Rugby has defined a huge part of me and my life since I was a teenager. I tried my hand at lots of sports growing up, playing mainly hockey throughout my early teenage years and when I was sixteen, I made the switch to rugby, playing in my first competitive adult season when I was 17 at Bracknell RFC. Jo Parker, the women’s head coach, is still coaching today at Crowthorne RFC and has been one of the trailblazers for women’s rugby in Berkshire for a long time now; I owe a lot to her.

I had some of my best moments on a rugby pitch in a green Bracknell shirt and it was the club where I truly learnt the value of my first rugby family.

At the same time though, another rugby family was establishing at my home club, Abbey RFC, where attempts to get a women’s team off the ground had been attempted for a few years. Many mini coaches had seen the drop-off of girls from their sections, and I was asked to coach an exclusive Girls section; for three seasons we played friendlies against other local clubs, and entered mini tournaments. Four of those girls are still playing today, I’ve shared a pitch with three of them, and one has just been accepted into the England U18 TDG which makes me immensely proud.

With my best friend Claire Stevens, we founded Abbey Nuns in 2013, providing a rugby environment for women at what had always been a traditional male-dominated rugby club, and this new dynamic to the club over the last 8 years has been one of the most challenging, but proudest accomplishments of my life so far. The women I have met, coached and played with along the way have become lifelong friends; we have established a second team in recent years and our first team have progressed from the development leagues to competing in Championship 1, the second-highest tier of women’s rugby in England.

After five seasons at Bracknell, and a South West England call-up, I wanted to push on and see where I could get with my rugby, while assisting with the coaching of the women’s section at Abbey.

I’d discovered the value and importance of strength and conditioning early on, and this ignited a second passion that has continued to run alongside rugby for over ten years now.

The advances in social media was opening my eyes to different trainers’ and coaches’ methodologies, and I followed them with interest: reading and trialling new training programmes, seeing what would benefit my rugby most. From MAS sessions to GVT, fasted training to carb back-loading, I was hooked on learning, and a better understanding of the mechanics of my body, the importance of mobility and activation is something I wish I had learnt earlier – it’s so good to see the youngsters out there today with an understanding of this all, rather than rolling onto a pitch on Sunday after a big Saturday night out (sorry for all those times, Bracknell!).

In 2014, I moved to Henley RFC for two seasons which gave me an awesome taste of rugby at the highest level I had played – with and against internationals, great facilities and another set of brilliant rugby players who I learnt so much from. (Playing against Thurrock when Heather Fisher had broken about 6 tackles and was heading straight for you was an experience no fullback wants to repeat, however). I also made a great lifelong friend in my coach Ali ‘Morts’ Mortimore, who is another person the women’s rugby world is so lucky to have, and I was made up when he came over to Abbey to coach in my season as captain.

One of the most valuable lessons rugby has taught me, however, is that of the importance of your rugby family. While I was challenging myself at a higher level, Abbey Nuns was going from strength to strength on the pitch, while still retaining a hugely important social identity off it (think emergency shots of gin in the changing room before a crunch match against Windsor). In one of my final games at Henley, we were short on numbers, and some of the Nuns loaned up for the day. They stole the show, I was bursting with pride for them, and I realised what I had helped to create at Abbey was the next playing environment for me. I could see where Abbey Nuns was headed and in 2016, three years after co-founding, I finally played my first game for the Nuns in our first unbeaten season where we were promoted to Championship 2. We have never lost our family-first identity, solidified by end of season tours to Limerick, Dublin, Guernsey and Copenhagen (the less said about those, the better for all involved), but I have never been involved with a more determined group of women who work hard on and off the pitch for each other. It is always commented on within the club about how hard the Nuns work at ‘the extras’ and you can often find, in normal times, a group of them in the club gym, practising place kicking or throwing, or doing speed sessions off their own back. I’ve loved having them share my passion for strength and conditioning, seeing their joy in their own achievements, and the belief that not a lot in this life can’t be solved by a good training session and catch-up (maybe apart from a session at the pub).

Although I was happy playing the community game, I was incredibly fortunate in 2016, after an Irish Exiles training camp, to be invited to Dublin to for a weekend Ireland 7s camp with training matches against the Netherlands with my Nuns teammate, Abi Wall. This really was my first experience of professionalism in women’s rugby and a few months later, I found myself on a plane to Dubai 7s with the Ireland 7s Development squad for a week. I was learning so much playing with some incredible players who are still trailblazers in the women’s game today; Sene Naoupu in particular was a real mentor for me and what that women does on and off the pitch for our sport is incredible. A year later, Ireland Women Head Coach Adam Griggs got in contact after being sent some footage from Abbey Nuns matches and invited me to a series of camps in preparation for the 2018 Women’s Six Nations, culminating in a warm-up match against Wales. Although I didn’t make the cut for the final squad, stepping onto the pitch against Wales was one of the proudest moments of my rugby journey so far. I couldn’t quite believe that kid from Bracknell had swapped one green shirt for another, and having my family and friends there to watch (in driving rain!) was the icing on the cake.

Sport is all about tough decisions, at any level.

It was tough deciding to leave my first rugby family at Bracknell for the unknown waters at Henley. It was tough leaving Henley to play for lower-league, but mightily ambitious Abbey, who now play at the same league level as them. It was tough having to think about what I would need to do if I wanted to make my path with Ireland 7s or 15s. My ‘normal’ life was also progressing; myself and my now-husband had just bought our first house together, when Anthony Eddy, the Ireland 7s programme lead, talked me through potentially moving to Dublin if I wanted to progress with 7s. After not making the final 2018 Six Nations squad, I was advised to sign with a Premier 15s club if I wanted to continue knocking on the international door, which would have meant countless hours travelling up and down the M25 to London around my full-time job as a primary school teacher. I know, from the inspirational women I have met along my rugby journey, that it could be done, but I wasn’t sure if in my heart of hearts it’s what I wanted.

I never thought I’d say this as a fresh 21-year old in South West England camp, when all I wanted to do was wear the Red Rose of England, but as a 29-year old expectant mother, who is now getting DOMS off pregnancy deadlifts, I know now what I get the most joy from in rugby. While I’m so proud of my personal achievements, it’s very true there’s no I in team, and team sports are where I feel comfortable, loved and safe. Playing with those ‘kids’ who I used to coach, winning league titles, drowning sorrows on buses back from tough away defeats with my OGs. The people in the community game I have met along the way, the players, the coaches, the woman who’s been lacing up her boots for 20 years, deserve as many plaudits as their international counterparts for what they are doing for our game. I can never repay back to the sport what it has given to me, but I can only try – there’s much more in the tank yet!

Annette Bevan

Kirsty-Lee Griffiths, aka Klee

Holly Wood (Myers)