“Great, humble and multi-talented.” England centre and goal-kicker Emily Scarratt summed up in three words, according to the national team coach, Gary Street.
The first adjective speaks for itself. Scarratt was influential in England’s historic Women’s Rugby World Cup victory in the summer, scoring the winning try in the final against Canada six minutes from time at Stade Jean-Bouin in Paris and contributing 16 of the team’s 21 points.
Multi-talented is also a given, considering 24-year-old Scarratt juggled her preparations for the World Cup with a full-time job as a PE assistant at King Edward’s School in Birmingham. But Street insists her talents don’t end there.
“She’s incredible, she really is,” he said. “She’s good at everything.
“She could have been a heptathlete for GB, rounders for England, swimmer. She’s good at table tennis, golf, basketball, athletics…the whole caboodle.”
Street says Scarratt’s England team-mates have tried desperately to find something she isn’t good at. A team-building trip to Laser Quest ended in Scarratt thrashing her colleagues by a 700-point margin, while a few of the girls took up golf then invited Scarratt to the driving range in hope of finally besting her.
Street said: “Emily turns up… gets her bag of clubs out, puts her glove on, and hits a 250-yard drive. They were all like: ‘oh, for god’s sake!’”
So is there anything she can’t do?
“She can’t sing. She’s the worst singer in the world,” laughed Street.
“The only Achilles heel is when you listen to her singing the national anthem, and she’s suddenly not as great.”
Despite being the “golden girl” of Street’s squad (she finished this year’s Rugby World Cup as top scorer with 70 points), and earning a nomination for BT Sport’s Action Woman of the Year Award, farmer’s daughter Scarratt remains shy and modest about her achievements.
Street added: “As one of the finest rugby players in the game, and potentially ever, she’s incredibly humble. The least big-headed person of all time.”
England women lifted the World Cup in a historic win this summer
That comes across when Scarratt is asked about comparisons to Jonny Wilkinson; inevitable given her crucial contribution in the World Cup final. According to her Action Woman Awards ambassador, England's James Haskell, her kicking percentage was 79 per cent - better than Wilkinson’s in the 2003 men’s World Cup decider.
“In terms of points at the World Cup and percentages, people have compared us, but I don’t think it’s a fair comparison at all, I don’t think it does him any favours!” said Scarratt.
“It’s certainly not something that sits particularly well with me, knowing everything he’s achieved and how hard he worked for everything.“
It was really easy to see very quickly that she was going to be a superstar of the game."
While Scarratt is keen to play down the comparisons, another similarity between herself and Wilkinson is that they both made their England debuts at just 18.
Street spotted Scarratt’s “superstar” potential while she was playing for England at youth level and gave her a chance in the senior squad, a decision he says raised a few eyebrows, that is until she made her debut against the United States - and scored.
“I brought her into the senior squad when she was in the Under-19 England team. I know a few people thought it was a bit early, she was very young. There were a few questions over why we’d brought this 18-year-old into the England squad,” said Street.
“She scored with her first touch against America and then just kept going. Everyone looked at me as if to say ‘that’s why you picked her!’ I think it was really easy to see very quickly that she was going to be a superstar of the game.”
Fastforward six years, and Scarratt is also a trendsetter, having taken up a full-time professional Sevens contract alongside 19 of her World Cup-winning team-mates as the England squad target the 2016 Rio Olympics.
“We knew that we might (go professional) but before the final we didn’t dare believe it. The message is massive. Rugby is saying: ‘We’re taking this seriously’,” said Scarratt.
“Winning the World Cup has probably put ourselves on the best ever foundation that we could possibly have had. Now for girls and women to go and take up rugby, they’ve seen the world champions do it in their own country, so we hope that that is a huge kind of springboard forward.”
Scarratt’s own introduction to rugby came at an early age when she was growing up on the family farm in Leicestershire.
She said: “My Dad and brother, Joe, played rugby and I think I was just standing on the touchline with the other little dots when one of the coaches said: ‘D’you want to join in?’ I did.
“That explains why I spent many happy hours kicking two old rugby balls from our garden into a field. Dad wasn’t too happy when there were crops in it.”
When she wasn’t playing rugby, Scarratt also helped out with the potato picking, with her farming background prompting affectionate “tractor girl” jibes from her team-mates.
With a nod to her apparent knack for everything thrown at her, Street added: “She was probably the best potato picker ever.”
To see the rest of the BT Sport Action Woman of the Year nominees and vote for your winner, click here.