Bird and LJ talk to Lynne Cantwell, the first high performance manager for the women’s game in South Africa.
Lynne is Ireland’s most capped (86) female rugby player. She was appointed to the South African role in February 2021. She has been a member of Sport Ireland’s board since 2019. She is also a qualified physiotherapist.
Here are the questions posed to Lynne:
Your degree was in Sport and Exercise Science along with a Masters in Physiotherapy. When and how did you realise that your real passion was driving high performance sport?
This year you were appointed as South African rugby first HP manager for women’s rugby- how exciting is this role?
You have a young family, husband and are uprooting and moving to SA was this a difficult decision?
There are lots of exciting Autumn Internationals plus games against the Barbarians, Wales, Scotland. We saw Twitter post of squad celebrating announcement of fixture singing. Talk us through the culture, support and what it means to the players
What does the current pathway look like?
Let’s look forward to the World cup pool with England, France, and Fiji to deal with. What are your expectations?
Ireland has not qualified for the World Cup in 2022 which is devastating for all involved. What needs to happen now?
Bird and LJ caught with Rachel Lund, former England international and now a Gloucester-Hartpury player who is studying to become a physio.
They asked her about the following:
Her journey from minis player to premiership.
Combining and juggling her commitments as an international and club player whilst studying full time for a degree.
Whether she would have changed to a full-time contract if she had been offered it.
The importance of having many career options.
Her current degree in physiotherapy.
How her degree combines with her sport. MORE
Bird and LJ catch up with England Women's assistant coach, Amy Turner.
Amy played 59 times for England, at scrum-half, centre and hooker. She played in three World Cups and helped England win seven Six Nations Grand Slams.
She is currently a World Rugby intern. Formerly a police officer, she worked for the RFU as a Performance Pathway Officer and coached men's rugby too. MORE
We’ve five key elements to our club coaching philosophy, one of which is “Protect”. This refers to each other and also to protect the ball. Here’s our ball protection policy. MORE
Carol was a founder member of the women's RFU, captain Great Britain and England international teams in their games. She was the first woman to achieve a L3 coaching award in England and was performance director of women's rugby in England too.
As well as being awarded an OBE for services to women's rugby, she is in the World Rugby Hall of Fame and consults for World Rugby. MORE
The remarkable and untold story of the 2014 Rugby World Cup winning England side from the view of their coaches, Gary Street and Graham Smith.
In this episode, approaches to the selection of Captain, why its not a sacrifice to play for your country, ‘you’re not fit to wear the shirt’, guns, bullets and the team begin their journey at the 2014 Rugby World Cup in France. MORE
