Amy Cokayne looks back on England's World Cup loss
RAF and England World Cup player Flight Lieutenant Amy Cokayne has reflected on England's loss at the Women's Rugby World Cup, where they lost in the final 34-31 against New Zealand.
The Harlequins player spoke exclusively to Forces Sport when she said she was "extremely disappointed" after not winning the World Cup and believes that England "still could have won" despite being a player down.
Flt Lt Cokayne also looks ahead at the up-and-coming Big Game 14 at Twickenham where the Harlequins will face the Bristol Bears on 27 December, as well as the Six Nations and the Inter Services.
She said: "Obviously extremely disappointed, I think the good thing for us though is we are straight back into clubs so you've got to park that disappointment and get that reset, new goals and get back into the Premier 15s, so yes it is a good distraction for me to come back to the club.
"I think at the end of the day we still could have won that game, we gave ourselves the best opportunity to do so, we were in the position to do so, sometimes sport is a bit cruel, it doesn't always go your way."
The Red Roses went down to 14 players after Lydia Thompson was shown a red card and also lost star player Zoe Aldcroft towards the end of the first half with a head injury.
Flt Lt Cokayne said: "The red card was what it was. I think another big loss was losing Zoe Aldcroft, she is an amazing player being World Player of the Year the year before.
"We just didn't have luck go our way on the day, but obviously we still could have won even with a man down."
Cokayne now looks ahead to up-and-coming games and tournaments including the Inter Services where she will be looking to sport the light blue jersey again and help the RAF win the championship back from the Army.
She said: "Unfortunately I was injured last year, but I was due to play in the Inter Services, so fingers crossed my body is kind to me this year and I can get out in the light blue shirt again.
"I love playing in those fixtures as well, those fixtures are like no other rugby, it is completely different and it is mad how different that kind of rugby is and it is always, kind of, goes back to the heart of why you started playing rugby as well.
"You battle out on the pitch and you have all those social side afterwards, which I kind of miss in this new professional era of women's rugby, so it is definitely the fixture I look for first in the season."
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