Leatherland ready for action after long pre-season

Dominos, McDonalds and kebabs tend to be the typical diet of a university student, but when you are also a rugby player, strong will is needed to keep to the protein shakes.

This iron will is exactly what Warriors Women and former England Under-20s prop Lauren Leatherland has.

The 20-year-old combines her time training and playing at Sixways with studying for a degree in PE and Sports Studies at the University of Worcester.

But despite the lure of takeaways, Leatherland insists it is easier than it looks to stay on track.

“It’s not that hard because I know that if I eat takeways and stuff like that I won’t perform as well,” she said.

“I know what makes my body work and perform best. If I have a takeaway, I won’t feel right or perform great the next day, so it doesn’t fuss me, it saves money as well.

“Because Warriors Women have a link with the uni, it works really well. We have scholarship advisers who help us work both at training and lectures.

“It’s quite balanced and I’m lucky that my lectures don’t clash with training. The university is quite on-board with helping us progress as BUCS players as well.

“So, if there ever is a clash between lectures and training, they’re up for helping us re-arrange it, they’ll even find us another module or lecture time.”

Having featured in all 18 of Warriors Women’s Tyrrells Premier 15s matches last season, earning an England Under-20s call-up in the process, Leatherland is making a name for herself.

But it was not rugby that was her first sporting love.

“I swam for 12 or 13 years, then I played netball as well and started rugby when I was 15,” she said.

“The local club came in and did a guest session in one of our PE sessions, and they said: ‘why don’t you give rugby a go?’

“My best friend played and my dad played when he was younger so he was always trying to get me into it.

“After games he’s always like: ‘you did really well today, but you could have done this.’ He gives me a few tips and constructive criticism.

“When I started playing it was the 2014 Women’s World Cup so I watched that over the summer. So anyone from that team influenced me and pushed me on to play at a higher standard.”

Those appearances for the national development team culminated in a Tri-Nations Cup win over the summer, with Leatherland appearing alongside four of her Worcester team-mates.

And although she is now too old to be selected, the prop was proud to have represented her country.

“I played out in France in March and that was really good, getting my first call-up,” she said, “then I played against the USA and Canada in the Tri Nations Cup and we won both games.

“It was really nice to have the other Warriors there and the girls from other clubs, it’s nice to train with other people as well. It was good to have that new environment.

“I’m too old for Under-20s now so the next step is the senior team. I’ll work hard and see where it goes.

“This season I want to be playing, starting every game. Improving set skills for my game. And hopefully as a team win more games.”

Warriors Women get their Tyrrells Premier 15s season underway with a trip to Wasps FC Ladies on Saturday and Leatherland is looking forward to getting back into competitive action.

“Pre-season’s been long, it’s been going for a few months but it’s nice to have some new faces who bring international experience into the squad,” she said.

“And also to have a few more girls with Under-20s caps, we’ve come back with confidence from that.

“We’ve been training really well. The Litchfield pre-season game we performed really well as a team so hopefully we can keep working on that and bring it into Wasps next week.

“Pre-season’s good because you can see the improvements in yourself and the rest of the team, but it’s quite nice to have some rugby now.”

Warriors Women’s visit to Wasps kicks off at 3.00pm at Twyford Avenue.

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