The Sunday Times - UK (2022-04-24)

2GS The Sunday Times April 24, 2022 19

curious. “The crowds are so much

different, it was fabulous to have a

record crowd at Gloucester [against

Wales], you’d hear this roar and this

energy filling the stadium,” she says.

“Afterwards, there were thousands

of people wanting things signed, and

to say ‘Hi’. It was all quite

overwhelming. So you want to speak

to me? I’m just Sarah Bern, what do

you want to speak to me for?”

And there is the transformation of

working life. “When I was first at

Bristol, I used to play at Cleve RFC

and they were a lovely club but it was

very much amateur rugby,

sometimes the showers would

work, sometimes the floodlights

wouldn’t be on.

“Now we are fast-forwarding. We

are in the Bristol Bears High

Performance Centre, saying ‘Hi’ to

[Bristol director of rugby] Pat Lam

every day, doing scrum sessions with

Kyle Sinckler. Bristol is a brilliant

example of how far you can push it.”

Today’s game against Ireland has

its own political backdrop. Ireland

are without seven of their best

players, who have joined the World

Sevens circuit. How does it affect the

build-up for England? “We are not

going to change anything,” Bern says.

“We are going to do exactly the same

thing that we do for every game,

which is focus on ourselves and be

better than the week before. We need

other unions to support their girls in

the way that we are supported and

we need to be united together for the

game to develop.”

The switch she made was justified

in only her second cap, won in

Rotorua in 2017 on a dank and dismal

evening when the Red Roses crushed

the Black Ferns.

“It was phenomenal. The stadium

was full of Maori All Black fans and

Lions fans, it was raining and the

steam [from the town’s geothermal

activity] was rising up into the beams

of the floodlights. it was just magical.”

In fact, it was almost Wagnerian,

and there was no doubt that day as to

the identity of rugby’s Valkyries. Or

that Ferguson’s vision was being

fulfilled. Just Sarah Bern.

Several seasons ago Matt Ferguson,

then the England forwards coach,

approached a promising England

Under-20 flanker, Sarah Bern, with

the suggestion that she should switch

positions and play up front. It was the

launch of a lead balloon. There was

not even a response.

“I just walked away,” she says. “I

walked away and cried lots.” It was

not the natural fear everyone shares

of joining that barmy bunch in the

front row. It was the body image

that came to mind as she

contemplated the switch, the extra

weight she needed.

“I was always very conscious about

being big,” Bern says. “Both my

sisters are in dance and ballet and

fashion, while I was very sporty and I

was always a little bigger and

broader. I think a lot of young girls

feel the same pressure about the

weight issue and I panicked.”

Ferguson bided his time and then

gave it another shot. “He said I could

choose between a lottery ticket with

which I could win today and go to the

2016 World Cup; the alternative was a

lot of tickets which eventually may or

may not win anything.”

So she took part in some fierce

summer forward camps, and made a

deal with Ferguson. First, she wanted

to carry on playing sevens, which she

loved, and second, she said that if she

switched then Ferguson should make

her the best prop in the world.

Ferguson kept half the deal; she

never played sevens again. But this

morning, preparing for today’s

England’s TikTok Six Nations match

against Ireland at Leicester, she is

definitely seen as the leading prop in

the world, not only a very powerful

scrummager but with astonishingly

quick feet. It can be like watching a

centre in action, but with the tight-

head’s No 3 on her back.

Occasionally, when out in what she

calls the “normal world” outside

rugby, the odd flare of concern re-

surfaces. “Am I big?” And then she

adjusts. “I’m an international athlete,

I play rugby for England and I

absolutely love it. I feel that we can be

world-leading role models and we

should embrace that and get away

from the stigma that a lot of

youngsters still grow up with.”

And there is another step that they

have taken. Through the exploits and

characters of Bern, the emerging

Maud Muir and Shaunagh Brown and

the remarkable Simi Pam at Bristol,

they have succeeded in glamorising

the prop position. “I believe in that

massively, we’re not just around to

push hard and lift people.” Men’s

rugby has gone about 150 years

without achieving such scrum lustre.

On Wednesday Bern, 24, was in

the team’s base at Bisham Abbey. The

complex was sun-kissed, with glossy

grass and river frontage. It was

almost soporific. They cannot train 12

hours a day, so how do the hours

while themselves away?

“It’s more about how you can

create a good performance

environment, and although it’s

important being switched on and

making sure you know your detail, it

is also about realising that you cannot

drive at 100mph all the time,” she

says. “You need those little bits of

down time to switch off and

decompress — so for me it’s been my

Xbox, and there’s reading, watching

stuff on the telly, then making sure I

have different things to watch, going

for walks. Mo [Natasha Hunt] made

this game called Tuk Tuck, and we’ve

played that religiously.”

The rewards are increasing.

Suddenly, now professionals, they

are playing in front of crowded

houses, where the crowds are being

reverberatingly supportive, not just

After initial doubts Bern has enjoyed a successful conversion from flanker

Bern puts tears and fears

behind her to realise vision

Emergence of England

prop as best in world

vindicates coach who

saw the talent within

SIX NATIONS 2022

PWDLPDBPts

France 4 4 0 0 116 4 20

England 3 3 0 0 179 3 15

Wales 4 2 0 2 -68 2 10

Ireland 3 1 0 2 -22 1 5

Italy 4 1 0 3 -121 0 4

Scotland 4 0 0 4 -84 2 2

ON TV TODAY

England Women v Ireland Women

12pm, BBC Two and BBC iPlayer

Stephen Jones

We can be role

models — we should

get away from the

stigma that children

grow up with

Lachlan Coote helped Hull KR to a

sixth successive victory, their best

run since 2009, with a 32-10

triumph over Wakefield Trinity at

Craven Park.

Rovers took advantage

of the wind to move into

a 16-0 half-time lead,

with Kane Linnett,

Coote and Shaun

Kenny-Dowall all

scoring. Coote, inset,

who had a good match

and created panic in the

Wakefield lines, also

grabbed two assists though the

wind prevented him from kicking

more than two conversions.

Ethan Ryan contributed after the

interval with two tries, but Jacob

Miller responded with Trinity’s first.

Lewis Murphy reduced arrears

further but Ryan Hall and Linnett

put the game beyond doubt.

Warrington Wolves made it

back-to-back home wins with their

own 32-10 victory over

Huddersfield Giants at the

Halliwell Jones Stadium. Josh

Thewlis scored a hat-trick

while Toby King, Connor

Wrench and Ben Currie

added further tries.

Huddersfield

responded through

Innes Senior and Luke

Yates, who crashed

over from close range

with five minutes to go.

Oliver Russell completed the

conversion to move Hudddersfield

into double figures but the damage

had been done for them in the first

half, when they had two periods

with only 12 players on the pitch.

The upshot was that they finished

with back-to-back losses for the

first time in 2022.

COOTE POINTS THE WAY FOR HULL KR WHILE

WARRINGTON COAST PAST HUDDERSFIELD

PETER TARRY

play. This is all very well. But when

sevens has an impact on the main

sport, there must be cause for

concern. Rugby is already packed

full and falling over itself, but to

have it falling over sevens as well is

too much.

Just as a start, the Six Nations and

the World Sevens Series should be

kept well apart. Ireland have a whole

rugby reputation to recover in the

women’s game. They will not do

it with half the team away, leaving

poor McWilliams having to insist

that somehow, the result is some

kind of irrelevant staging post on the

real mission.

We must make one admission. To

show true courage in resistance,

especially in the aftermath of

desertion, is a more noble calling

than participation in a pop-gun party.

Fiji’s Vatemo

Ravouvou

scores against

Team GB at

Rio 2016, which

exhibited the

sheer delights of

sevens rugby

DON’T

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THESUNDAYTIMES.

CO.UK/SPORT

JAMES CROMBIE