By Felix Payne and Jack Morris
Earlier this year, we were very lucky to welcome Miss Turner as an amazing new rugby coach. She has had a stellar career in the sport, earning 59 caps for England and playing in 2 Rugby World Cups, before she ended her rugby journey with Harlequins before retiring in 2018. But Miss Turner was more than just a player. Resilient and strong-minded, she was willing to teach the next generation how to play as she did, taking on other roles in rugby, such as head coach at Harlequins and later teaching at our school. We interviewed her to find out more.
She grew up in a very strong rugby environment; her mother and father owned the bar of her local club. She started playing rugby at U6s, and played with the boys until she was a teenager and joined the U19s team. She then got scouted for Wasps. In the interview, she highlighted that her early career there helped her gain useful skills before England spotted her. She had a lot of ambition to make it to the top of the game and that’s what drove her on to reach new goals.
England organised trial camps in the summer, which Miss Turner attended. She got through them and was preparing for her debut match against Canada, but soon after she got the call up, she broke her little finger and couldn’t play. However, she didn’t let that stop her, and soon afterwards made her England debut against Wales in Cardiff, saying that the feeling before the game – knowing that she was going to represent her country – was amazing and that it meant so much to her.
She then highlighted her favourite moments, which were playing in New Zealand and Samoa, because she didn’t get to go to those places often and because it was great to play sport somewhere that she didn’t know. Her funniest moment on a rugby pitch was when one of her teammates jumped to catch a ball, but she misjudged it and it landed on her head.
We then asked her the hardest question of all: how has women’s rugby changed over the course of her career? Miss Turner described how when she was growing up, people did not recognise women’s rugby as much or know as much about it as they do now. Women’s players also didn’t get paid much so would have another job alongside their rugby career – she was a policeman as well as a rugby player. Now players make a lifetime out of rugby and can fully focus on their playing.
She said that another massive change is that now women’s rugby is all over the television and on many more channels than before. This means that people that wouldn’t normally watch the sport see matches like the World Cup final and then get inspired to watch more. Now young women and girls see great opportunities in rugby and don’t need to worry about financial issues.
Miss Turner said that she was delighted to see the change in the sport, and that she thinks it has a very bright future indeed. She hopes that she can see the current England team develop, as well as for new young talented players to be introduced into the side. She still has great relationships with many of the England team, and highlighted that rugby ‘makes friends for life’.
Lastly, she explained why she came to Hampton. After her playing career, she became a coach at Harlequins before retiring. She was very local to Hampton and had heard a lot about its immense rugby talent.Having played a lot, and already having done a lot of coaching at a professional level, she was interested in coaching kids and inspiring the next generation of rugby players to be like her. She said she instantly fell in love with Hampton and their way of playing sport, as well as their ethos of always trying to get better and be the best.
She is really enjoying her time at this school and we are very lucky to have her.
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