Remembering those who came before England rugby star and RAF officer

Amy Cokayne was “shocked” when she heard about the early days of women’s rugby.

The world no.1 Red Roses had gathered for a visit by some of the game’s pioneers and were captivated by “unreal” tales of international players ringing each other up to start a women’s World Cup when the IRB, now World Rugby, expressed no interest. Teams, they said, had to pick each other up from the airport.

Last month, the trophy from those first World Cups, lost for over two decades, was discovered in an administrator’s attic.

“It was really huge,” said Cokayne, reflecting on the visit from former England stars including Claire Purdy, Sue Day and Gill Burns. “I think a lot of us came away from it really inspired.”

Lately, the subject of history has been hovering around the Harlequins hooker, 25, who serves as a provost officer in the RAF. Last weekend she created a bit of her own, scoring a hat-trick in the Red Roses’ dominant 56-15 victory over New Zealand to stretch the Six Nations champions’ unbeaten run to 16 matches and earn herself Player of the Match honours.

“At club, we have this presentation where we learn about culture,” said Cokayne. “They put up a timeline, just a random line of people, and it had a spotlight in the middle.

“And they said ‘there’s a time when you’re just breaking through, and there will be time when you’re just fading out of the light. At the moment, you’re in the spotlight, but you won’t be there forever.

“There were people who came before you, and people that are going to go after you.’ And I think it’s really important to realise that.”

She added: “You’ve got to thank the people who went before. So when we met the England old girls, that really put [things] into perspective for us.

“And that realisation that there will be people after you as well, it’s huge. You’ve got to put the position you’re in now in the best place for the people coming after you. I guess that’s a weird way of answering your question. There’s that connection because of the relationships you make with people. You’re really bonded by the fact that you’ve played rugby either together, or just across time.”

Cokayne is also connected to a central tenet of rugby as one of a long line of capped players who have combined sport with service.

Her Quins teammate, Scotland international Sarah Bonar, left secondary school teaching to become an RAF officer, while Bethan Dainton has represented Wales and served a tour in Afghanistan with the army.

In fact, rugby’s Forces ties go back to its very origins. William Webb Ellis, the man credited with inventing the game, was rector of London’s St Clements Danes—now the central church of the RAF.

On March 27, 1855, a Cavalry XI faced an Infantry XI at Balaclava, Crimea in the earliest recorded game of army rugby ever played, and 23 years later marked the first match between army and navy squads. An annual inter-service championship launched in 1907, with the RAF joining in 1920. It would take another 83 years before servicewomen had a competition of their own.

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Cokayne is the daughter of an RAF engineering officer but hadn’t considered joining up herself, always assuming she’d end up in health sciences. It wasn’t until some Litchfield teammates, themselves in the Air Force, encouraged her to check it out. She initially joined the reserves with a friend.

“We were like, OK, we can get paid to play rugby,” Cokayne recalled. “We were buzzing. We were students, we were poor, we’ll do what we can to get some money.

“[But] we actually ended up really enjoying it. We enjoyed the training, we enjoyed the whole feel of military life, so we decided to join up as full-time officers when we finished uni.”

She is now part of the RAF’s Elite Athlete Scheme, which allows her to commit fully to England and play for the Air Force squad. When she leaves rugby, she’ll join the RAF again full time and will likely find herself on international duty—a prospect she’s “relishing.”

Cokayne, who took time away from the sport to train with the RAF, has faced criticism from some who believe she’s “just using the RAF to play rugby.”

The truth is quite the opposite.

“I very much will definitely have a career in the Air Force after I stop playing rugby,” Cokayne insisted. “The Air Force has actually helped me with my rugby.

“Going through that training over that time away really helped me, in terms of I missed the game, which I think I was losing a bit after the World Cup. If anything, it’s prolonged my rugby career.”

When England face Canada on Sunday, Cokayne will proudly wear two flowers on her shirt: a red rose and a poppy, to honour Remembrance Day.

She said: “To be able to recognise that on a world stage with England Rugby is really important, and I feel a responsibility as a serving member of the armed forces to really push that.”

Shining the spotlight backwards, if only for a rare instant, because you’ve got to thank the people who came before.