JADE KONKEL has announced that she is taking a break from rugby whilst training to become a firefighter with the London Fire Brigade but promised that she is not walking away from the game altogether.
The No8 has been one of the national team’s most important players since her debut back in 2013 with 44 caps to her name so far. She became Scotland’s first professional women’s rugby player in the summer of 2016 and has since played the 2017-18 in France with Lille as an ‘Scottish Rugby assisted player’, before being based in London with Harlequins Women for the last two and a half years.
“I’ve made some difficult decisions over the last few months however this is an opportunity I couldn’t turn down,” said the 27-year-old in a Twitter message. “I’m extremely excited to say that I’ll be starting my firefighter training with the London Fire Brigade.
“I’m really looking forward to an exciting future ahead but it does mean that I’ll be taking time away from rugby (though not from cheering my teammates on from the side-lines). I’m not hanging the boots up just yet. I’ll be seeing you on the other side.”
Konkel’s importance to the Scotland team was highlighted with stats which showed she carried the ball an astonishing 55 times against Ireland and England during the 2020 Six Nations before lockdown, which was 20 more than any other player in the championship during the first two rounds. When rugby briefly resumed for the women’s team last October, she was named player of the match in Scotland’s historic 13-13 draw against France at Scotstoun.
It is not clear at this stage how long her break from the game will be for, but, given that the full training course to become a firefighter takes 11 weeks, it is a fair assumption that she won’t be available for Scotland’s Six Nations campaign which kicks off at the start of April.
Scotland are still waiting to find out what the qualification process will be for the World Cup in New Zealand later this year, with Covid having scuppered plans to get that all sorted out at the tail-end of last year.
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