Not everyone can say they are living out their dream, but Emma Wassell can.
The, now professional, rugby player from Ellon was one of the first 28 female players to be given a full-time contract by the Scottish Rugby Union in December.
The contracts, which will run until November of this year, were a history-making move when they were announced after a precedent-setting World Cup – but more on that New Zealand adventure later.
Ahead of Scotland’s World Cup preparations last Autumn – their first appearance in 12 years – SRU put the women’s squad on full-time contracts for 10 weeks.
For Wassell, 28, who is an accountant for Anderson Anderson Brown, it was a game-changer as once she had tasted the full-time sporting lifestyle, she didn’t want to give it up.
Thankfully, now, she doesn’t have to, as the contract with SRU means the lock is paid to train full-time down with her Premiership 15’s club, Loughborough Lightning.
“It’s been a bit surreal,” Wassell said. “For most of my career, I’ve had to work full-time and take every single holiday I’ve had to go to Scotland camps – that became normal for me.
“So to then be told – after qualifying, because if we hadn’t qualified for the World Cup things might have been different – rugby can be your entire focus, and my work has been very supportive of that, it was a massive stress lifted.
“We’ve got the contracts now, so you’ve got more time to train, recover from training, and to do more analysis – which is a massive part of the game and it’s something that probably took a hit when you’re balancing everything.
“It’s like a dream come true and I still think to myself ‘what, rugby is my job?’. I’ve done it for so long without this support, so having it now makes you want to push on.
“There is pressure on us – not that anyone is putting that on us, but it’s more individually. We know this is our job and we all want to be better, and we have this opportunity now to try and do that.
“It’s been different, physically and mentally, but for this to be my job – it’s very cool.”
World Cup has to be a foundation for Scots to build on
The 2021 World Cup, which was played in the Autumn of 2022 because of Covid-19, was one of fine margins for Wassell and the Scotland squad, losing the first two games against Wales and Australia by just three and two points, respectively.
Although it ended in early disappointment, as Scotland exited in the group stages after a 57-0 defeat to eventual champions and hosts New Zealand, Wassell, who was the most capped player in the squad, was more than grateful for the World Cup experience.
“We had about 10 days after we got to New Zealand before the tournament started, but it wasn’t until the opening ceremony that it hit us we were there to represent Scotland at a World Cup,” Wassell said.
“They really put on a show and it felt like a huge event for women’s rugby.
“The build-up to the Wales game was a different experience, in the sense we’ve played them so many times before, but not on such a big stage. We had to make sure our emotions didn’t get the better of us.
“The entire tournament was a surreal experience. There were quite a lot of Scottish flags in the stadiums – it was weird that even though we were so far away, it kind of felt like home.
“We were obviously disappointed with the results. The Wales and Australia games were hard to take and the New Zealand game wasn’t the best reflection of us – we were maybe rabbit in headlights to begin with, but brought it back in the second half.
“We’re on this journey now and need to have these experiences to realise where we are and the different aspects of our game we can work on.”
As the 2021 World Cup was delayed until 2022 due to the pandemic, it means the next edition of the international tournament is less than three years away.
And if they want to qualify for consecutive competitions, which will be held in England in 2025, and go further than last year’s outing, Wassell says, the hard work must start now.
“I wholeheartedly believe the current players involved with Scotland still have a lot of strides to make,” Wassell said. “We just have to make sure we keep making progress going forward, and the contracts will help with that.
“It would be a backwards step if we didn’t qualify for 2025. There are going to be 16 teams and qualification will be different, but going to the World Cup is our expectation.
“It has to be in our heads as the aim now because it’s not actually that far away – there’s not time to take your foot off the gas, so the Six Nations is going to be huge for us.
“We’ve got three big home games (against Wales, Italy and Ireland) coming up which will be target games for us, and then England and France will be a very different challenge.
“If we can get those home wins at a Six Nations, it’s a really good start for us. We want to put on a show and prove why we deserve to be at World Cups.”
Scotland begin their Women’s TikTok Six Nations campaign against Wales on April 1 at the DAM Health Stadium.
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