Did we see it coming? No! But the ongoing uncertainty over future schedules made it an unwelcome possibility.
(Photo: Bruce Perkins)
Any delay of the World Cup till 2022 would affect the senior players adversely. Both Katy Daley-Mclean and Sarah Hunter would then be moving towards their late thirties. The RWC committee is still hopeful that the tournament can take place as advertised next September, but we have got used to disappointments this year. Katy sees the personal commitment needed for another WC campaign as a step too far.
What a player!
It’s given to very few players to lead their country to a World Cup victory, as Katy did in 2014, then go on uncomplaining under a different leadership to perform outstandingly for another six seasons.
This has been a most remarkable career. Few players can claim to be playing even better at international level in their mid-thirties than ten years earlier, but in Katy’s case it is undoubtedly true.
In all the many games she has played in recent seasons her control of events has been apparent at every turn. Her positional play, her handling, her kicking (out of hand and off the tee), her defensive work and her decision-making have been of the highest order.
In what turned out to be her very last Six Nations game on home soil, against Wales at the Stoop, she produced one of her deadliest scores via a break from way out to beat the last line of defence with a step and pace. In the high drama of the French game in Pau in February she completed a jackal and turnover that helped to stave off a likely looking defeat.
We have a measure of her achievements in the two most prestigious Teams of the Decade posted. Last year scrumqueens.com voted her into the No 10 slot. Then this month the honour was doubled as she featured in World Rugby’s version of the same tribute. There can have been few other candidates to come under the microscope.
Looking ahead
Her decision helps to explain the policy of England’s management to keep rotating their best players, so that a sudden disappearance, through retirement or injury, wouldn’t need a fundamental rethink.
Zoe Harrison already has 27 caps to her name, several at inside-centre, but plenty in the vital No 10 shirt. She is a highly gifted performer with the added advantage of playing for Saracens, whose standard of play comes closest to England’s at club level.
But not satisfied with a single replacement, Simon Middleton brought Helena Rowland into the two autumn games of 2020 to further strengthen his options. She too played for Sarries but operates now for Loughborough Lightning, where she has the advice and example of Hunter and Emily Scarratt close at hand. But in her decision-making she is her own mistress, and adds lightning quick running skills to the usual armoury of an international No 10.
And there is still Holly Aitchison as an outside bet, a consummate Sevens player, who may yet find a place in the Red Roses line-up for New Zealand.
Have England’s chances of another World Cup win been reduced? Yes. Of course they can still achieve that holy grail, but without Katy’s input it will be a much tougher task. Hers was a reassuring presence every time the Red Roses took the field.
