by The year is 2000 and the scene is Oakmedians Rugby Club. Marlie Packer, aged 11, goes down to one of the backfields with her Ivel Barbarians teammates and coaches, easily recognizable as the only girl in the under-12 team, in full view of the opposition. It’s a moment Packer youth coach Clinton Eales remembers well.
“As we were walking around, a very big young boy who was playing a prop for them said, ‘Haha, look… they have a girl playing for them!’ Marlie stopped dead in her tracks. She looked at this young lad… Well, if looks could kill. She pointed at him and said, ‘I remember who you are’.”
Soon after the start, after Packer tracked the boy down from the first break, she launched herself at him and in one fell swoop, pulled him to the ground. The moment is still burned into Eales’ memory. “Absolute perfection,” he says. “The young boy hit the floor and was gouging his eyes out. His mother even came to the field and demanded that Marlie be sent off! That was the turning point for Marlie. She knew she could do a lot of damage on a rugby pitch.”
Eight years after that incident, Packer was called up to the England squad for the Cup of Nations against Canada, after flying into the sky through the players’ corridor. The Yeovil native was a diamond in the rough at the time, but her talent was evident from the start.
On Sunday, she will become England’s seventh female captain when she captains the Red Roses in her 100th test match in England’s final Six Nations against Italy in Parma.
It’s a milestone that’s even more impressive when you consider how Packer spent more of his life as a plumber than a professional rugby player. Like many of her teammates from England’s 2014 World Cup-winning squad, she took time off to compete in the tournament and returned to work full-time as a plumber for HomeServe, returning to faulty boilers and leaky pipes set days after the rise. trophy.
Her career recognition is something to be really proud of. On her X profile Packer lists herself as a “plumber by trade” before being Red Rose No. 150. In the days before professionalism, she raced up to England training in her big red van, full of pipe wires, nuts, bolts and screws, after a hard day’s work. The hardworking spirit she gained from her career has shaped the way she conducts herself in a rugby environment.
“Throughout my career, I’ve always been very focused on the gym,” says Maggie Alphonsi, a former England international turned pundit. “Marlie wasn’t always the best trainer, but that’s what made her unique. She just works hard. She is a grafter. Marlie works hard on the pitch and that’s what makes it very different to some of the other back rows you might see.”
There are many examples where Alphonsi’s words ring true, even in Packer’s lesser-known days as an England Sevens player. She won a crucial breakaway penalty at the Amsterdam Sevens tournament in 2015 in a match win against the USA that led to Great Britain’s qualifying effort for the Rio Olympics. Despite her heroic participation, she missed out on selection for the Games, but her disappointment propelled her to become one of the world’s best openers in the longer code of the game.
Even in the prime of her career, Packer’s numbers ring with someone at the peak of her powers. In last year’s Six Nations, when she took over the Red Roses captaincy after Sarah Hunter stepped down, she topped the charts for tackles (71), defensive tackles (52) and jackal turnovers ( 7). This season, she is the leading try scorer in Women’s Rugby in the Premier Division.
For Simon Middleton, the former England coach, it was a “no brainer” to appoint her as captain when Sarah Hunter retired at the start of last year’s championship. Beneath his mild-mannered nature, there is an inner competitor with the same killer instinct as the young girl who walked onto that Oakmedians pitch, but a man who has also become a born leader.
“What really convinced me that Marlie was the right person for the job was how she matured as a person over the years,” says Middleton. “She was not only a smart player but a smart manager of players. Her control was as good as anyone’s, in terms of how she transitioned from being a player who sometimes played on the wrong side of the line to playing on the right side of it.”
Of late, Packer has been under pressure from youngsters such as Sadia Kabeya in an increasingly scrappy England goal. “The back row is fierce in terms of competition, but Marlie recognized the challenge they faced,” says Middleton. “She never takes anything for granted – especially when she’s playing for England. She just topped her game.”
Head coach John Mitchell takes a similar view, saying: “Talking to Marlie about her journey, she’s had to deal with adversity since her Test debut in 2008. It’s clear from the moment I met her that first is her determination to succeed. in it for the past 16 years.”
At the launch of the Women’s Six Nations last week, Packer was asked about the pressure of keeping her place when younger Red Roses – some of whom have only ever known professionalism – are nipping at her heels. “I just need to keep doing it,” she said, unsatisfied by the question. “I don’t need to be anyone else. I’ve never had anyone else in my career.”
The youngster who scored her own goal on the Oakmedians pitch would no doubt agree.
