IT’S OUR TURN NOW – Exclusive interview with Red Roses captain Zoe Aldcroft

England’s beaming skipper, Zoe Aldcroft, speaks exclusively to Helen M Jerome as they go into the Women’s Rugby World Cup as one of the favourites. Buoyed up by a staggering run of 27 games unbeaten, Aldcroft says they want to capitalise on the football fever from the Lionesses’ Euro triumph. The Red Roses are aiming to go for glory, grip the nation and grab new fans. As Leah Williamson said to them: it’s your turn now to go and do the country proud…

How did the Red Roses watch and celebrate the Lionesses Euro win?

We were going wild every time they scored. We were actually all in camp at the time, and we got together in our team room for the semi-final. Mary Earps sent us some t-shirts with ‘Women Supporting Women’, which is a collaboration of the Red Roses and the Lionesses she created. She sent us a box of them, so we all had those on for the semi-finals.

We got in the team room and yeah, the same for the final. We got back into camp on the Sunday night, so we were all together and really celebrated that. We were just so excited and happy for them to obviously get the back-to-back Euros trophy.

Whose idea was it to wear Lionesses shirts into training?

Well, our media team said: would we keep them on, so they got us in coming in with them the next day!

We were just so excited with it and felt like it was our turn. Leah Williamson passed on the baton to us at Twickenham. We unfortunately didn’t get to meet, but she passed it on and said: “it’s your turn now to go and do the country proud in the Rugby World Cup as well”.

They’d done their bit for women’s sport, and it’s our turn now to go into that World Cup and see what we can do.

You might have the same number 6 as her too?

Well, hopefully, yeah! We change around a little bit more than football numbers, but yes. Not sure yet, but potentially! It does change and we don’t find out the selection before the week of our first game, but it can depend where you’re playing in the pitch as well, so it could be 4, 5, 6 or 19.

The other connection is that Leah Williamson did gymnastics, and you also did the likes of dance and ballet, and maybe those kind of things feed into the way you both play?

Yeah, definitely. I was very sporty as a child. I did ballet and dance, rowing and netball, and I always say all of those skills build you up to the athlete you are today.

Ballet is so good for the strength of all your limbs, especially when you’re at that younger age and building up your overall body strength. Then the footwork associated with netball, you can take that into rugby and it correlates with everything. So I’d say all those things I did when I was growing up like has made me the athlete that I am today.

Also maybe the poise and balance in a lineout, for example, if you’re the one at the top of the heap, that feels almost like synchronized swimming where they rise up?

Well, you definitely have to be springy, so I suppose the jumping in ballet did help that, but lineouts are quite a specialised skill in rugby, because you’re obviously used to smashing into people and stuff, but the lineout is more of an accurate, skilled piece that we work very hard on.

It’s sort of the ultimate teamwork, that bit?

Yeah, definitely. I’d say rugby is the ultimate team sport. You need everyone in the pitch to be doing their job to play a will.

But as well as that, with the forwards pack, they have to be so connected and in unison with each other. Because say, for example, a scrum doesn’t work if one person isn’t doing their job. It takes the whole eight of us to do their job. The same for a lineout or a maul.

Everyone needs to do their role in detail to the best that they can do to be able to make it work combined. And even if one person messes up their job a little bit, then it could affect the whole thing.

Tell me how it feels on an emotional and maybe visceral level to captain your country. What emotions do you go through when you walk out into a big stadium like Twickenham?

It hard to even explain the feeling, it’s just so magical. I’m so proud and honoured to be able to do it and every time I get to walk out the team, I just think how proud I am of every single girl that I walk out with onto that pitch.

I think it’s just amazing to now be able to walk into stadiums that are filled and you hear that roar as you’re coming out. It’s a super special feeling and then I have the edge to do my absolute best on the day and do as much as I can for the team.

When you’re in the tunnel waiting to go out, can you feel your heart or are you calm?

I do feel quite calm in that moment. I take a big deep breath and it’s a moment of realisation. We’ve done all the preparation that week we are ready for this game. Whatever is happening now you have to go out and do your best for that team.

No matter if the preparation hasn’t gone quite right, in that moment your mindset changes. In the tunnel you flick a switch and say: nothing else matters now, it’s time to perform. You have to put your body on the line and go for it.

Being able to walk out into the stadiums now that are filled with people, is also a moment of realisation that women’s rugby and women’s sport has changed over these last few years. To be able to play in front of thousands of fans is something that you’d never think of even four or five years ago.

The momentum that women’s sport is now bringing is fantastic, and there’s a moment of realisation that you’re taking this stage to perform because people want to come and see you now.

Do you think you can make it a double for England in winning the Euros for the football and the Rugby World Cup for you?

We are going into this tournament with our hearts set on winning. We’re taking every game as it comes. I think it’s important that we’re “right in each game”, we can’t get too complacent. We have to be in that moment playing that game and being the best that we can be in it.

We’re in the week before the World Cup and feel very prepared, but still have loads of things to work on. We want to develop as we go through the tournament.

Who are the main challengers to England?

Previously I’d have definitely said New Zealand would be the hardest opponent, but now I think Canada and France also are up there with incredibly difficult competition. So I’d say these four teams are the top competitors in the tournament. But who knows who out of that…

You’re going to have a new audience who maybe haven’t watched women’s rugby actively before. But they’re curious to get into a new sport. So what would you say is its unique selling point, and what do you think could thrill people who come from other sports?

I think a unique selling point for us as Red Roses personally is that we are very connected to our fans. After games we go around the stadium and meet and greet all the young fans – and adults – who are coming in, who want to see us and support us as the Red Roses.

Also we like to share our personal sides of the stories – many of the girls through social media like to share their personal journeys and their personal hobbies and interests.

You can really connect with us on a deeper level, whereas I think in some sports you’re very far away from the actual person. So you get to be involved with that person’s journey and go through this World Cup with us, and I think that’s a pretty unique point.

Part of our values as Red Roses is for not just us as the team, it’s for the girls out there, the young girls growing up, and the girls in the past who were the pioneers for our game.

What would you say makes your sport gripping?

Women’s rugby is just excelling at the moment. It’s a very exciting brand of rugby, there’s a lot of ball in play time and we are complete competitors as well. So it’s very exciting to watch our sport and especially the competitive games that will come… you don’t know who’s going to win. So yeah, it’ll be very exciting.

My nephew Sam says he likes women’s sport because you can’t predict the outcome. Whereas often with a men’s game in any sport, you know what’s going to happen beforehand. I don’t know if you agree?

Yeah, that’s a big bit of it, especially when we get into the competitive games at the latter end of the tournament. You just don’t know who is going to win, and I think that’s the excitement of it.

The last time we played France at Twickenham we were ahead at half time by quite a few points, and then by the end of the game there was one point in it, and it left people on the edge of their seats, which is obviously very exciting for the audience.

There a pressure in being one of the favourites – so can you embrace it or does that make it harder?

No, we fully want to lean into that pressure. It’s something we’ve earned over the last few years. We’ve experienced that pressure and just want to lean into and go with it throughout the tournament.

What would be considered a success for you guys? Presumably at least getting to the final, hopefully winning… have you set yourself that goal?

Yeah. We want to win the World Cup.

By any means necessary, that’s what your smile is saying?

Oh yeah!

My feeling is that England’s main asset is strength in depth. You can get people off the bench who are just as good, which again links back to the Lionesses, as their bench was what won it… in the end. I wonder if it’s similar for you, that you can always change the game?

Yeah, we take a huge pride in our 32-player squad. We have such strength in depth and yes, any of that starting position could be replaced at any time, and we want to have that seamless transition. It’s something we have worked on massively this three years, just that whole 32 people being prepared for any time that they need to be called up and be counted on.

This might be more of a coach thing, but do you aim to play the same way as the Red Roses, whatever the opposition, or do you tailor your tactics for who you’re facing? For example, the first game is the USA (Zoe Aldcroft above with USA Captain Kate Zackary), so will you tailor your game differently to the way you played France?

Yes, that’s definitely probably more of a coach question, but we obviously have our core where we play, and then there will be some variables within that.

So if you suddenly need to change the shape and maybe become a bit more defensive or a go for it more, are you able to do that fairly easily in-game?

That’s one of our strengths of the Red Roses. We are very adaptable. Whatever the oppositions are throwing at us, we can work that out, make decisions on how we change the game, and come out on top.

For those watching the Red Roses in person – and on TV – what do you hope all these people will get out of it?

I hope that they see a group of very strong, confident females that are role models for the young generation that are coming through. And I hope we can play an exciting brand of rugby that gets the nation very proud of us and wants to support us through this whole tournament – and beyond as well – because it’s a chance for us to “recreate” women’s rugby, not just in England but all over the world.

This is going to be the biggest World Cup to date. I think it’s just something to be super excited to get behind and hopefully we can project not just women’s rugby, but women’s sport from this summer and really build on what the Lionesses have done already.

Do you think it can have a knock-on effect – you mention the global effect – but in terms of club rugby, for example at your club, Gloucester? Can it have a direct effect, just as the Lionesses’ success has seen people suddenly buying club season tickets…

I definitely think so. We’ve seen the growth in the PWR (Premiership Women’s Rugby) over the last year and I think this World Cup will definitely project that forward. Getting into all the different areas of the UK, up in London and down in Brighton, across to Exeter [not to mention Bristol, Salford, Sunderland, York and Northampton], I think that’s something that’s really special and can help. Because then they’ll be excited to see a women’s game, and if they enjoy it, they’ll want to go to PWR games as well.

Is there a ceiling of how far the game can grow, or is it infinite?

It is an infinite ceiling. Each time we go out there and play, we want to set that bar higher and higher. The sky is the limit.

Have you noticed that while you’ve been playing for the Red Roses – and for Gloucester – that the attendance is changing?

Massively. I think, only say four or five years ago, we’d only have a few thousand in the stands, whereas now we’re, when we’ve played at Twickenham it’s 40 even 50,000 fans plus, which is an incredible increase in numbers.

When we play in different stadiums for the Red Roses, it’s selling out in those smaller stadiums too, which is absolutely fantastic. Then in the PWR as well, those finals have packed stands, packed stadiums – and we get regular, local people coming down to the Gloucester games each week, which is fantastic to see.

It’s all been part of the journey that women’s rugby has been on.

If anyone is dithering about whether they should come to a game or not – what would your message be to them?

I would say just go for it. Rugby is so fun and it’s such an entertaining sport, but also I think the people who go to rugby games are creating amazing atmospheres and it’s a very friendly, very warm and welcoming atmosphere to come to a women’s game.

We like to do a half-time show. Up in Sunderland, we’ve got Anne-Marie playing before the game. So it’s not just the rugby. We like to make it an event, which is super exciting.

But after as well, you get to connect with the players and we like to come around the stadium to actually meet our fans and see who wants to be involved in women’s rugby.

Good luck and… well, is it coming home? Is there a phrase or song in rugby?

I mean the truth is, it’s not home, it’s currently New Zealand’s trophy, so it could come home to England, hopefully.

That’s not quite as strong. People singing in the stands: It could come home/ It could come home… It’s slightly more guarded, but it could catch on. Is there a particular song?

We don’t really have many songs, so I think that would be good if anyone out there has any good songs that they could bring to rugby. That would be amazing.

If you enjoyed that, you may also like Jenny Hesketh’s article on what it’s like playing with superstar Ilona Maher: https://thenewwomenssportmagazine.com/playing-with-ilona-maher/