Abby Dow: England World Cup winner retires from rugby at 28

Having juggled the early stages of her rugby career with her studies, a life in engineering now beckons for Dow.

No job is lined up but she’s in talks with different companies in a sector she describes as “so logical – it’s literally a bit of me”.

“I do love probably the automotive area, that sort of engineering where it’s quite high performance,” she said.

“You’re trying to design the best, and you’re trying to push innovation, and push yourself as well as the engineering, and learn new things – and learn things that aren’t learned yet.”

As she walks towards her new engineering life – naturally with a small crocheted World Cup – she says she won’t turn her back on the game.

Having picked up a ball at Maidenhead at age five then moving to play for Reading, some of her core memories growing up are with sister Ruth and brother Chris playing on different pitches and then begging their parents “for the one pound to go and buy the chips at the clubhouse”.

“I think with time, I will probably come back to the game, because I love the sport,” she added.

“I just know that my professional career is done and I’m ready to love the sport in a different way. And I think that’s the joy of rugby, is that you can love it in so many different ways.

It’s not just there for you just to play, it’s for there for you to watch. It’s there for you to be a volunteer. It’s there to be part of a family. I look at how it how it started for me when it was a family affair, and I hope in the future for me that it could be the same.

“So no, it’s never a goodbye to rugby.”