'If retiring was the outcome I'd have banked the chips'

Back to her best as the Women's Six Nations begins, Red Roses centre Emily Scarratt reveals to Harry Latham-Coyle how close she came to having to step away from the game

- Harry Latham-Coyle

Eyes scanning the memorabilia decorating the space around her, Emily Scarratt is surrounded by evidence of the progress made and the progress still to come. It is just days before the Red Roses begin their Women's Six Nations and the England centre is sat in a popular Twickenham watering hole, bedecked for the occasion with a collection of keepsakes celebrating the history of women's rugby. Outside, the painters have been hard at work emblazoning the images of three of England's stars on the wall that adjoins London Road; the renamed "Red Roses' Patch" displaying its new signage prominently and proudly.

There is a certain poignancy to certain items on display in the pub, from the battered old boots of the trailblazing Gill Burns to shirts of a certain vintage with tulips on the chest, a relic of a time when England's women were not allowed to wear the rose.

"Honestly, it's a bit of a joke," Scarratt reflects. "I reflect back to first cap my in 2008 at Esher. There weren't many people there, generally just friends and family of players. You were lucky if people knew it was happening. Now, people are all over it.