Millar-Mills on the Move
It’s a moot point, but Harriet Millar-Mills’ move to Exeter Chiefs may mark the very last ‘departure’ from Wasps. I put departure in inverted commas because she has been in the States for a year or more. She last appeared for England, for whom she has gained 66 caps, in 2021.
I think the onward progress of all the other recent ex-Wasps internationals has already been monitored.
Here’s one attempt at a list of the club’s capped players through the Prem 15s era:
Ellie Boatman (7s), Rowena Burnfield, Abi Burton, Bryony Cleall, Amy Cokayne, Ciara Cooney, Liz Crake, Abby Dow, Meg Jones, Ellie Kildunne, Claudia Macdonald, Edel McMahon, Claire Molloy, Cliodhna Moloney, Sam Monaghan, Maud Muir, Celia Quansah (7s), Carys Williams-Morris, Flo Williams, Amy Wilson Hardy (mainly 7s), plus Harriet Millar-Mills.
Add to them others who have since retired, like Danielle Waterman, Heather Kerr, Justine Lucas, Katie Mason and Rochelle Clark.
Try picking your starting XV out of that lot!
A welcome return
It’s heartening to see HM-M return to action. She is widely admired by her fellows, twice picking up the Players’ Player of the Year award. One of her great assets is her versaltility; she can play with equal facility in the second and back rows. She had long spells out with injury, for a period coaching Wasps’ reserve side.
Now she’ll become only Chiefs’ second full England international; Claudia Macdonald, another ex-Wasp, being the first. For all Chiefs’ triumphs, one lack has been the provisioning of Red Roses. My concern about the club’s use of overseas players was that it hindered the advance of promising home-grown youngsters. One such is Flo Robinson, who, kept out of a starting position by the great scrum-half, Patricia Garcia, was tried out at fly-half on occasion.
Whether Robinson or Millar-Mills can make it into John Mitchell’s first Red Roses squad next autumn will be one of the fascinating questions to intrigue us over the summer.
