It is an overcast day and Sarah Hunter is clutching only a towel in Bayonne. It is May 2022, the Red Roses are on the verge of completing a fourth successive unbeaten Women’s Six Nations campaign and their skipper can only watch on with a grimace. An untimely rib injury had ended Hunter’s tournament a week before the trip to the Basque Country – even the slightest of chuckles sent shoots of pain to her chest.
The rib injury that troubled her was a significant one, the towel about all she was permitted to lift before the time came to hoist the Six Nations trophy again. Having tried unsuccessfully to convince the medical staff to let her play on painkillers, Hunter’s attention turned to how best she could help out. While other players might have stayed at home, or flown down purely for the Saturday celebrations, come the Wednesday before the game, the England skipper was on a 6am flight from Stansted Airport to ensure she was there to support her squad in whatever way she could.
