EMILY SCARRATT
S
INCE I started
playing for
England, we’ve
had summer
tours, but we’ve not had
the best teams in the world
gathering together before.
To have us, New Zealand,
France, Canada and the
USA all in one place, San
Diego, for the Women’s
Super Series is awesome.
And it’s going to be so
competitive, especially
as it’s like the World Cup
with short turnarounds. The
World Cup is a tough few weeks so it’s
good to get the chance to replicate that
and give some of the younger players
exposure to that. It’s a good challenge.
It’s cool that people will be able to
watch on TV too. That’s how you grow
the game – you don’t want a first-class
tournament to take place that only
people in the host country can watch.
France will be disappointed about the
game they lost to us in the Six Nations,
but equally we were a bit disappointed
with our second half. I’m sure they will
look at that game and perhaps change
the way they play against us. They hardly
kicked the ball and we kicked a lot.
By the very nature of being French,
their players always offer a bit of flair.
Pauline Bourdon, their scrum-half,
seems to put her mark on games – like
many French nines, she’s as influential
as the tens are in the English game.
America and Canada are definitely
better sides than the results they had
against us last autumn – the USA lost57-5 and Canada lost 27-19. There were
a lot of youngsters in those groups and
they’ll be much more experienced now.
USA coach Rob Cain is doing good
things over there and we have a couple
of Canadians at Loughborough Lightning- Daleaka Menin and Emily Tuttosi. They
came to play club rugby in England to
experience a different environment,
strengthen their game and ultimately
make the national side stronger.
New Zealand are New Zealand! They
are always strong, have been playing
rugby since they were three years old
and it’s in their blood. They’ve bolstered
their squad with a couple of sevens girls
alongside younger girls. Kelly Brazier
brings enormous experience.
I’m really looking forward to playing
against them as we don’t get to do
it often given the geography
of the two nations. It’s the
first time we will have
played them since the World
Cup final (2017), but our side
has changed since then
and so has theirs. It’s not
about looking back; it’s
about the next cycle and
the next World Cup.
For us, it’s very much
a continuation of what
we’ve been doing after
a successful Six Nations
campaign. We’re trying to
judge ourselves against
ourselves as much as we
can and are looking at our
decision-making in games.
It’s about being ruthless
and taking opportunities;
something we might get away with in
one game we won’t get away with
against New Zealand or France as
you don’t get a second chance.
We’ve lost two incredibly experienced
players in Katy Daley-Mclean – our
talismanic playmaker – and Rachael
Burford, as well as Jess Breach, for
the tour as they’re injured, but it’s
an opportunity for people like Zoe
Harrison, Tatyana Heard and Amber
Reed to step up and increase our
strength in depth in those areas. We’ll
definitely miss their leadership, but it’s a
chance for other people to fill the quiet
moments in meetings, to make sure the
right messages are being shared.
I definitely think we can beat New
Zealand – and I’m sure if you asked
them they would say the same.
It’s the nature of the two
sides. We’ll go with a huge
amount of belief that we
can get the results we want
and beat everybody. n“The Women’s Super
Series will be awesome”
The England centre and 2014 Women’s World Cup winner
Kicking on
Zoe Harrison in action
against Canada last yearBEST PLAYERS^100
EMILY
SCARRATT
P