It must be a difficult task to reflect back on a tournament which ended in misery, but England’s Zoe Harrison gave it her best attempt after returning from the Rugby World Cup.
The 24-year-old spoke to GiveMeSport Women just days after the Red Roses narrowly lost 34-31 to hosts New Zealand in the final, which was watched by a record 42,579 at Eden Park.
Despite the heartbreaking result, Harrison described the sell-out crowd as “fantastic”, and was positive about her first experience at a World Cup.
“I thought it was really good,” she said. “I thought as a team we played well, and we went out and played how we wanted to play. As a first World Cup, I enjoyed it a lot.”
The Red Roses were well-supported in England, with fans waking up in the early hours of the morning to watch each match on TV.
The time difference made it difficult for the players to feel connected with their supporters back home, but social media helped bridge the gap.
“Social media was the big one,” Harrison explained. “We’d see what people were saying on Twitter, and the comments on England Rugby posts.
“We knew we had people watching, but I don't think we knew on a scale of what we've come home to, with the variety of people watching.
“Lots of people have told us about how they were watching it, people are now picking up rugby. So many more people are interested in sport and that's what we've come home to.”
AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND - NOVEMBER 11: Zoe Harrison of England during an England Rugby World Cup squad training session at Waitakere Stadium on November 11, 2022 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)
What are England's hopes for the 2025 Rugby World Cup?
Harrison’s next chance of winning the World Cup will be in her own backyard. England will host the tournament in 2025, and the RFU has announced plans to fill Twickenham Stadium for the final.
This would result in a crowd of more than 80,000, double the figure at Eden Park earlier this month. For Harrison, achieving such an attendance is an objective for the Red Roses.
“I’m hoping we can fill out stadiums and we can get to a final again. Selling out Twickenham is the expectation.
“Loads of girls are now taking up the sport and there's so much more interest. It would be nice to see the growth over the last few years, especially with this World Cup with everyone watching, translated into filling out every stadium for the 2025 World Cup.”
AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND - OCTOBER 08: Zoe Harrison of England kicks during the Pool C Rugby World Cup 2021 New Zealand match between Fiji and England at Eden Park on October 08, 2022, in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)
How has women's rugby grown in recent years?
Women’s rugby is indeed on the rise, and Harrison has her own experience of playing the sport as a girl to draw comparisons to.
“I started at the age of five, obviously starting with the boys,” she said. “So I was with them until I was 12 and then I had to move over to a girls’ team.
“Back then, the nearest girls' team was nearly an hour away. So it was hard to also then go and play matches because they'd be two hours away, maybe more. You'd have teams drop out sometimes because they couldn't get enough people.
“Everyone asks me who I looked up to when I was a girl, which women’s rugby player. I didn't even know any until I joined Saracens, I didn’t know who played for England or who was who, because I never got to see it.
“It wasn’t like it is now. There's a lot more local girls clubs, and a lot more girls who play, so they're getting matches week in week out.”
Harrison also highlighted the importance of the media in promoting the Red Roses, allowing young girls to have the role models in rugby that she was deprived of.
“Now that we're on TV, we're on social media, you can see us in places,” she explained.
“It's up to us to keep doing as well as we can, so we keep getting into good stadiums and people want to come watch us. But it's up to the media to promote us so that young girls can actually see it.”
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