This time last year Mackenzie Carson flew to Belfast to watch Ireland take on Scotland in the Women’s Six Nations.
On Saturday the Saracens prop will be in England’s match squad at Cork’s Musgrave Park as the Red Roses look to move one step closer to another Grand Slam.
Carson only started the transition to loosehead prop in earnest in January, and now finds herself thrust into the Test-level coalface.
The British Columbia-born star has swapped her allegiance from Canada more by luck than judgement – but revealed her delight at relaunching a Test career that had threatened to elude her.
“In the last six Nations I flew to Ireland just to watch their match with Scotland, with a couple of friends,” Carson tells Standard Sport. “It’s a little bit crazy coming full circle from spectator to playing.”
Carson won three caps for Canada but found herself surplus to requirements after moving to the UK and joining Bristol in 2018. The versatile forward moved to Saracens in 2019 and won her first England call-up for this year’s Six Nations, switching allegiance after a three-year stand-down period.
“The rules around eligibility changed, and after the pandemic, a few injuries and not being selected for Canada, it was almost a fluke of timing,” says Carson. “Playing at Saracaens has helped me grow as a player and a person, and I’m a big believer in taking the opportunities you’re given. So I just kind of ran with it.
It’s a little bit crazy coming full circle from spectator to playing
“I think part of me definitely had accepted that I might not play Test rugby again when I wasn’t being selected for Canada. I’m obviously a bit biased but I think this is an excellent rule as it will allow a lot more players I think to be playing at Test level.”
Carson switched between hooker and back-row before fully embracing the loosehead prop challenge in January. Former Saracens and Argentina stalwart prop Juan Figallo has shaped Carson’s transition, in his role as Saracens Women’s forwards coach.
“One scrum can be perfect, and the next you’re standing on your head going ‘what’s gone on here?’ So it’s one of those things where it’s a hard position to learn and to master,” she says.
“Juan is a world-class prop himself, so it’s been great to be able to pick his brains at club level. And then to have Sarah Bern and Hannah Botterman at England has been fantastic.
“They’ve both had a similar experience of learning how to scrummage at international level. It’s not always the best way to do it, but it’s being thrown in at the deep end, so it’s great to have them as sounding boards.”
Carson effectively has two day jobs, when pairing her Saracens and now England commitments with her role for the Herts Sports Partnership. Government funding off the back of Marcus Rashford’s campaigning has created Carson’s job, planning holiday camps for children receiving free school meals.
Completing her history degree at Vancouver’s University of British Columbia further crowds Carson’s hectic schedule.
“We’re an active partnership at Herts Sports, off the back of what Marcus Rashford did, a lot of Government funding came in,” she explains. “I didn’t grow up here, but I had a similar sort of experience, in that rugby was my outlet, my way to find opportunity.
“I don’t think I would have even gone to university had it not been for rugby. I don’t think my family would have been able to afford it, or I would even have had the drive to go to it.
“Sport creates so many opportunities for people, and especially for kids from potentially low-income backgrounds. It’s really important to stay active from an early age.
“It can be really difficult to start being active the older you get. So if we can create that in a younger capacity and give them opportunities that might lead to something later in life.
“Sport’s been such a huge part of my life that I would want for somebody else to have that experience from the same kind of point I had it.”
The Red Roses will close out their latest Six Nations tilt by hosting France at Twickenham on April 29. A world-record 50,000 tickets have already been sold, with the total climbing day by day. A possible first outing at headquarters would prove another big milestone for Carson and her visiting family.
“I’ve never played at Twickenham, and definitely not in front of that many people,” says Carson. “If selected that would definitely be a cool experience.
“I’ve seen a couple of England men’s games there, and I went to a club game with my Dad. Even growing up in Canada, Twickenham is the home of rugby and it’s somewhere you always think of.
“So even just to have the possibility of playing there is super cool. My family is over during the Six Nations as well, so if that worked out, that would be special.”
