Eyes scanning the memorabilia decorating the space around her, Emily Scarratt is surrounded by evidence of the progress made and the progress still to come. It is just days before the Red Roses begin their Women’s Six Nations and the England centre is sat in a popular Twickenham watering hole, bedecked for the occasion with a collection of keepsakes celebrating the history of women’s rugby. Outside, the painters have been hard at work emblazoning the images of three of England’s stars on the wall that adjoins London Road; the renamed “Red Roses’ Patch” displaying its new signage prominently and proudly.
There is a certain poignancy to certain items on display in the pub, from the battered old boots of the trailblazing Gill Burns to shirts of a certain vintage with tulips on the chest, a relic of a time where England’s women were not allowed to wear the rose. “Honestly, it’s a bit of a joke,” Scarratt reflects. “I reflect back to my first cap in 2008 at Esher. There weren’t many people there, generally just friends and family of players. You were lucky if people knew it was happening. Now, people are all over it. They’ve renamed a whole fricking pub after us!
“While I’d love to be a 21-year-old now and looking ahead to ten years more of it, I’m really glad that I’ve been through the eras and change that I have been. You really have an appreciation for how much a change it has been.”
It is a mark of Scarratt’s stature and standing in the sport that so many of the recent memories covering the walls feature her image. Pride of place among them is a broad canvas displaying the World Cup trophy lift in 2014, the culmination of a special journey to the top of the world. The centre’s try in the final catapulted England towards an overdue era of professionalism; 11 years on, with a home competition looming, the 35-year-old and the rest of the squad look set to be part of another transformative tournament. When England last hosted the World Cup a decade and a half ago, Scarratt was one of their bright young things at an event played mostly on the back pitches at Surrey Sports Park. The organisers’ confidence that this year’s final will be held in front of a sellout Twickenham crowd shows the sea change.
But there was a time where Scarratt had to come to terms with the idea of not making this World Cup. At the start of 2023, the centre suffered a complex neck injury. Months of uncertainty, considerations about the future on and off the pitch and mixed medical messages followed.
“One surgeon pretty bluntly said: ‘You should retire’,” Scarratt reveals with illuminating candour. “And I think I was on board with that until the context changed.
“Different surgeons then said different things. It was a tricky time because it was so unknown for such a long time. I go back to that time and I was pretty intent that I didn’t want surgery on my neck. It felt a bit much. You are talking about the rest of your life and things you want to do. Rugby is a big part of my life, but it is not everything. There was probably a point where retirement looked like the only option. But it ended up being a surgery decision made for the rest of my life that meant I could play rugby, not the other way round.”
Eventually, the surgical option was taken and an artificial disc was inserted into Scarratt’s neck near her windpipe, allowing her to return last February after 13 months out. But a possible full stop on her time as a player clearly had to be considered. Sportspeople talk all the time about wanting to go out on their terms; living with the regrets of what might have been if injury hadn’t struck. Had Scarratt managed to process the idea that her career may be cut short?
“You don’t quite know how you feel until it happens. It obviously didn’t actually happen, but it was pretty close. I think I was pretty content. That didn’t mean I didn’t want to play if I was able to, but when you reflect back on the years you’ve played the game and the moments you’ve been through, there is no way I could have stood there and thought, ‘I could have done a couple more’. That almost, to me, would have been greedy. If retirement was how it was going to be, I would have been pretty comfortable with that, banked the chips and been pretty happy. But I’ve managed to get another swing at it. It’s not like I’ve got a second chance, but I’ve got another shot.”
And opportunity abounds in a year that promises so much for the world-leading Red Roses. Scarratt is mature enough to recognise that a starring World Cup role is far from a given with so much competition within John Mitchell’s squad, but her sense of contentment at her lot in life and rugby is matched by a drive to still be the best she can be. She speaks with frustration in recalling how an achilles issue hampered her hugely in the last Six Nations, her first campaign under the New Zealander. “It was really debilitating,” she explains. “I’m not the sort of person to make excuses, you just want to show what you can do.”
But since returning to full fitness ahead of WXV in the autumn, Scarratt has been back to her best. At age 34, she hit a speed personal best in training; her performances at Loughborough in the second half of the Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR) season have showed that the queen of centres may be close to re-taking her throne. Mitchell has had to rethink how best to utilise a player of such rich skillset – having seen her primarily as a 12 in 2024, Scarratt starts against Italy at outside centre as she wins cap 117.
“I feel in a very different place to this time last year and hopefully I can show that. I missed a lot of time [with the neck injury]. The group developed, players developed. You don’t just spring back into a squad and be a starting player. I’m excited to see what value I can add in whatever guise that is. Being a part of this team and having this as your job is a very cool thing. I’m grateful I’ve been given another stab at it.”
And there is plenty of reason to make the most of that stab with the World Cup looming. The high of the 2014 win is outweighed by the despair of final defeats in 2010, 2017 and 2022. England don’t yet have the tally of trophies they need to cement the legacy they want to leave of a dominant, perception-changing team. A tournament on home soil would seem a perfect occasion to right a few wrongs.
“I wouldn’t describe it as unfinished business, but it is a massive opportunity. In terms of fulfilling our potential, we probably haven’t done that at the last couple of World Cups, or probably in 2010, if I’m honest.
“You can prepare for things as if they are just another thing, but it is a World Cup, and it is at home. It’s going to be bigger, there’s going to be more pressure. That is something we have to walk towards and embrace, because otherwise it will be insurmountable. The home games in this Six Nations will give us a taste of what the World Cup could be like. We’ve got to get this bit right and build from there. But if you dare yourself to look forward, it’s really exciting.”
