Merchant tips a bright future for Finland

England winger Kat Merchant (, spent a weekend coaching the top Finnish players who are planning a strong build-up campaign to the European Championships which take place next April in Spain.

Merchant, who has scored 27 Test tries in 30 appearances for England at senior level, is an experienced coach she currently coaches for the mens sides at Chesham and Buckinghamshire University and she said the time in Finland gave her a chance to broaden her experience.

Ive been looking to expand my coaching experience so I thought it would be fun as well as a good opportunity to do that. I was really impressed with the standard and the level of professionalism they have around the team we did a lot of work on attack with specific skills and they were really great. They have some amazing facilities and obviously with the cold weather there they do need a good place to train indoors and theyve got that.

The Finnish players were also delighted with Merchants contribution. Coahc Lauri Ylnen said:

Having Kat here in the middle of snow and subzero temperatures was a great start for our winter training season. Her positive attitude and skill to share her knowledge of the game gave our girls loads of experience of succeeding which will build their confidence. It is valuable to have someone internationally as experienced as Kat to talk what it takes to get to the top and what it means be one of the best. I believe we all learned a lot during the weekend and all in all it was a true pleasure to have Kat with us.

After coaching in -20 degrees in Finland, Merchant then jetted off to Dubai to weather in the +30s where she competed for the Samurai team who won the overall 7s title. Up next for her is a continuing of her coaching and playing career.

It is definitely difficult to fit it all in there are some long days but I really enjoy coaching. Id like in the future to be a head coach somewhere so I know I need to get more experience and work on my forwards coaching. Id love to go back to Finland again if they will have me!"

Finland compete regularly in FIRA European competitions and were in action last year at the Euro 7s in Moscow. They also regularly play Norway.