Hannah Botterman: England prop driven to become the best loose-head on the planet

No doubt one of the top performers from England's opening weekend, Botterman spoke rather candidly about her ultimate goal of becoming the world's best number one. The Bristol Bears star is out to reach the mountain top of international loose-head props, with the Women's Rugby World Cup providing the perfect platform to prove herself against the Test match elite.

“I’ve worked really hard over the off-season to get into some decent shape. I don’t want to be shy about the fact that I want to be the best loose-head prop in the world. I want to cement that this tournament. For me, that was a good start, but I feel like I’ve still got a lot more I can give."

The opening match of the Women's Rugby World Cup showcased Botterman against arguably her biggest rival, in regards to the title of 'world's best loose-head prop'. Botterman lined up against USA and Exeter Chiefs legend Hope Rogers, with the American's all-time leading appearance holder running out for her 55th Test cap in the stars and stripes.

Whilst Botterman and Rogers did not pack down against one-another, being on opposite sides of the scrum, the England prop expressed how she has the opportunity to end the loose-head debate against the USA legend. Botterman certainly stood out to us at RUCK, as she made her way into our Team of the Week for the first round of the Women's Rugby World Cup.

"You always want to be the best in your position. I think before, for me, I didn’t feel as if I was physically capable to do that. Whereas now, I’ve put myself in a physically-capable spot. It’s just whether I can produce what I want to produce. The desire has always been there but I feel like I am able to do a bit more now and hopefully that has shown on the pitch.”

"Hope [Rogers] is a really good player, she plays really well in the Prem [PWR] week in, week out. But I don’t want it to be questioned, if I’m honest. I think I am within the conversation and now I just want to push on and keep improving.

"Everyone can improve everywhere but for a long time, my scrummaging wasn’t the best. I’ve really worked on that and I think that is an area of strength now. Attacking wise, I’m happy; defensively I think I can be a bit stronger and chuck my weight around a bit more. I feel physically in a really good spot, now it’s just about putting the performances out there.

"But ultimately I want the team to do as well as it can, and if I perform well within that, with your Ellie Kildunnes doing well, your Sadia Kabeyas, your Meg Jones, if everyone performs then we put ourselves in a really good spot. It’s been class.”

"Obviously the commentators love Ellie Kildunne. She does all the good stuff.

Turning the attention to the enigmatic England fullback, and Kildunne was quick to praise the Red Roses' forward pack upon recieving the Player of the Match Award in Sunderland. Kildunne bagged two tries, set up Jess Breach for a brace of her own, and was a living live-wire all match, that wrecked havoc against the USA defensive line. Botterman was asked about how Kildunne's praise optimised how England opperate as a cohesive unit, to which the prop quipped;

“That’s because I told her to! It’s an ongoing joke. I think it was the Six Nations last year where the front row joked of her robbing us of a couple of Player of the Matches. She’s obviously a serious talent and she does things that no-one else can do, which I think is fair enough. She’s a definite talent and if our scrum platform and maul platform can give her the space to be able to perform like she does, then who cares, quite frankly.”

“I think as a group of players at the moment we are super connected, we are super tight. It is about having that appreciation for each other and what each other do. Hopefully she sees we put a lot of effort in, and we see the finishing product. She finishes off tries well and she’s a serious talent and deserves all the credit she gets.”

Botterman relished her moment in the spotlight, as she thundered through the USA defensive line with a powerful fend. The loose-head broke clear of the dark-blue jerseys and crashed over the try-line, with the score ranking high up in Botterman's on-field career moments.

“We’d obviously just made a break down the edge. I could see they’d all turned in towards the ruck and I just cut a line in behind them. Then I just had to beat Lotte [Sharp] in behind. There’s no feeling like it. Scoring for your country is pretty cool, but first game of the World Cup in front of 40,000-odd people is also pretty cool. It was a bit surreal.”

“Buzzing. The crowd was insane today. There is lots to work on, there is always lots to work on, but for us I think that was a good performance and a good start and we are buzzing with it. The fans were incredible, the crowd was insane.”

After making her debut for the Red Roses at just 18-years-old, Botterman is now 24, and has racked up 59 Test caps for her country. It's a unique scenario for the front row, as Botterman doesn't "feel senior", yet is entrusted to help the new-coming players find their feet with an England match day squad.

“I don’t feel senior, probably because I’m a big kid and get in a little bit too much trouble to be senior. They kind of creep up on you. I’m nearing 60 [caps] now and that doesn’t really feel quite right, it’s weird. But we’ve got some really calm heads in the team now and as a squad all together, we all have our own experiences in different areas and we bring that on gameday.”

Botterman signed off by expressing how when she was first getting her England career off the ground, the prop did not expect to be running out in front of 40,000 people eight years later. Botterman made her debut in a 2017 Test series against Canada, and has witnessed first hand the explosion of popularity that women's rugby has rightfully enjoyed.

“No. To be honest, up until 18, I didn’t even know it was a thing really. It’s blown up pretty quickly. We are really fortunate to be in the position that we are now. Seeing all the people who have come before us and really worked to put us in this position, we obviously benefit from that now, but if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be here. We’ve just sort of got to soak it up now.”