'I've tricked myslef into thinking I'm injured': Emily Scarratt on retirement and coaching

It has been six weeks since Emily Scarratt called time on her storied playing career, a short enough amount of time for her to pretend she is still just injured.

England’s record points scorer ended her career after contributing to the Red Roses’ Women’s Rugby World Cup win on home soil.

Also a part of the 2014 World Cup winning squad, Scarratt has now moved into coaching full-time in the Premiership Women’s Rugby with Loughborough Lightning.

“I don’t know if it has sunk in yet,” the assistant coach added. “It is relatively fresh still, and I’ve been quite busy, so it is probably when you are not busy that you have that time to reflect and look at it differently.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Premiership Women’s Rugby (@thepwr)

“I haven’t decided whether I have tricked myself into thinking I am injured and therefore am not playing at the moment, or whether I really understand that I am not playing again.

“I do think that will come with time. I’m not the kind of character to get too caught up in that. I am easy-come-easy-go and when I watch the girls fly into each other on a week, I am pretty happy where I am standing.

“I miss training when they are out there doing skills and rugby training. I don’t miss playing when I watch the girls play.

“It is almost the opposite to how it has been during my playing career, when you grumble in training but you really want to play, so it is probably all the right signs that I have made the right decision.”

Scarratt won 11 Six Nations titles during a 17-year England career and appeared at five World Cups – a Red Roses record.

The versatile back player scored 305 points, another record, for Lightning across 53 appearances.

Scarratt has worked her way up from coaching Loughborough University’s BUCS teams to being Lightning’s backs coach last season.

Despite no longer playing, the 35-year-old has kept many strings to her bow, balancing coaching with TV punditry and her podcast The Good, the Scaz & the Rugby.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Red Roses (@redrosesrugby)

Coaching at the club she played at for many years presents challenges as well as positives, as friends turn to charges.

But, in her customary self-assured way, Scarratt is enjoying the opportunity to grow.

She added: “Fundamentally, I still have to be authentically me, and that is a lot of what the girls know anyway.

“We are quite lucky in a sense at Loughborough that we have a lot of youngsters, so there is a bit more of a gap there between the generations that we live in.

“But some of my really close friends still play at Loughborough, so it is a bit of a weird one. I am still navigating that, but hopefully I haven’t changed too much and become a dictator coach overnight.

“I still have to stay true to me, what is important to me, how I behave, my values, all of that sort of stuff.

“I hope I am doing that. I haven’t really been tested properly yet, no one has stepped out of line, so that will be the real test.

“I am really enjoying it and hopefully able to add to what we put out on the field.”