The great survivor: Sweden’s Jennie Ohman

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Jennie is probably the last player from the first World Cup still playing international rugby today. After a four year break to start a family, the prop returned to the national team just in time to be part of their remarkable 2009 European Championship triumph.

Jennies spoke first about her memories of her previous competitions . The first WC (1991) was of course very exciting with a lot of new opponents, she said. The Swedish national team had played mostly against Germany until that time. The French ladies were a little rough for a player who was not that experienced, but our win against Japan was a nice memory!

My best memory was Scotland in 1994. We had a Scottish coach - Guy Dinwoodie - and it was really great to be a part of the squad when he came back home to Scotland! Even these days I remember his pep-talk before we played USA (the defending World Champions). I still get goose-bumps when I think of it. Even though we lost it is a great day to remember.

The WC in Amsterdam 1998 got more professional with accommodation, organisation and the level of the game. I also think that the game have moved on a lot while I have been away!

Jennie had begun her rugby only five years before her debut, a relative of mine had a friend who was playing. I also played handball, also a physical game, and I thought it would be fun to try another sport. I enjoyed it a lot and combined handball and rugby for more than 10 years before choosing rugby. I have not regretted that decision. She began as a prop, but switched to No. 8 from 1994 until her international break began in 2005.

Since returning Jennies experiences have made her very positive about the future of the game in Sweden. I think the union have put some focus to the womens team over the last years and we have a lot of support from the union with president Stina Leijonhufvud - she is fantastic and supporting the women in a tremendous way!

Press coverage has also improved a lot especially when we qualified for the World Cup. It has been a little reduced since then, but the womens rugby still attracts the press. The qualification has attracted new players to the different clubs and, as numbers of players and clubs improve, it will give more possibilities to move the game in Sweden further on.

At the time being Sweden has a lot of young players that are very skilful. We will see a lot more of them in the future - they going abroad and playing club rugby in other countries to develop their own game, and I think that Swedish womens rugby is gaining as a result. Look out for Elisabeth Ygge in August she is great player and she will play for Sweden for a long time.

As for the tournament itself, Jennie sees only one winner New Zealand! As for Sweden, we are going to the WC as underdogs, and are aiming to win at least one game in the group. Overall, success for Sweden will be to improve our ranking and finish inside the top 10

Jennie is not alone in preparing for the trip to England my husband and two boys will come over to London for a week. It is really hard to get everything together will full-time work (Jennie is a qualified physiotherapist and now works for an orthopaedic company), training and small children but my husband has supported me a lot so I can train - but of course you always think that the training is not enough!

As for the future any chance of a return in 2014? I will see what will happen during the world cup, how I manage to cope - and recover!

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