Maxine Edwards: Firsts and Lasts
Former England Women captain Maxine Edwards talks through her first and last Tests leading the side.
Maxine Edwards won 45 caps throughout her 25-year rugby career, juggling work and parenting with a demanding training schedule.
She began playing rugby aged 19 with Bromley Women’s Rugby Football Club in Kent. She then captained the team as they moved and became Blackheath Women’s Rugby Club, playing alongside her sister Jacquie, who went on to score the winning try for England at the 1994 Women’s Rugby World Cup final in Scotland.
While Jacquie was a back with an outstanding GB and England 15s career, Maxine excelled as an uncompromising prop. She played for Saracens, captained both the South East Regional and Divisional sides and, with her sister, successfully trialled for England, gaining her first cap against Wales in 1991.
Having studied at the University of Greenwich and worked as a business analyst, she was qualifying as a teacher when named as the new captain of the England women’s team and leading them out for the first-ever international women’s match at Twickenham Stadium.
A veteran of three Rugby World Cups, she was awarded an MBE in 2010 for services to rugby.
First: 15 February 2003 at Twickenham Stadium (England 57 - 0 France)
“When I became captain I was one of the old guard and on my 36th cap. What used to happen in those days was a team vote for who the players wanted to captain them. I don’t think I ever said I wanted to do it but my name was put forward . When our coach, Geoff Richards, told me that the players wanted me it was an enormous honour to represent the team and my country.
“The first person I told was my sister because I knew she would understand how much it meant. Then I told the rest of the family who along with my rugby family at Blackheath RFC were also incredibly proud and supportive.
Maxine Edwards
Even though my mum had not watched any of my matches, she was always there when I needed her, taking me to the hospital when I got injured or picking me up after surgery. She still understood the enormity of the role that I had been given and I would have to repeat all the details explaining that I was going to captain England and where I was playing, so she could write it all down and tell her friends!
“I was really proud but also aware it was a huge responsibility. It was brilliant when you were winning but when you lost you had to do that slow walk to Geoff Richards, pull everything apart, and explain what had happened out there on the pitch. He was uncompromising, when his beady eyes were on you felt there really was no escape. I’m still in contact with him, that’s the kind of respect we all had for Geoff.
“This was a double-header, we were playing at Twickenham before the men’s game and we were thinking it had to be great, looking at where we had come from as women players,. Playing at Twickenham was like ‘We have really arrived!’ To play on that hallowed ground really meant something, it was one of those matches that meant so much, a huge occasion and you knew you had to put in a huge performance.
My ethnic background
“When you reflect on the current issues that have come to light with the lack of representation in some areas of the sport, it was really important that we had Georgie (Paula George) then me as England captains, representing the nation and hopefully helping young girls feel that they could play rugby for their country too. Not only was it was unusual to have someone from my ethnic background run out as captain but I was also a single mother working full time.
“We were playing at 1pm before the men’s match at 4pm and I remember being on the team coach, walking in through crowds of youngsters, supporters from women’s clubs, feeling almost ‘Do I deserve to be here?’ To walk in through those fans into such an amazing stadium was incredible and then going out to the pitch you’d expect to feel lost in the vastness of it but you are surprised to feel that it is quite enclosed and you really do feel at home.
“We weren’t in the men’s England changing room but that didn’t matter to us, we were at Twickenham. Running out it felt like we did belong there, the quality of the pitch was absolutely beautiful and even, the bounce of the ball, the studs in the turf, all made for a perfect game. When we lined up for the anthems there was a proper presentation, I think the RFU made sure that they provided as good a platform for us as they did for the men. The music quality was excellent as we stood for the national anthem something that was not always the case for our international matches but I still had the customary bow of the head midway through the anthem as we always started too high and struggled to maintain tone and rhythm.
“That day I was so proud when the anthems were played, the thought of all the training, the sacrifices, the times I hadn’t been able to do things with my son, Sean. All of that was in my head as the fans sang with us and, as we always did, we stood arms around each other as a front row. The responsibility that day for all of us was enormous, we couldn’t play for the first time at Twickenham and perform in such a way that would confirm the low expectations that some people still had of us as rugby players.
“As captain, I knew we needed a good win but that we had tough, exciting players, players who would give everything and that I was just steering. Having a brilliant team makes being captain so much easier. I wanted different players taking charge of their different areas on the pitch, people like TJ (Jenny Sutton) bossing the lineout, Rob (Helen Clayton) knowing what was going on at the back of the scrum and Shelley Rae organising the attack from the backs. We had several natural leaders taking responsibility, helping players within their groups.
“We knew we were ahead but playing at that level you are almost playing in little moments. Every time you score it’s let’s go again, and sometimes you have an opportunity to try different moves to see what works. A good team has to go through those drills, making those actions work over and over again. While we were playing I was aware that the men’s team were out on the sidelines watching how we were doing. Then they beat France 25 – 17 so it was a pretty successful double-header and that first Test match at Twickenham was a huge step forward for the women’s game.”
Last: 19 June 2004 Churchill Cup final at Edmonton (New Zealand 38 - 0 England)
“We flew out to prepare for the Churchill Cup and knew we would suffer from jet lag so I think we invented walking rugby as we tried to keep ourselves awake and recover.
“We were expected to reach the final and we had beaten the Black Ferns in 2001 at North Harbour that would have been the first time I had played against them. Unfortunately, I’d dislocated my wrist the day before the victory on that tour and missed the game.
“I know our mentality was let’s go out there in the final and see what we can do. For me, if your mentality is going into a final thinking you will come second then you come second. There was no doubt in my mind that we were going out there to win. It was one of the matches that isn’t sharp in my memory, and to be honest it’s probably one I was glad to forget.
“I know that in a match like that you are trying to calm things down, look at what’s happening, trying to take control but once you are playing catch up it gets harder and harder. Someone may have missed a tackle, the scrum may not be low enough and it gets tougher to say to your team ‘We can still make a difference’.
It wakes you up at night
“The players knew how important it was, had worked so hard for it. It was a huge disappointment, one of those things that makes you wake up at night wanting to go back and make it right but knowing there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. You just have to look at yourself as a captain and player and be determined to apply all you’ve learned from that defeat, if you get the chance, in the next match.
“I don’t think I knew that was going to be my last game as England captain but in all honesty there were times when I wondered how much longer my body would be able to cope. . I’d had many injuries over the years, was well known for picking them up on tour, a twisted ankle, torn hamstring, torn calf, Achilles tendonitis, back injury and a dislocated wrist to name a few.
“Captaining England was amazing, I don’t think we lost a Six Nations match in my two seasons in charge. Rugby is a fantastic sport and the draw was that, unlike other sports, it was a sport for different shapes and sizes. The social aspect is huge and really important. Playing at the highest level it’s really a great place to be. As captain, you look down the line at all those great players that you respect who have asked you to captain them. With the men winning the 2003 Rugby World Cup (and having an Australian coach), it was a great time to be part of rugby.
“My family helped me so much, I have five brothers, my sister, sisters-in-law and a couple of really good friends and I would get my schedule and say ‘Can you have Sean then?’ They were incredibly supportive. My England training might be up in Shropshire and I would drive home, then maybe down to Whitstable, pick up Sean and drive home again. There were occasions when I’d take my son to training and look up from a scrum to see him and Geoff’s little daughter Sophie in subs’ suits playing like Sumo wrestlers.
“I remember once, when Carol Isherwood who was the RFUW Performance Director at the time, was giving us a rousing speech, she paused for breath and Sean said bla-blah-blah and everyone laughed. All the players were really good with him, they were all big kids anyway. It seems a whole lifetime ago and not something you talk about every day, so when my son just happens to mention it at work in passing, he is tasked with asking me for more details.
“It was an enormous honour to be nominated for an MBE for services for rugby and to receive it from Her Majesty the Queen at Buckingham Palace in 2010. She asked me how long I had played and I said 25 years. I loved those 25 years.”
