My Story: Amy Cokayne
Amy Cokayne talks about her journey from Aston Villa U10s, captaining a New Zealand High School to becoming a Red Rose.
To get an insight into the competitive nature of Amy Cokayne’s family you only have to look at what has become an annual tradition on the most celebrated day of the festive period.
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“It started a few years ago,” said the 23-year-old. “It was Christmas day and me and my dad were sitting on the couch. We have fitness testing quite early in January normally and I wanted to get higher on my bench press, as it was one of the things I needed to improve, so he said ‘well I reckon I can bench more than you.’
“We got into the car, went down to the rugby club and had a bench press competition. My brother was away with work at the time but now it has evolved into bench press and max press-ups as my brother can bench loads, so we have to try to beat him on press-ups this year.
Asked what the winner of the competition gets, Cokayne replied: “It’s just gloating, you know that you’re the winner, but we’re getting better each year so that’s good.
“One of my mates lives with us and we told her she had to get 100 points, so she normally hits about 70kg on the bench and then 30 press ups and that means she can have Christmas dinner, that’s her reward!”
From keeper to hooker
It was at Cleve Rugby Club in Bristol where Cokayne first experienced rugby, an area where her family were based because of her father Ian’s job in the Royal Air Force, but it was not just rugby she tried during her early years.
“My dad’s a massive Aston Villa fan, he was when I was younger anyway, so my initials are actually AVFC for Aston Villa Football Club,” added Cokayne. “He took me down one day and said we were going to go to trials, I got in and I was a goalie for Aston Villa Under 10s - we were really good, I didn’t have to do much goalie work.”
At the age of nine, Cokayne’s family emigrated to New Zealand as her father got a job in the Royal New Zealand Air Force, where she was then faced with a choice of sports.
“I played football when I was here and when I moved to New Zealand both rugby and football were played on Saturdays – I chose rugby,” she says in her retained Kiwi twang.
Moving to a rugby mad country like New Zealand, Cokayne thrived. She arrived in the country as an inside centre and made her way to hooker, via the back row, playing at Feilding High School. It was here that her leadership was recognised as she captained the school team to 53 games unbeaten.
“It is quite a famous school in New Zealand for rugby.
“Sarah Goss went there, she was my captain for a while, an amazing rugby player captaining the New Zealand Sevens now. All Blacks like Aaron Smith, the Whitelock brothers, we all went there.
“By the first XV rugby pitch at school there is a wall that’s got everyone’s pictures who has played representative rugby. It obviously had loads of All Blacks and then there’s me with my white England shirt up which is quite cool – I think there was a bit of a protest to get it taken down but it’s still staying strong.”
Although now with 48 caps as a Red Rose, Cokayne’s international career nearly took a very different turn when her obvious talent was recognised.
“I got selected to go to a Black Ferns camp and my school rugby coach at the time, Rob Jones, went to me ‘I know you’re English, would you rather play for New Zealand or England?’ and I said England.
“I didn’t think it was part of the question as I couldn’t play for England living out there, and at that point I still hadn’t left New Zealand for the eight years we were there, so it hadn’t crossed my mind.
“He went ‘leave it with me’ and that year England Women were coming over to New Zealand for their tour so he planned it that our rugby tour was playing in the same area that year. When we were there, he said ‘come on Amy, we’re going out for a coffee’ and there was Nicky Ponsford, Gary Street and La Toya Mason.
“At the time I was going to be leaving my whole family, they were going to stay out there and I was going to come back by myself and I was thinking whether I wanted to do that or not. That was in June and then by December I was back in England, it was quick.”
Getting goose bumps
The move back to England got almost instant reward, as three months later in February 2014 she was called up to an England Under 20 training camp.
She would feature for the Under 20s as well as age grade sevens sides at U18 and U20 before her first senior cap as a Red Rose in 2015 against Italy at Twickenham Stoop.
“You sing the national anthem for the first time; I just love the national anthem it gives me goose bumps now. It’s just a feeling that you’ll never forget, I had loads of my family come down, it was really special.
“Anyone will tell you it is not just yourself you’re playing for. In the end my family moved back, sold their dream home and sacrificed to allow me to come back, so it was great to see their faces and how proud they were.”
Five years on from that debut, Cokayne has become a regular in the side featuring in every game of the 2017 Women’s Rugby World Cup run to the final where she came up against some familiar faces in the Black Ferns.
During that time, Cokayne has combined her rugby career with following in her father’s footsteps in the RAF becoming an officer in the RAF police. At the start of the season she was named as one of 28 Red Roses on professional contracts during a summer where she switched from Wasps FC Ladies to Harlequins Women.
“I always say if I’d have stayed in New Zealand I would be a doctor by now as I was going to go off to uni and become a doctor – I ended here being a professional rugby player which isn’t too bad,” she says with a wry smile.
England fans can be grateful that instead of having a stethoscope around her neck, Cokayne is leading Red Roses charge for back-to-back Grand Slams.
