The Rugby Paper online recently sat down with three Harlequins Women‘s players as they look ahead to their “Game Changer” fixture with Wasps Women on 13th May. Here, Australia‘s Emily Chancellor speaks to Online Editor Nick Powell.
Harlequins‘ Emily Chancellor is enjoying the experience of playing Premier 15s rugby in England, and is hopeful that her native Australia will be able to emulate the English game in time for their home World Cup in 2029.
Chancellor arrived in England in January, and has been impressed with both the form to top two in the league have shown and the standard of the games.
“Gloucester-Hartpury set the standard for the season, and Exeter found their flow towards the end of the year, but from our point of view we haven’t been able to match that in the games we really needed to,” she said.
“We can perform against teams in the lower half of the scale, but when we get to the top teams we’ve just been struggling to execute that final bit of flair.
“In Australian competition, there’s a big gap between the teams and there’s only six teams in the league, so it makes it hard to get up for every single game.
“Then you come over here and it’s the best competition in the world so every team here is a step up. There are no easy games, every team is capable of scoring tries and winning games.”
Quins sit fifth, knowing a strong finish to the campaign can get them a place in the top four, but there is no room for error in such a competitive Harlequins squad, and league, for Chancellor.
She added: “The reality has lived up to the expectation in terms of the whole competition being so good and week in week out needing to put your best foot forward both to win games and get selected.
“The chat we’ve had about our last four games has been about being relentless, leaving nothing in the reserve tank. Every game is pretty much must win if we want to be in that top four, and once we make top four, anything could happen.”
Chancellor was one of three Australians Harlequins signed for this season, along with Bella McKenzie and Kaitlan Leaney.
None of them knew until the deals were confirmed that they would be joining together, but Chancellor was grateful to have fellow compatriots making the move to the northern hemisphere, coming off the back of a brilliant World Cup the trio were able to share together.
“It’s really nice to have some people you know from home,” she said. “It’s just nice to know you can be absolutely yourself and you don’t need to be on your best behaviour at all times. So we’ve got a little slice of Australia living in Guildford together.
“Every knows that the World Cup is the pinnacle of the game. I thought it would be a bit of a shame that we were playing so close to home in New Zealand, I wanted to go overseas a bit further, but actually it was the best thing it could have been.
“So many family and friends were able to support and as much as New Zealanders don’t like Australia, we’re each other’s best friends when it comes to the rest of the world so it felt like when we were playing anyone other than New Zealand we had a lot of support behind us.
“The games were class, and the whole experience well-exceeded my expectations.”
With England hosting the next World Cup, and Australia taking on the mantle in 2029, Chancellor is hopeful that with the right infrastructure, Australia can capitalise on the momentum that will continue for the women’s game and soon emulate the success that the English national team and domestic game has had.
“The World Cup in 2025 in England is really exciting,” she added. “You saw how well England supporters supported the Women’s Six Nations and the record crowd for England vs France. That’s such a great statement of how good the support and environment will be for the World Cup in England.
“Hopefully with Australia being such a huge nation of rugby, where the women’s game is becoming more of a focus, that the build-up continues and the snowball effect leads into our home World Cup in 2029.
“The investment that Rugby Australia has put in in the last six months into the women’s game is really exciting, and I think the infrastructure really needs to grow for us to be the best nation that we can be.
“You compare the number of games that an English player plays in a year, both test matches and club games at a good standard, to what Australia has in terms of test matches and domestic games, that’s not comparable.
“So until we bridge that gap, it doesn’t matter how much we want to pay our players, we really need that structure in place to grow.”
Featured Image credit: The Hatch Group
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