Abi Burton

Red Roses flanker Abi Burton says World Cup win ‘changed rugby’ in England and calls for sport to become ‘more commercial’

Red Roses flanker Abi Burton said this year’s World Cup win “changed rugby” in England as she called for the sport to become “more commercial”. Speaking to Georgie Ainslie on the ainslie + ainslie Performance People podcast, Burton said she hoped women’s rugby could “carry on the momentum” after the World Cup victory, but added that it couldn’t be all down to the players.

“We do everything that we can on the pitch,” she said.

“We’ve gone 31 or 32 games unbeaten, what more can we do? I think it’s the responsibility of people around us now, like brands and sponsors, if you want to get involved – now’s the time to do it. We [players] can’t do any more, it’s got to come from other people pushing it from a media point of view, making our sport more commercial, that’s what it’s going to take to carry and go through.”

The 25-year-old went on to say that many women’s rugby players are not full-time.

“Some of the girls still go to their jobs as nurses, teachers and then play on a weekend. You don’t really find that in the men’s game,” she said.

Burton, who plays for Trailfinders Women, said she hoped the World Cup win would help make the women’s game “more professional”.

Speaking about the World Cup win, when England beat Canada 33-13 at a sold out Twickenham Stadium, Burton said: “I don’t think there’s a word I have to describe it, just wow, that’s all I felt like.

“As we were walking around the pitch, I was just looking up and I was like oh my gosh, we’ve changed rugby in this country now, there’s nothing that can compare to this moment.”

Burton told Ainslie it was “super special” to be a part of the squad, and revealed she even slept in her winners medal after the final.

“Honestly, I didn’t take if off for maybe three or four days,” she said.

While the World Cup victory was a huge achievement for the entire England team, it was even more poignant for Burton, given she was diagnosed with an extremely rare autoimmune disease and placed in a coma for almost a month just three years prior.

“I was diagnosed with a rare brain illness called autoimmune NMDA receptor encephalitis,” she told Ainslie.

“My body basically attacked itself and thought that it was in trouble, it attacked my brain and then caused my brain to swell. It affects 1 in 1.6 million people, so it’s extremely rare, and because it was so rare I was misdiagnosed to begin with.”

Burton explained that doctors originally thought she had stress-induced psychosis as she was presenting manic, aggressive behaviour – which led to her being sectioned. She told Ainslie that her symptoms began with her feeling sad for no apparent reason, then she started having seizures and her behaviour changed from depressive to manic.

“I punched my mum in the face with my phone in my hand and bust her lip open,” she said.

“Then apparently 10 minutes later I was like, ‘why is your lip bleeding?’ because I couldn’t remember anything.”

Burton was then sectioned and placed in a coma for three-and-a-half weeks so she could receive medical treatment. It was only by chance she was diagnosed with NMDA receptor encephalitis, as a doctor named Mark Harper was researching autoimmune diseases and came across her notes, he then contacted Burton’s father to ask if she could be tested.

“I actually have met Mark a few times and I say to Mark, ‘you saved my life’,” she said.

“I probably would have died because I kept having the seizures whilst I was in the psychiatric unit but they weren’t treating my seizures, they were just treating me with antipsychotics.”

Burton said the traumatic experience had made her realise “rugby isn’t everything”.

“Over the last couple of years my mindset towards rugby shifted,” she said.

“Before my illness, if I didn’t get selected I was like soul destroyed, it would completely break me inside…but after that happened, I realised rugby isn’t everything to me anymore. The thing that’s everything to me is my friends, my family and me just living my life and being happy.”

Listen to the full episode by searching ainslie + ainslie Performance People on your chosen podcast platform. You can also watch Georgie and Abi in conversation on the ainslie + ainslie Performance People YouTube channel.