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Shaunagh Brown: 'If me, being mixed race, female and having my hair out, makes girls want to have a go at rugby, then job done'

 England rugby player Shaunagh Brown at Gillingham Anchorians Rugby Club - Geoff Pugh for the Telegraph
England rugby player Shaunagh Brown at Gillingham Anchorians Rugby Club - Geoff Pugh for the Telegraph

Shaunagh Brown took centre stage at the England kit launch this month, confirmation of the impact the prop is having in rugby following her meteoric rise. Five years ago, Brown was a hammer thrower, training at the same track as sprint sensation Dina Asher-Smith; now she is a regular on the pitch and playing an equally important role off it in amplifying the message of racial diversity in a predominantly white sport.

“It’s really not a five-minute chat when people ask what I’ve done before rugby,” says the 30-year-old, who is eyeing a spot in England’s squad for next year’s World Cup in New Zealand, the one-year countdown for which begins on Friday. Nor is it a half-hour Zoom call.

Brown’s first game of XVs came on Dec 18 2015, aged 25. Within two years, she received her first England call-up while training to be a firefighter and had to beg Kent Fire and Rescue service to grant her leave for her debut.

Before that was a career in athletics, the highlight of which saw her compete for England in the hammer at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Then, her job as a commercial diver, which required her to hoover up silt from the bed of the Thames, along with a stint in boxing and an appearance at the Highland Games in Scotland.

Raised in Kennington, south London, to a Jamaican father and English mother, Brown was brought up acutely aware of her black heritage. From a young age she was surrounded by women and girls of colour at Blackheath and Bromley Harriers, the same athletics club where an array of British sprinting talent, including Asher-Smith, the 200 metres world champion, and Asha Philip, learnt their trade.

Shaunagh Brown of Great Briatin in action in the Girls Discus Throw during the 5th IAAF Youth World Championships at the City Stadium - Christopher Lee/Getty Images
Shaunagh Brown of Great Briatin in action in the Girls Discus Throw during the 5th IAAF Youth World Championships at the City Stadium - Christopher Lee/Getty Images

“I’m still part of the club, I still have membership there and still get the emails about all the AGMs,” Brown says. “I was even vice-president of it for a year as well, which was cool. And yeah, I stay in touch with my athletics friends, like Dina Asher-Smith and her mum. Dina’s great, her mum is incredible. Asha is also one of my best friends, we roomed together at our first World Youth Games together in 2007 in the Czech Republic.”

The racial diversity Brown encountered in her athletics circles is an experience she cannot vouch for in rugby. In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, she was part of the working group set up by the Rugby Football Union ahead of the Premiership’s restart and the “Rugby Against Racism” campaign, alongside former England player, Ugo Monye.

She hopes a similar group can be formed for when the Premier 15s, the domestic league in which she plays for Harlequins, starts again. It is not an easy role. Her prominence in the recent England kit launch campaign caused some to question whether she was being featured because of her race.

“People will joke I was only included because I’m mixed race,” she says. “I’m fine with that. If me, being mixed race, being female, and having my hair out, makes 10, 20, 30 girls or boys want to have a go at rugby, or even makes them interested, then the job is done.

“I’ve had loads of awkward conversations,” she says. “Sometimes I’ve not even been the one to start them, which is good. I’ve had people ask me questions. They think it’s awkward because they’ve never asked before, but now it’s becoming a bit more normal.

Shaunagh Brown and Vickii Cornborough pose for a photo following their sides victory in the Women's Six Nations Tournament match between France and England - Naomi Baker/The RFU Collection via Getty Images
Shaunagh Brown and Vickii Cornborough pose for a photo following their sides victory in the Women's Six Nations Tournament match between France and England - Naomi Baker/The RFU Collection via Getty Images

“It was good for me on a personal level to start being more vocal about being black and being a minority in life, work, in sport, in the gym. People will say, ‘Why does that matter?’ It’s the recognition of difference.”

That extends to hair. French plaits and braids have become an almost warrior-like trait in the women’s game, along with the practical bonus of not being caught in rucks and tackles. Game-day hair is less time-consuming for Brown who, like the black British swimmer Alice Dearing, wears out every natural afro curl as an empowering affirmation of her mixed-race identity. It is this organic choice which resonates on a deeper level than some of the striking forms of activism that have emerged in the wake of the BLM movement.

“In America’s WNBA, they’re doing very in-your-face gestures, which is great, because someone needs to do it,” Brown says. “But me personally, I relate more to somebody like Alice Dearing, who is talking about what seems like small subjects which people can easily brush off. People will say, ‘I don’t believe people wouldn’t go swimming because of hair, it’s not that big’ – but I can relate to that. I’d offer them to shave all of their hair off and see how they feel getting through life.”

Next year’s World Cup will be Brown’s first, having been a newcomer to rugby at the time of the 2017 tournament, where England were edged out by New Zealand in the final watched by a peak audience of 2.6 million on ITV.

“That was a big thing,” Brown says. “I always remember watching [England player] Harriet Millar-Mills, what a woman. She was just wrecking the place and carrying the ball through everyone. I thought, ‘I wanted to be like her, that could be me one day.’”