Abbie Ward

On the last day of training, three days before she gave birth, Abbie Ward was squatting over 100kgs, reeling off deadlifts, bench pressing and rowing. Less than three weeks, a C-section and a baby girl later, and the Bristol Bear forward is back at work.

The leave part of Abbie Ward’s maternity lasted just twenty days. She stopped training three days before giving birth and went back to work at Bristol Bears just over two weeks later.

Which is why it rankles that for most of 2023 she’s been reading that she’s been away, on maternity leave, when in fact she’s had a workload similar to when playing, has lifted as much in the gym while pregnant as she did during last year’s World Cup, has participated in every skills session going at her club Bristol Bears, and played the role of pilot fish and promoter for the RFU’s new maternity policy, all the while battling severe morning sickness which would have left her on the bathroom floor had it not been for heavy medication. “The amount of times I’ve seen it written that, ‘Abbie Ward is away on maternity’, I’m like, ‘I’m not on maternity, I’m a full-time professional player, I’m just not playing at the minute!’” she explains. “Just the same way that an injured player isn’t on holiday, or if you’ve done your ACL, you’re not taking a sabbatical.” 

Abbie is speaking to the Rugby Journal from her sofa at home in Bristol, having given birth to her baby daughter Hallie three weeks previously on 20 July. Abbie has just breastfed Hallie, who in reply is making the soothing, gurgling sounds of a contented newborn. The only rival for her mother’s attention is Bargain Hunt, which Abbie swiftly mutes. “Don’t judge me,” she laughs.

For most new parents the sofa-sitting-and-watching day-time-TV phase lasts longer than three weeks but while Abbie has been spellbound by Hallie, she has also been itching to get her body moving again, and has already – incredibly – started her return journey to the rugby field. “Obviously it’s the best when you’re having your newborn cuddles,” says Abbie. “You’re so in your bubble and, especially the first time, I think it’s quite magical. But … there’s only so much sitting on the sofa that I could do because I do have a view to get back playing fairly soon so I’m like ‘right, I need to kickstart this at some point’.” 

To that end, Abbie’s aunt has come down from Cumbria for the week, and with husband Dave’s family local to the Bristol area, there are plenty of willing hands around to hold Hallie while Abbie, 30, begins her journey back to the elite levels of rugby fitness that powered her to 61 international caps for the Red Roses, the most recent coming in last winter’s World Cup final loss to New Zealand. 

Abbie’s motivation to get back, and the willingness of her employers at England and Bristol to help her, means she has a meticulously planned seventeen-week training programme ahead with the aim of getting her fit for the start of the Premier 15s season – which has shifted to November to accommodate the new international competition in the women’s game: WXV. “I always said I wanted to be ambitious and get back playing as soon as possible,” explains Abbie. “So, I want to aim for that [the start of the season] but as I didn’t know what it would be like to be a mum, I didn’t want to make a six-month plan and after two months ask to pull things forward because it would be much harder. So that’s the plan and we can adjust it as we go. But already, I mean, I’m one week in and my body post C-section is recovering really, really well.”

Like all new parents, Abbie and Dave – who coaches Abbie at Bristol Bears – are having to rapidly get used to the challenges that come with a new family member. Mostly the lack of sleep, with Abbie saying that they are getting between four and five hours a night. It would be more than that but Abbie’s night-time workload is doubled by having to express milk after every feed so Hallie can be fed by a bottle the next day when Abbie trains. 

“And I’m the type of person that really needs my sleep! But as much as being up all hours of the night is awful, it’s different when you’ve got a child because you’re just coping, you just manage. And then you look down and she’s smiling or something, because she hasn’t got a care in the world, and you’re like, ‘okay, this is pretty awesome. I’ll do without sleep’. It’s nice actually being back in club and being around the girls because that also gives me a bit more energy. 

“Now we’ve settled in with the first three weeks, it’s about the logistics, which I think is probably the hardest part. We’ve got our routine – okay, there’s no routine! – but we know what’s going on with Hallie so it’s more the logistics now with us both being at work and sorting out who’s looking after Hallie and who’s doing what feed. But we are loving it.”

Abbie met Dave in 2018 while both were playing at Harlequins, although Abbie admits she didn’t know who he was when she saw him in the physio room. She was looking for players to do a good luck message to her team-mates competing at the Commonwealth Games in Australia. Danny Care’s message was in the bag but she needed another. “I didn’t have a clue who Dave Ward was,” laughs Abbie. “I was looking around at who I could ask, and he was getting physio, with a big smile on his face, and he looked like an approachable guy. So, I thought, you can do a message for me! And yeah, that’s how we met.”

They got married two years later. Fast forward to last winter and Abbie and Dave started trying for a baby after the World Cup in New Zealand. They knew at the time that the RFU’s plans for a maternity policy to be offered to England women’s players were at a very advanced stage, so the timing was perfect. 

Abbie’s Red Roses team-mate Vickii Cornborough also became pregnant around the same time, giving birth to twin girls two days after Abbie – meaning a fifth of the Red Roses starting XV in the 2049 World Cup could already be with us – making them the first English rugby players to benefit from the RFU’s incoming maternity pregnant parent and adoption leave policy (to give it its full name).

It means Abbie and Vickii have become the faces of England’s new era of support for the family plans of their women’s team, and the first two case studies in how such a policy works in practice, including how to physically support pregnant players who want to keep training. “Initially back in January, it was very conservative,” Abbie explains. “We really took all the weight off because we were still learning the protocols around what you can, and what you can’t do. There’s a lot of information out there that’s like ‘don’t lift heavy objects and don’t strain yourself’ but we soon realised that it’s what you’re used to and what my body could cope with. So, then we pushed it a bit more, and a bit more.”

Abbie’s morning sickness was most severe during her first two trimesters – at one stage she wasn’t able to keep water down – so once the daily nausea started to ease in her third trimester, she took full advantage. Right up to her last day of work at Bristol, Abbie was squatting over 100kgs, performing deadlifts, bench pressing, and working out on the indoor rower. “During pregnancy I was probably lifting what I was during the World Cup,” says Abbie. “I think people were a bit surprised at that but I wanted to make sure that I was still training around the Bristol girls and the England girls so that they could see, ‘Okay, this is what happens’. 

“One thing that I noticed is that so many girls were asking questions, and a lot more of them were speaking openly about wanting to have families. Until now, I think everyone – even if you did want to [start a family] – would just keep their mouth shut. The maternity policy is a big step in changing perceptions and understanding, but the second part is seeing that working in real life.”

The RFU’s maternity policy offers players on central England contracts 26 weeks on full pay whilst on maternity leave, a provision that is streets ahead of the statutory minimum in the UK of 90 per cent of your wage for the first six weeks followed by £172.48 per week for the next 33 weeks. 

As well as the financial offering, there is a truly progressive level of ongoing support for the mother or primary caregiver upon their return to the squad.

The policy allows for a player – if selected for an England squad within twelve months of becoming a parent – to bring their baby plus a support person to look after the child into camp or to travel with the squad to a match. That offer stands whether it’s a one-day trip to Cardiff to play Wales, a week-long training camp at Bisham Abbey or a three-Test, month-long tour of New Zealand. 

Also, should the player prefer for their child to stay at home while they’re with England, the RFU will make provisions for the baby to be looked after at home.

In drafting their maternity policy, the RFU have consulted with other sports as well as other nations’ practices, and the outcome on paper looks the real deal.

With regards to Abbie: due to her ambition to get back playing quickly, she hasn’t taken up the 26-week full-pay package, instead just taking the legal minimum of two weeks. “This is the way I wanted to do it,” says Abbie. “I want to show girls that they can do that. But I also don’t want to put pressure on people who potentially want to have children, that they have keep training. Because everyone is different.”

If all goes well for Abbie and she makes it into an England squad between now and 20 July next year, she will be able to have Hallie and one other person join her in camp and/or at matches, without having to cover the cost herself. 

This is a far cry from the situation a decade ago when the last current England player to give birth, hooker Emma Croker, began plotting her way back to the international arena. As a full-time teacher, Emma had a basic maternity leave offer from her school but for rugby, there was no financial support. 

When Emma was selected for an England squad again, five and a half months after giving birth, she had to pay for hotels and flights herself so that her daughter Lucy and her mum could travel with her. Three years later when she was selected for the 2014 Rugby World Cup squad, she still had to find the money to have Lucy and her mum with her in France for the duration of the tournament, a period just shy of three weeks. The sacrifices she made to have her family with her were all worth it however, as Emma played an important role in England’s cup-winning campaign, including featuring for 22 minutes off the bench in the final. She celebrated with Lucy on the pitch after the final whistle, even bringing her daughter up with her when she received her medal.

That image of Emma celebrating with Lucy is one that has stayed with Abbie. “I remember seeing Emma with her daughter at the stadium,” she says. “I think there’s a picture of her clutching the trophy with her and I remember thinking that was pretty awesome.”

There aren’t any further examples in recent times of England players who have got pregnant, given birth and come back to play for their country. It’s important to note that Marlie Packer and Katy Daley-Mclean have both become mums in recent years while continuing to play for England, but their partners gave birth. Abbie does cite the examples of Harlequins’ Davinia Catlin and her Bristol team-mate Deborah Wills, who have both given birth and come back to play in the Premier 15s. 

Abbie though is aiming for the international arena. And few would bet against her making it back. Her last match before finding out she was pregnant was the World Cup final last November, a match in which she was monumentally good. But she has found it difficult to shake off the final seconds of that match, when England had a lineout on New Zealand’s five-metre line. Winning possession would have surely led to a try and an England victory. Abbie jumped for the ball. We all know what happened next. “Brutal, absolutely brutal,” are Abbie’s immediate reflections on that lost lineout. England had scored four tries from rolling mauls off lineouts in the match, everyone in the stadium, and the millions watching on from home, expected a fifth. “Yeah, I mean, yeah, it was … it was tough, really tough, particularly for myself, having such a significant part in that last moment. I’m the [lineout] caller so it’s all completely on me. It should be a no-brainer, it should be an easy win, fair play to New Zealand for deciding – having not defended [lineouts] for the majority of the game – to go up and defend. It’s that pressure, can you still be 100 per cent accurate in all your skills in the 80-plus minutes of a World Cup final? We weren’t accurate enough, that’s the difference. 

“They are brutal games to learn from but at some point you have to separate yourself from the result and the solace I found was the huge momentum that the women’s game had got. From the crowds over in New Zealand to the support back home. And the wave that’s been ridden from that was the Twickenham game this year [when over 58,000 fans watched the Red Roses play France] so I think we can all be proud of being part of that change and that growth. But obviously you’ll never get away from that result.”

Despite England losing the final 34-31, Abbie was named in the World Rugby team of the year, underlining to the outside world what she knew to be true herself.

“I think I was probably at my peak,” she reflects. “I think I was playing some of the best rugby I’ve ever played.”

Two weeks after the final Abbie found out she was pregnant.  “Some people might be like, ‘you’re crazy to stop then’ but I never felt like that would be it because I still have so much room to improve, even though I was playing my best rugby. There are so many things that I could be better at. It’s just on me. I’m confident that if I put in the work then I will get there. I’m very lucky that I’ve got amazing support around me with S&C, physios and coaches but off the pitch as well, so I think it’s all there for the taking, it’s up to me to put in the work.”

Abbie’s England debut came in February 2015 when a raw England team went down to Swansea to play Wales in their first match since winning the World Cup in 2014. Although shorn of 14 players from that squad, they were still expected to roll Wales over. Instead, the Welsh won 13-0, just their second ever win over England and still their most recent. Amidst the wheels of England’s chariot getting stuck in the Swansea mud, Abbie made her England debut, along with six other debutants including Vickii Cornborough.

Her memories of coming off the bench that day are scant: “Muddy pitch, middle of nowhere, in front of maybe one hundred England fans, I was thinking just don’t make a fool of yourself, just don’t fuck up basically.”

It wasn’t a gilded beginning in white yet but Abbie soon started to rack up the caps as her technical and tactical nous, her all-round skills and her unwillingness to ever take a backward step forged her into an England regular. She then played in her first World Cup in 2017, starting in the final alongside Tamara Taylor in the second row.

Her rise hasn’t been without a few ups and downs however. She’s sustained two major ACL injuries in 2013 and 2016, plus a serious hip injury during Covid. And she knows what it’s like to be flat-out dropped too, which happened as recently as the 2021 Six Nations.

Who was she dropped for? “Pretty much everyone!” she laughs. “Zoe [Aldcroft], Harriet Millar-Mills, Poppy Cleall, Cath O’Donnell … and there were others. The conversation was that I wasn’t physical enough for them, or wasn’t a player that they kind of wanted.

“At the time, I didn’t agree. I’d had one bad game against France where I didn’t perform, and all of a sudden I was dropped for the next game. I’d gone from them resting me [for a previous match] to all of a sudden being dropped, but that can happen in sport very quickly.”

Abbie didn’t change her game to suit the needs of England’s thinking at the time; instead England’s coaches – with Louis Deacon now as forwards coach – reinstated her for that year’s autumn series, and they were rewarded handsomely with Abbie putting in two stellar shifts in the second row in England’s record wins against New Zealand, to cement her place in the side again and earn selection for World Rugby’s team of the year for the first time.

The experience of being dropped, however, has left her with a determination never to take anything for granted in international rugby, and a tempered degree of confidence around her comeback. “I think the anxiety I have is around fitness,” she explains. “Match fitness is something that as soon as you stop playing for a week or two weeks, you start losing. So, the anxiety is around that. It’s just going to be a case of going through those horrible hard yards, all those sessions that are pretty brutal when you’re on your own, sweating on the bike, running pitch lengths or doing down-ups. But I get a lot of confidence from the stuff that I can do even now. There have been times when I’ve thought ‘can I still pass a ball?’ but just being in skill sessions yesterday, it made me think ‘OK, you’ve been doing this for years, it’s second nature to you.’ I know what I can do, but I know I’ll have to raise that again, particularly with the talent that’s coming through now. So, I know it will be difficult to get back.”

But coming back is what Abbie has been doing her whole rugby life, in some shape or form. Her first comeback, aged 12, was her most important.  “I played one game of rugby at my home club Keswick and then quit, because umm … it was too rough! I remember it just being a bit ‘aggy’. I played every sport there was. At one point, I was adamant I wanted to be a tennis player and at another point I want to be a skier, then it was kayaking, or whatever. Rugby was just another sport. But then I started it again properly around 15, and I ended up falling in love with it.”

What persuaded Abbie to give rugby another go was Keswick Rugby Club’s mixed touch on Wednesday nights in the summer. “It was great, everyone would go down and you would mix up the teams so you’d have first teamers mixed in with 15-year-old lads and someone’s auntie and then a big barbecue at the end, so it was very family orientated.”

Community rugby has always been so. But now the professional game is starting to catch up and Abbie, Dave and of course Hallie – who still hasn’t made a squeak in an hour and half of this interview – are right at the vanguard of rugby’s new family era. 

Story by Jack Zorab

Pictures by  Danté Kim

This extract was taken from issue 23 of Rugby.
To order the print journal, click here.