In Conversation: behind the portrait

An edited excerpt from the conversation between Caroline de Peyrecave and Zoe Stratford, recorded during Zoe’s sitting at Caroline’s studio.

Caroline: With someone such as yourself, people must ask where your drive comes from to go on this journey. Did you imagine yourself being captain of the England team? Was that an ambition of yours? And if it was, where did that motivation come from… if it came from somewhere?

Zoe: I think a massive drive for me – growing up, I was always super competitive, especially with my brother, that's probably who I learned it from. But I was also quite an intuitive child, so a lot of what I did came through my actions. I really got to express myself through doing different activities. I absolutely loved ballet, tap dancing, and then getting into rugby, which is something you can really express yourself in and put your whole entire body into. It's incredibly strong and powerful, and I think that's where my drive came to progress in rugby.

There was a time when I had to choose between netball, rowing, or rugby, which one I wanted to push forward and make a career out of. I think I chose rugby because it was liberating to be able to be a female but still use your body in such a strong and powerful way. That really excited me, being part of that. And then when women's rugby finally got the chance to become a professional sport – when you could actually make a career out of it – that's when I really had the urge to push on and want to play for England in the Red Roses.

I think my leadership came from the passion I had for playing. I'm more of an action-based leader, and I think over the last couple of years the speaking side, and the other bits that come with it, is something I've really had to learn and develop as a person. It's been exciting to be able to do that too. My leadership is built on empathy, wanting to help everyone in the circle, being able to listen to all the players and staff in the group, to bring us together to fight for a common goal.

Over the last couple of years it's been massive, because we've been on this special journey of wanting to win this World Cup so badly. The last two World Cups were unfortunate, [losing] in the final. I think that made the determination and the strive for the World Cup even more. Over the last three years we got a new coach at the start, and he brought in some values that were incredibly special to our team: courage, bond, and lead. I think in sport those are massive to making a successful team.

The courage part is about being able to put yourself out there, doing things other people don't, and building yourself as a person as well as a rugby player. The bond, I think, was actually key to our success – having a deeper connection with the players on the team, a lot of mutual respect, the way we've bonded as a team over the last three years and created some incredible memories. I think that makes the drive on the pitch even more, the want to put your body on the line for each other. That's definitely key to our success as a team.

Caroline: And in terms of this painting, this portrait, the celebration, you now being in that stage of enjoying the celebrations you've been discussing. Is any of that similar to this journey here today? How important is that part now? I mean, it's still that same sort of thing – coming together and enjoying it as a team.

Zoe: I think one of our values as well is "it's for the girls." A lot of our journey up until that World Cup was about how we could bring people along with us, how we could make a change for women and young girls wanting to get involved in the sport. We wanted to inspire people not just to play rugby, but to be powerful, be strong, empower themselves, be whoever they want to be, especially women putting themselves in places that have maybe been designed for men in the past, being loud in those places.

I think having things like a portrait painted symbolises where we've taken the sport to. Being celebrated now as strong, powerful women is absolutely incredible, and we want to be known for that. We did our part on the pitch, but now it's about what spaces we can get into to promote that even more, to celebrate alongside other really strong, powerful women who've been through their own challenges and come out the other side so much stronger, hearing the different journeys they've all been on.

That's been an incredible part of our journey. The aftermath has been so much more than we could ever have imagined, with the celebrations that have come along with it. The girls have now had opportunities in so many different areas, business, modelling, developing their own brands. It's absolutely incredible. They're now in a space where they're visualised as strong, powerful leaders, and that's fantastic to see.

Caroline: Thank you. I love the way you talk about, not just this, but just being visual, showing yourself to others in different spaces. It's not just in rugby, but in sport in general, showing other women that you were there and doing this is just so important. It can be so powerful, hearing these stories.

Zoe: Yeah. Yeah, wonderful to have. I think because growing up, a lot of us didn't have the role models that we can now be for younger girls, we take that massively in our stride. We really try our best. At the end of games we'll go around trying to meet as many of those young girls and boys as possible, just to touch them personally. I think that's really important for them to carry into their own path in life.