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England claimed a Girls’s Six Nations Grand Slam and fourth straight title towards France on Saturday, however I couldn’t be there.
I suffered a neck damage in coaching and left camp earlier than the workforce went to Bayonne.
As a prop, your neck usually hurts from scrums however any damage in that space or the backbone is super-scary.
Initially, I continued coaching and took painkillers and anti-inflammatories however when it didn’t get higher I made a decision with the workforce medical doctors it might be finest to cease all the things – no working, weights or rugby – and I used to be getting therapy on it for a number of hours every day.
Fortunately it has improved now however there was a second once I thought ‘what if I can by no means play once more?’
The physician who despatched me residence from England camp was nearly nervous to inform me his choice however truly I used to be all proper.
I do know there’s life after rugby and there’s not an opportunity I might danger the standard of that life to proceed taking part in.
The stakes are excessive with a World Cup across the nook but when it got here to it, I might take care of not taking part in if it means I’ve use of my neck for the remainder of my life.
Neck accidents are exhausting even with medical scans – as a result of when you scanned my neck and in contrast it with that of an individual who has not performed rugby, it might look a state.
Consequently, it might ship you down the fallacious path in treating one thing that does not look proper on the scan however which my physique has been coping with.
As a substitute a physio recognized the issue and, like I mentioned, it has improved with relaxation so I’m hopeful I can play for Harlequins on Saturday as we glance to safe our place within the Premier 15s play-offs.
‘Greatest Girls’s Six Nations ever’
Regardless that I used to be not in France, I used to be nonetheless capable of play my half within the Girls’s Six Nations ‘Tremendous Saturday’ finale.
All of the spherical 5 fixtures had been on one after the opposite on Saturday and I used to be a part of a watch get together occasion at a pub in central London.
There have been comparable occasions happening in varied locations and I’ve by no means identified that to occur earlier than.
It’s a signal of how a lot the event has grown – it’s the greatest Girls’s Six Nations I’ve ever skilled.
What felt actually particular was having so many ladies come collectively to observe it.
I took a pal with me – and on the way in which residence, he mentioned he had by no means seen so many ladies in a pub.
That’s the drawback and that’s the level. Girls won’t need to sit in a sports activities pub filled with males however this was a safer area with ladies’s sport on the TV.
The organisers had invested cash in it and mentioned they’d do comparable issues sooner or later round ladies’s sport.
England males’s wing Anthony Watson was there too and I might like to see extra male gamers advocating for girls’s rugby.
As a result of they’re taking part in on a weekend too, clearly they can not watch all the video games however even simply reposting one thing about us successful the Girls’s Six Nations on their social media is an effective start line.
They’ve extra energy than they assume. In the event that they publish it, even when 10% of their followers click on on it, then it helps.
‘Large strain with favourites tag’
After such a dominant Six Nations, lots of people will now say England are World Cup favourites.
Whereas that feels good, there’s a large quantity of strain that comes with it.
Like with any sport, it doesn’t matter what has come earlier than, something might occur at a World Cup.
New Zealand have gotten a brand new teaching set-up, with coaches who’ve had success with the lads’s facet, and you may by no means write off France.
In addition to France, Fiji are in our pool. They received bronze in sevens on the Tokyo Olympics and are a little bit of an unknown for us with their unpredictable taking part in model.
France have misplaced their previous 10 video games towards us and I’m positive they may use that as rocket gas for the event in New Zealand.
We aren’t taking our foot off the fuel in any respect – that may be a theme for us as a gaggle.
We’re a five-month camp interval from July to November for the World Cup, with coaching camps throughout a pre-season interval earlier than travelling to New Zealand, and that will likely be powerful mentally in addition to bodily.
We’ve got to continue to grow and studying as a result of though we have now received 23 video games in a row and one other Grand Slam, tomorrow is one other day.
Shaunagh Brown was talking to BBC Sport’s Becky Gray.
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