If you want to know how it feels to lose a World Cup final there are few better to consult than Rochelle Clark. She has been involved in four of them and England’s second most-capped player – male or female – has experienced defeat three times. The first, in 2006, was a particularly bitter pill. “It feels as if you’ve had your heart ripped out. It’s absolutely horrific. You don’t know pain like it.”
So when “Rocky” did finally win one in 2014, at her third attempt, it surpassed anything she had ever previously experienced. “For me it was the best day of my life and something I’ll always cherish,” she says. “Even talking about it now I’m smiling. I can still close my eyes and remember lifting up the trophy and the little gold ticker tape flying everywhere. It was magnificent.”
