Scrumqueens’ Team of the Year
In a World Cup year, the Team of the Year almost always picks itself, and this year was no exception with the winners of the title picking up almost 50% of our public vote.
Published by Alison Donnelly, January 1st, 2015
3 minute read
Even if you ignored all votes from English readers the eventual winners, England, would still have won the poll quite comfortably. Ireland came in second but almost all of their votes were Irish whereas New Zealand in third picked up most of their support from overseas readers, with a fifth interestingly coming from rivals Australia!
It's easy to forget that England had a poor start, by their own standards, to the season. For any other side, winning five out of six Six Nations games would be a pretty good return, but England kicked 2014 off poorly, losing to France in disappointing fashion.
Still, there were signs that England were coming together as the tournament progressed, as the side played together properly for the first time after a disjointed 2013 where the focus was on sevens.
With England always having an eye on the World Cup and there was a sense, particulalry when they hammered Ireland in the semi-final, that they had rather timed their peak to perfection.
England's World Cup pool stages wasn't totally plain sailing - the draw against Canada though did serve to knock usual World Cup final rivals New Zealand out - but in the semi-finals, England were imperious and while Canada provided a stern final test, England were the best team out there and can rightly lay claim to being the number one side in the world.
Their win was also important for the game - finally breaking New Zealand's major dominance on World Cup titles and giving them too a fitting finishing story to three finals of heartbreak as well as paving the way for exposure the women's 15s game has never seen.
There have been accolades aplenty since the team returned. Rochelle Clark and Sarah Hunter recently won MBEs while England also won the BBC Sport's prestigious Team of the Year, takingthe honour ahead of Europe's Ryder Cup golfers, the GB & Northern Ireland athletics squad and the Mercedes F1 team.