Aldcroft's lucky charm
Jonny Wilkinson has never missed a Red Roses match that Zoe Aldcroft has played in.
You will not find him on the touchlines or in the stands though, rather in Zoe’s kit bag, and in the form of a doll.
“My friend’s gran knitted it for me when I was 16 years old, and I’ve carried it in my bag for every game I’ve played in,” admits Zoe. “It doesn’t come out; it just hides in the bag with my smelly socks. It has never even been washed.
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“He’s in his Toulon kit, red, black and white, wearing a number 10 shirt and has boots on. A few people in camp know about it, Sarah Bern definitely knows as I’ve showed her a few times.”
Wilkinson had already won a World Cup by the time Zoe picked up a rugby ball at Scarborough RUFC, aged eight. Her dad and brother both played for the north Yorkshire side, so it was only a matter of time before her interest was piqued, and she went from snooping spectator to proactive player.
“I just got involved one morning,” she recalls. “I used to go and watch anyway, and then one week on the side line I was asked if I wanted to try it and I said, ‘alright I’ll give it a go’, and from that moment I just remember loving it.
“In the first few sessions I was nervous about the contact element because I used to do ballet and dancing, where there wasn’t any contact. I remember we started to learn how to tackle on our knees and in my first game, a boy ran at me, and I just dropped to my knees and tried to tackle him.
“Then everyone was like ‘what are you doing? You need to stay on your feet’. That was one of my first memories of playing at Scarborough. From then on I got involved with all the boys and just really loved being a part of it.”
Zoe pursued many sports as a kid including netball, rowing and cricket. Ultimately, it was all about having fun for her though, and rugby was the game she enjoyed most, due in large part to her coach.
“I had a great coach who taught me how to be a good person as well as a good athlete,” says Zoe. “He taught me about hard work and sportsmanship; I enjoyed learning off-field qualities as well as on-field skills.
“I was just enjoying the rugby and wasn’t thinking too much about it, but sometimes it would become more competitive and I thought I had to prove a point. I remember one time doing a tackling drill and a boy collided with me and started crying. I just composed myself and got back into it.”
Zoe played on the wing for one season before moving to full back, where she stayed until she was 18. It was only under the recommendation of Red Roses legend and World Cup winner Danielle ‘Nolli’ Waterman that she gave backrow a go.
“Nolli was my coach at Hartpury and one day she said to me ‘you are quite a big girl, with a lot of height to you, have you ever thought about playing number 8?’
“I wasn’t too sure at first, but I started going to the forwards sessions on a Friday morning and I liked it, so I sat down with my under 20s coach Jo Yapp and asked to give second row or back row a shot. The answer was yes and I never looked back.”
Despite thriving in her new role, Zoe never expected to earn international honours, even though the signs were there; she lined up alongside Red Rose regulars in Tamara Taylor and Abbie Scott (now Ward) at Darlington Mowden Park Sharks week in, week out. However, an invitation to an ABC camp changed all of that.
“An ABC camp is where all selected forwards in England train together,” Zoe explains. “Sarah Bern came with me, and that camp was the moment I knew I had some toughening up to do.
“The whole experience gave me real motivation to switch on and start thinking ‘this is what I want to do’, because professional contracts were in sight. From then, any time I was called into a camp, I just wanted to work harder and harder.”
Zoe was in Hartpury University library when she received a call asking her to go to the USA with the Red Roses ‘just to experience a tour and see what it’s like’. That tour was the 2016 Women’s Rugby Super Series in Salt Lake City, contested between England, Canada, France and the United States of America.
“Myself and Sarah (Bern) were hoping to play, but really we were just happy to be part of it,” recalls Zoe. “Anything that happened out there was just a bonus.
“The first game was against Canada (a 52-17 loss) and we were the water girls, running towels on and that sort of stuff, and then the next match against France was the day myself and Sarah got our debuts.”
Zoe came on with just four minutes remaining, and her impact was immediate, scoring a try to win the game 17-13. The occasion was made even more special by the fact that her dad secretly arranged to fly out to watch it, only informing her by text the day he landed.
Injuries since then have certainly curtailed her caps, though not her determination or spirit. She was named Red Roses’ Player of the Year for the 2019/20 season, featured prominently as England clinched their third consecutive Women’s Six Nations title in April and a Autumn Series clean sweep.
And to cap it off a wonderful year that saw the Red Roses cement themselves as the best team in the world, the 24-year-old made World Rugby's Team of the Year, and was also named Player of the Year.
“Any individual awards are a reflection of a team effort and I’d like to dedicate this to all of the team-mates, coaching and management staff that I work with for club and country. Their support is invaluable and I can’t thank them enough for everything they do,” said Zoe.
“From an England perspective, we’re looking forward to the Six Nations and then the World Cup in New Zealand later in 2022 – we’re heading into a huge year for the women’s game.”
With her best rugby playing years ahead, it doesn’t look like Wilkinson is getting out of Zoe’s bag any time soon… though she ought to give him a wash.
