Catherine Spencer - Former England Women’s Rugby Union player & Captain

It’s October and the Rugby World Cup has kicked off in the UK and I thought this would be a fantastic opportunity to talk all about rugby, with a former England player and Captain.

Catherine Spencer loves rugby, and always has, she was born into a rugby playing family and she started playing with her twin brother when she was just eight years old. She was one of the only girls playing on the team, but that did not stop her, she loved the game and she found out she was pretty good at it! 

One of the great things about podcasts is you can hear the passion in peoples voices when they talk about something they love. In her own words, “Rugby is the best game in the world”. I was so inspired listening to Catherine, it’s made me want to go and give it a go and see what it’s all about!

Rugby is a physical full on contact sport which generally women haven’t been involved in. It was not offered when I was at school and it was something that girls just didn’t do. But this attitude has been shifting especially over the past five, to ten years. More and more women are coming to love rugby and I wanted to understand how and why this change came about.

In this podcast we get to hear one women rugby journey from playing mixed rugby with the boys to leading the England Team out on the field at Twickenham.  We discuss teamwork, leadership, going after what you want, dealing with failure, and how you can come back from utter defeat and be stronger than before.

After retiring from rugby, Catherine started her own business which is about inspiring women! She has also partnered up with Endure to lead a team on a 150km unsupported trek across the Namib desert to the Skeleton Coast. The aim of this expedition is to raise awareness and help stop the illegal trade of wild animals in partnership with the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation.

Catherine is on twitter @CathSpence8 I’m also on twitter @_TOUGH_GIRL please do send us a tweet once you’ve listened to this podcast episode. Don’t forget to subscribe and I would love for you to leave a review and share the podcast with your friends and family. 

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New Tough Girl episodes are published every Tuesday morning at 7am.

Have a fantastic week and I’ll be with you all next Tuesday with Robyn Baldwin an Alpha Female, MS Warrior & OCR lover!

Sarah