HAPPY DAYS – Rugby World Cup star Meg Jones washes her dirty laundry, literally!

Red Roses and now Trailfinders star, Meg Jones, says she’s only 5 foot 4, but punches well above her weight. And anyone who has watched her play rugby for club and country, and interact with the fans, can attest that she also has a big personality.

So it was an absolute pleasure for Helen M Jerome to talk to Meg Jones on the eve of Trailfinders’ visit to Sale Sharks in the PWR.

First off, I hear you all went bowling as a team during your bye-weekend off. I bet you were super-competitive, Meg?

I was horrendous, actually, Helen. I’m not going to lie!

I was blaming it on my shoulder. But, I tell you who was really good, Celia (Quansah). She was surprisingly good and I think she won!

I wonder what you learn from watching other women’s sports and women’s coaches?

My angle would probably be the match day experience and all those sides of things.

We’ve leant into looking at what football do, in order to increase our fan base, and our own commercial profile as well.

I loved particularly over the World Cup as well – and I think something we should keep going – is how much each sport supported each other.

We had Chloe Kelly come in at one point.

All the football girls were trying to get behind us, and Mary Earps was around as well.

If we can keep doing that – not just keeping it to rugby, but supporting women in general – I think that’ll help increase the fan base because you see a lot of women football fans also just want to support women, not necessarily the sport itself.

I’ve spoken to a lot of people now. I was actually walking down my local high street and one was like: I’m a football fan, but since seeing rugby, I just loved watching it and seeing you guys get stuck in.

So, I think there’s loads of crossover that we can take from that.

We just keep pushing the fan base and keep pushing that avenue of things because that’s where the game will grow.

That’s what we’re hoping to facilitate on the magazine – we had Chloe Kelly talking about rugby!

You mentioned the Rugby World Cup, and Jess Breach said it was hard coming back to real life after that. It’s a tricky time, you’re reevaluating – and obviously you made a big move to Trailfinders as well. So I wonder how you cope personally?

Yeah, I think first two weeks was amazing.

We had so much backing and support around us.

Yeah, I think just a big perspective, my washing machine broke last week, so just back to reality and trying to fix that and those small things. Because for the past six weeks, eight weeks, we had everything done for us.

We’ve been spoon fed.

There’s just normal reality bits that get back into the mix of things, but nothing out of the ordinary.

There’s definitely blues. You miss being around the girls 24-7.

There’s a come-down which comes with such a high elation and I definitely experienced that.

But I think from the years of being in this game for so long, you learn what’s good for you and what’s not good for you.

I get a lot of energy from people, but also that does drain me.

So just connecting back with family, doing back day-to-day normal life.

To be honest, even just doing the washing up and stuff gets you back grounded again.

Yeah, those small things and then obviously getting back into Trailfinders. Finding a new normal, which the guys have been amazing with.

I can add they do your laundry, so I’m even more ‘happy days’ with that because I don’t have to think about getting my training kit then for the week.

So, small wins!

Who are you looking forward to playing against on the Sale Sharks team?

Well, I’ve got a lot of good Tigers counterparts from when I was up in Leicester.

So, Evie Wills. I’d love to see her again and play against her.

Amy Cokayne (below left, with Jones right, in the World Cup Final), she’s always hard hitting and gets stuck into playing because she loves playing and hates training.

Yeah, I’m excited to see all of them and Rhona Lloyd on the wing as well. I think she offers something good for them and she’s such a good girl off the pitch as well.

How do you feel about the match?

Yeah, I feel confident.

We had a good ‘bye’ week; a good week to connect again.

We probably came into the Exeter game with a lot of information and new bits floating around so we’re just getting to grips with it all. But we’ve had another week to digest it, another week to get back on it. And really confident in this team, and the fact that we’ve got so much talent across the board.

We just have to unlock it in certain parts and come together as a team – which is going to be crucial.