‘I would be the hype girl’ – Former Red Roses ace places hand up for distinctive new position on Lions Women’s Tour
Brown was speaking at Medway RFC to help launch Royal London’s annual Championing Women and Girls’ Rugby Award
Former Red Rose Shaunagh Brown believes the British & Irish Lions’ first Women’s team will need a culture coach to bring the four unions together – and that she is the person to do it.
Former Red Rose Shaunagh Brown believes the British & Irish Lions’ first Women’s team will need a culture coach to bring the four unions together – and that she is the person to do it. While some British players will have experience playing with other unions on the sevens circuit, the Tour to the New Zealand next year presents a new scenario for many.
Rugby was just one of Brown’s many carers, including firefighter, commercial diver, gas engineer and hammer thrower, but she is ready to add a new line to her CV.
“The community of a Women’s British and Irish Lions Tour, it is like rugby having an Olympics Vs team, bringing all the four nations together,” Brown, who retired in 2022, said. Just to think of rugby girls in general, we are all a bit special, we love spending a weird amount of time with each other, we get up to lots of fun and games.
“But equally, we care so much about what we do on the pitch, we care about winning passionately, we want to be the best athletes, the strongest, the fastest, the best tactically, we want to have the best kickers, the best hookers who can through in a lineout, so competitive.
“But to bring that altogether, whew. I think that is for a culture coach to come in and bring those different sets of people together. It will certainly be a challenge for Jo Yapp to have to conquer the culture side of it but once she and her team get players on board that we are one big team, honestly, they will be unstoppable.
“I have been part of the Tour feasibility study with Royal London and British & Irish Lions, so I kind of knew it was going to happen and I still retired knowing that. So I am at peace with my decision to retire and not be up for selection. But I am available for other opportunities, maybe not the actual coaching, but the culture coach role, I think I would great at bringing people together.
“I would be the hype girl, the hype woman, I am here for all of it.”
Brown was speaking at Medway RFC to help launch Royal London’s annual Championing Women and Girls’ Rugby Award. The Award has already provided £80,000 of grants to the successful teams from each nation, with £40,000 more set to be available this year.
For Brown, supporting the grassroots game is pivotal to the success of the elite side of the sport, as she first tried rugby at Medway RFC at the age of 25 and six months later moved on to Harlequins.
She added: “We all come from somewhere, every elite player comes from a grassroots club, so we need to keep celebrating our grassroots and our community clubs because they are the foundations of our game.
“I don’t feel I am anything special, I just loved running into people. I loved rugby, got really good at it and played for England. Young kids have to realise we are not a special species of person, we were all like you once upon a time and you can grow into us too.”
Royal London, the only Founding Partner of The British & Irish Lions Women’s rugby team, has announced that applications are open for its annual Championing Women and Girls’ Rugby Award. Applications are open until 12pm on Monday 20 July 2026 via the Lions website
