Katy Daley-Mclean MBE | Leading from the front

Katy Daley-Mclean MBE recently received her 100th cap for the England women’s rugby team, an achievement that was covered across all of the national media. However, when Katy started playing the sport, it may not have been covered at all.

Katy was born into a rugby family but there was still a ‘massive association’ that rugby was a ‘boys sport’. Still, at five years old Katy’s father took her to the local club to get involved. She ‘just loved it and played mixed rugby up until age 12.’

Whilst Katy admits there were the odd negative comment surrounding a girl playing rugby with the boys, the ‘really supportive’ network of people around her meant it never had any real bearing on her.

As there was no female division for girls between 12-16, it wasn’t until Katy was spotted playing tag rugby at the Millenium Youth Games that she got back into the sport.

Women’s rugby on the rise

Fast forward to the present day and Katy has not only won the women’s Rugby World Cup as captain, but has made 101 international appearances and plays for Loughborough Lightning in the Tyrrells Premiership.

Domestically, Katy believes the the game has seen massive improvements both on and off the field.

“It’s a much better brand to sell and promote now. I think when you look at the media coverage, it’s not perfect but from when I first got capped in 2007 to now, there’s 100% improvement.”

England games are now shown on Sky Sports and ITV and attracted a record 2.6m viewers to the England vs New Zealand women’s World Cup final. It is not just on the TV, however, with more and more people attending fixtures. The fact that 17,440 people turned out for France’s 18-17 victory over England in this year’s Six Nations, a record attendance for a women’s international game, is a real indication of how much the game has grown.

Katy believes this is a result of the Tyrrells Premiership, player power and the RFU’s reinstatement of contracts for England’s female players.

“For us as players, we’re now doing a better job at making the brand sellable, the RFU are putting their share in with the contracts and then you look at the Tyrrells Premiership, it’s made a massive difference to the standard of the game and it’s making the domestic game much more watched and supported.”

The increase in supporters the Tyrrells Premiership also transfers through to a higher level of interest in the England women’s team.

It helps that ‘women’s sport is still in a place where it’s accessible’, but Katy credits the women’s World Cup, that was held in England in 2010, and the Red Roses World Cup victory in 2014 as landmarks that shifted the perception and narrative around women’s rugby in the UK.

Not only did Katy win the 2014 World Cup as captain, but she did so whilst working full time as a primary school teacher.

Describing the tournament as the ‘highlight of her career’, the best thing about the victory as captain was how well the team gelled and the experience taught Katy how to cope with the pressure of performing well but also leading the team.

Surviving the leadership pressure cooker

In dealing with pressure, Katy admits she had different strategies, but the team around her were vitally important.

“It was a little bit about offloading, making sure everything didn’t build up to the point where it all fell out, making sure there was the opportunity for other people to speak and, even though I was captain, I had a really good leadership group around me.

“There was four or five girls and the weight was shared amongst the group. There is no way a single person could do it on their own.”

Similarly, Katy believes that to be a good leader you need to ‘be yourself’ and get others involved.

“In my early years, I tried to be a mix of everything. You can’t be everything to everyone. Once I learnt that lesson, it was about being yourself, but finding your weaknesses and bringing in other people around you in your leadership team.

“That was a massive lesson for me, using the likes of Sarah Hunter, my vice captain, whose strengths were my weaknesses. That’s what made us a really good team, we filled all the gaps.”

Preparation is also key, making the task of leading much easier when everyone knows their role.

“By the end I really enjoyed not having to micro manage, being able to sit back and trust that everybody would do their job and that we’d done enough prep in the build up that people knew what was expected of them.”

Equally as important is the ability to read the room as different situations dictate different reactions from your leader or captain.

“Sometimes you might need to get stuck into [them],” Katy explains, “sometimes it might just be really process driven.”

Katy uses the example of the World Cup final in 2014. As a professional athlete, you shouldn’t need much motivation when competing in a final, so for Katy, it was focused on making sure the players were fully prepared for the task ahead.

“There’s a fine balance between being emotional and being ready to play, being very focused and being prepared. As captain, it was about the build up. Making sure we just kept repeating our processes, how we were going to start and what we needed to do to dominate over Canada.

“Before the whistle, it was getting into the girls that this wasn’t going to happen just by being there, we had to make it happen and I think that’s about reading the mood of the team.”

Creating role models

Katy clearly got it right, with England winning the game against Canada 21-9. The group of women that lifted the World Cup in 2014 immortalised themselves as champions of female rugby in the UK. Now they should be pointed at as living examples that, as a female athlete, team sports are a viable career path. They are the role models for the next generation.

“It’s about providing an opportunity for young girls to realise they actually you can do a team sport as a profession. You don’t need to be a dancer or a gymnast, you’ve got other options. That’s the big thing about women’s sport isn’t it? It’s cool now.

“When I look back at my career and the group of players that have been around, the likes of Tamara Taylor, Sarah Hunter, Danielle Waterman, Rocky Clarke, when you look back at what they, as a group have achieved, it’s something to be extremely proud of.

“When I was younger there was no real association with a female team sport to think ‘wow I want to be like her.

“If we’re inspiring young girls to think, ‘Actually I want to go and do what they’ve done’ then that’s brilliant.”

Katy recently received her 100th cap for England and admits it ‘couldn’t have happened in a better way’. Beating the USA 57-5, Katy scored a try and picked up the player of the match award in the process.

“It was a perfect evening. The amount of messages I received from people both associated and not associated with the sport was pretty overwhelming.

“The game was great, my sister and niece came out with me, my cap was presented by my dad and we won so to be honest it couldn’t have been any better.”

Moving forward, Katy believes the most important thing for women’s rugby is the involvement of sponsors.

“For me, the next big thing is getting more main sponsors across the domestic league. It’s just going to improve the ultimate standard of the game, filtering up and filtering down, because of the resources the clubs will have available.

“The beauty about the contracts coming back is that they’re not short term. That shows how important the women’s game is to the RFU, it’s a big statement of intent from them. It also shows that, because of what other unions are doing, nobody wants to be left behind.

“Hopefully, what comes out of that is brands want to be a part of women’s sides because they see the value in it. Until that happens you are missing a piece of the jigsaw.”

The future for Katy is all about enjoying her rugby, playing for Loughborough Lightning in the Tyrrells Premiership and continuing her glistening career for England.

“I’d love to get a contract with England to see what’s left. If I’m still enjoying it and still adding value to the white shirt, I’d love to stick around.”

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