Salford Red Devil’s women’s Vice-Captain Stephanie Gray has spoken about the pressures of working in the emergency services, as well as supporting her team.
The women’s team has been going strong since its inception in 2021 for the 2022 season.
Gray said: “Personally, I just want to make a full season, last season I ended up getting injured and missing half a season, I broke my arm. So just to make the full season would be pretty good. A good target for me.”
The Red Devils women’s team is not full professional, meaning that the players have another job alongside playing which can be hard to balance.
“I currently work for the emergency services and I think in particular it is quite a challenging job. Then I’ve got training on top of that.
“Now we play in the super league, you have to do your extras and working a job which is quite high pressure.”
On the future of women’s rugby, Gray says that she hopes eventually Rugby will be a full time occupation for women.
Try Salford just after half time Steph Gray doing what she does best cuts through to score. Kick was missed 12-0 #salfordreddevils 👹🏉👩 pic.twitter.com/LREvMVOARW
— Devil In The Detail (@ditdsrd) June 12, 2022
She continued: “I might have to make a sacrifice now for the greater good of girls five, ten years down the line who could potentially be professional women’s super league rugby players and if I’m part of the stepping stone in the process to do that then I will make that sacrifice for the greater good of the sport.
“I don’t play rugby because I get paid, I do it because I enjoy it and I love it and it’s what I want to do.”
Steph is hopeful though that during this process, Salford Red Devils Ladies can maintain their Super League status.
“I’d like to say within the next five years we’ll still be within that super league campaign, if not then at the top of the super league one. We want to be constantly fighting for position in that super league and fighting against the best.”
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