‘I’d not heard of rugby league’: Mary Coleman’s journey from Cambridge graduate to England cap

The Wigan prop only took up the sport in her 20s when she moved north to work for the Home Office but now hopes to play at the World Cup

There was something old-school about the England women’s team that beat France 38-4 in Toulouse last week. With eight players from Wigan, five from Leeds and three from St Helens, it looked like a Great Britain side of the early 2000s. But among the Wigan contingent was a player with a story that feels very 2026: Mary Coleman, a prop from Kent who works for the Home Office, has a first-class degree in psychological and behavioural sciences from Cambridge University, and had not heard of Wigan – or played rugby league – until she was in her early 20s.

“I didn’t grow up in a rugby household,” says Coleman. “I didn’t really know anything about rugby until I was in sixth form. My school was setting up a girl’s union side and I said to my boyfriend at the time: ‘Maybe I’ll give it a go.’ He said: ‘Don’t be silly, that’s not your thing.’ When we broke up, my 16-year-old brain wondered: ‘How am I going to get my boyfriend back? I’ll give rugby a go.’ My first session was a contact session and I immediately fell in love with someone encouraging me to run at someone as hard as I could.”

Continue reading...