing her best rugby.”

With two years to go until the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup in England, there is no shortage of motivation for any of England’s players with eyes on that showpiece occasion. In the Gloucester-Hartpury scrum-half, England know they have someone who will always stay in the hunt.