Leanne Infante's World Cup Column: France, Dolphins & Electric Scooters
In her second World Cup column, England's Leanne Infante talks dolphin spotting, electric scooters and snoring room mates.
There was a lot of relief in the changing room after that France game. They played so well and really made us work hard for the result. There was a bit of disappointment in the air after the game. We knew we left points out there on the pitch and we can be a lot better than that. You didn’t have to look far to see how hard we worked though. I think even the girls on the bench were exhausted, that’s how tough it was.
It was maybe 11/11:30pm by the time we got back and there was the option for food if you wanted it, but we also get given these thick protein shakes right after the game so I couldn’t do both. Moz (Morwenna Talling) and I just went back to our room and had our lights out fairly quickly. The only issue came when I tried to fall asleep.
We take caffeine before we play and I was still buzzing from that, so I found myself awake for hours just unable to switch off. I was lying there thinking to myself ‘Leanne you will fall asleep’ but I ended up going on my phone and messaging my husband, Matt, who’s back home. Eventually I think I fell asleep at around half 3 and I was back up again at 8 in the morning.
Rest Days
Sunday was a super chilled out day. We had the morning off, which gave everyone the chance to work through their own game recovery processes. We left the hotel around 1pm to go on a boat trip around The Bay of Islands and hopefully spot some dolphins. Most of the players went, a couple stayed behind but a few staff members joined in as well. It was about an hour or so on the coach so I obviously had to take my travel sickness tablets.
What I didn’t realise was that the tablets would make me drowsy, which wasn’t an ideal situation when I was already shattered from the game! When we were on the dolphin trip, I was actually asleep the whole time that the dolphins were around the boat. Nobody thought to wake me up though, so when I did wake up they were gone. Everyone was buzzing after seeing them, so at least I got to see their videos!
Afterwards we stopped off on one of the islands and enjoyed some time there. There was a cute café and an amazing beach, so a lot of the girls went for a swim and grabbed some lunch. A few of us went for a walk up the hill and took some photos before walking back down to join the others by the beach. The views were just incredible and it topped off a really relaxing day.
The next day we headed back to Auckland to set up for the week ahead. On Monday night we had the opportunity to spend the night outside of camp. We’re here for quite a while so it’s nice to be given the opportunity to spend some time for ourselves. Quite a few of the girls went and stayed with their families or friends who had made the trip, and some of the girls got an Airbnb between themselves just for something different.
I decided to stay in the team hotel because Matt isn’t out here yet. If we’re still in the competition later on there will be more opportunities for this type of thing so I’d rather wait until he’s out here!
On Tuesday, once we’d settled into Auckland again, Cath O’Donnell and I decided to go and explore the local area. We used these electric scooters and took ourselves for a scoot along the marina front. Cath found a coffee shop so we stopped for some cake before going up the Sky Tower in Auckland. The views from the top were just incredible, and I of course had my polaroid camera on hand to snap some shots for the scrap book.
Eyes on South Africa
Wednesday was a training day, our first real session dedicated to preparing for South Africa this weekend. We were told the team selection fairly early on, so to start with we split into our units (backs and forwards). For us backs the training intensity was high but non-contact, we were just going through the motions before joining up together with the forwards to run through some plays and sets.
There were obviously still some sore bodies around the place, but for me it was nice to get moving and blow off the cobwebs! Then on Wednesday we went into our gym training groups. Gym sessions are often split between forwards and backs but today it was a Group A and Group B, so nice to do it with different faces. It’s this sort of things that really helps to gel the team together.
Our evenings are a chance for us to unwind after a busy day. I roomed with Marlie last week and Moz this week, and they’re completely different people. Marlie is, as we all know, very loud and bubbly and always upbeat, always bringing the energy. Moz is just really chilled out and really laid back so in the evenings we’re in the room just doing our own thing. I’ve just finished watching Killing Eve so I need something new to get stuck into!
I used to room with Vickii Cornborough, the two of us roomed together for years and during the Six Nations, she went through a phase of snoring quite loudly. It got to the point that I had to politely say ‘I don’t think I can room with you anymore’ because I’m such a light sleeper. So now I’m a bit of a floater and I’m always rooming with different people, but it’s quite nice because I’m now really close with loads of the girls in the team.
