England Rugby: Red Roses star Shaugnah Brown reveals her remarkable journey to the top

English Rugby Union star Shaunagh Brown was the first guest on Series 10 of the Gamechangers podcast. 

Brown’s journey to the top of women’s rugby has been nothing short of remarkable. The 32-year-old only started playing the game at the age of 25 and made her international debut for England just two years later. 

A multi-talented athlete, the Harlequins prop also represented England in athletics and competed at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in the hammer. 

In a fascinating conversation with host Sue Anstiss, Brown speaks on why women’s rugby needs more male role models, how she helps promote body positivity and why dealing with rejection can play a huge part in helping one succeed. 

After Harlequins won the Premier 15s final at Kingsholm last year, Brown’s inspirational words afterwards were widely praised on social media. 

This is not just about rugby. This is not just about sport. It’s about women and women’s sport.

A clip of this moment is also featured in Amazon Prime’s new rugby documentary No Women No Try, which features Brown and confronts the issue of gender, ethnicity and sexual equality in women’s rugby. 

According to Brown, the documentary is “not a rugby story but a human one”, which will hopefully help people acknowledge that women’s rugby is still desperately in need of improvement. 

“It’s about having good people around us and encouraging them to do the right thing. What we talk about in the film is having those honest conversations and as a woman, if somebody asks you ‘what could we fix?’ Be honest. Yes, women’s rugby is in a good place and it’s going in the right direction but there’s a hell of a long way to go.” 

Ugo Monye, who also played for England and Harlequins, was a previous guest on the