The markets may be in turmoil, but one Dow stock remains sky-high. Perched on a bean bag adjacent to the training pitch at England’s Bagshot base, flannel draped across her forehead after a tough session in the unseasonable spring sunshine, Abby Dow, the Red Roses’ arch-finisher, is chronicling the experiences that have helped turn her into perhaps the finest wing in the world.
It is a conversation that meanders from the intricacies of wing play through the tough times of losing her father and suffering a serious leg injury ahead of the 2022 Rugby World Cup. The analytical wing takes each question in turn with the depth of thought one might expect from a woman with a master’s in mechanical engineering. But, halfway through a conversation in the week in which she wins her 50th cap comes a surprising admission, when I ask the 27-year-old for some of the highlights of her first 49 appearances in England white.
“I hate game day so much.” Dow concedes. This requires further probing. “I dread it. I fear it,” she continues. “Because I am so competitive, I stress at the idea of not being the best and being disappointed in myself.
“I’ve been working on trying to appreciate those moments. It’s so annoying because as soon as the game starts, I’m fine. The opportunity to be a professional rugby player is an absolute privilege. But it is something that I will always have to work with. I want to be the best version of myself. I’ve talked to psychologists before about it… I 100 per cent enjoy it but I have a fear of disappointment. I’m always going to have nerves before a game but I am working to make it happier for me.”
It is perhaps startling to hear a player seemingly at the top of the game talk in such depth about the thoughts that accompany game day. For on the pitch, as she suggests, there are few signs of Dow’s pre-match frets. Since bursting onto the international scene with five tries in her first two Tests against Canada in 2017, the Trailfinders flyer has scored 38 more and been virtually ever-present in England’s first-choice side when fit.
In a neat turn of events, the other current occupiers of the back three shirts made their debut on the same day. Ellie Kildunne and Jess Breach joined Dow in making their bow in a 79-5 thrashing of Canada, each emerging at a similar time. It is no coincidence, according to Dow as she follows Kildunne to a half-century.
“I think we knew as a generation going in that we were going to do it as a big group. It is a great achievement that not only have we been able to do that, but we’ve been able to grow as people through that time. I’ve known these girls since I was 13 years old. We’ve all shared memories and been through hardship, and it’s great that we’ve grown as people and stuck together. As a group of girls, we’ve never lost that drive to compete. Actually, the fact we have grown up with each other means we don’t need to compete more, we don’t need fuel or to be pushed.”
Dow looks to figures in the men’s game as she strives to become the best. “I take quite a lot of inspiration from other rugby players.
“Watching the Top 14, watching Super Rugby, watching the men’s Six Nations. You go, ‘well, why can’t I do that?’ I look at the French wingers, [Damian] Penaud and [Louis] Bielle-Biarrey, and ask, ‘why are they so good? What inhibits me from doing that?’ Well, nothing does, so how can I bring that into my game?
“It’s the way that they look for space and how they identify it [that I take from them]. They choose their kicks for their own body type: Penaud will go over; Bielle-Biarrey will go short and around, or along the floor. That’s his style. He puts a lot of punch through his tackles because he’s not got a lot of weight. It’s fascinating how they’ve tailored themselves for their own body and their own skillset.”
Yet it is not the competition in camp nor the best male wingers in the world that really drive Dow. Instead, it is youngest sibling syndrome. Were it not for injury, there would likely be a double Dow on the England team sheet – Abby’s sister Ruth was a rising star of the English game before her career was curtailed by injury.
“Ruth is two years older than me age group-wise. She had quite a serious leg injury – even more serious than I’ve managed, which is impressive, so well done, show-off – and she never quite recovered from it. But everyone here would say she was better than me.
“It’s like Marcus Smith’s younger brother – you might know he has a younger brother but you have no idea what his name is or anything like that. That was me. Ruth was the Marcus Smith.
“I am the third child. There is absolutely no way that I am not doing it to prove I am better than my siblings. Everything in my life involved, ‘what did Ruth and [elder brother] Chris get? I need to beat them’.”
Ruth now lives in Ireland, making the journey a little easier as she joins Dow’s mother and brother at Cork’s Virgin Media Park on Sunday. A milestone moment as the 27-year-old reaches 50 caps will be cause for reflection, and perhaps poignancy. Dow lost her father, Paul, in 2021, the start of a difficult 12 months that also included a horror injury that imperilled her World Cup. With the recovery from a spiral fracture in her hand rather than her leg dealt with – “easy, done, out of the way... it’s going to be dandy!” she chuckles – England’s wing can look ahead to a year in which she could star on home soil.
“The opportunity for women’s rugby is incredible. Coming from the last World Cup and with my dad passing just beforehand, it was a gutting moment. My mum and dad were organising all of the things that they were going to be doing in New Zealand because they had always wanted to go. He didn’t get to make that dream but it didn’t stop Mum from doing it, and me from being there. It is gutting. But rugby has taught me so many fundamental values that I love to enjoy, and I appreciate it more.
“It’s incredible how you can run out at Twickenham, which is getting close to full now, and have an atmosphere where you are inspired, but also know that you would have just as much fun rocking up at your local club getting covered in mud, playing with a ball that is so smooth that it is like a bald man’s head. That is the joy that I love about rugby.”
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