‘Performance is a long-term thing: you can’t just wave a wand’

Giselle Mather is a coaching superstar: a World Cup winner who went on to become the first woman to gain her Level 4 RFU badge, before taking on roles with Wasps, London Irish, and Trailfinders. 

The likes of Maud Muir, Ellie Kildunne, and Abby Dow blossomed into Red Roses (all three have just been named in the World XVs Team of the Year) under her ever-twinkling and seemingly omniscient eyes – and the Ealing-based Premiership Women’s Rugby outfit was ushered from a bright idea to an impressive debut season, with a formidable pathway in place to boot. 

Mather may be a coaching superstar, but she’d never tell you that. In fact, the 34-time England fly-half is so modest that she was almost forced to apply for her new role: head coach of Great Britain women’s sevens.

Reluctant applicant

“Quite a few people sent me the advert,” she reflects, “but – being typically female – I said, ‘my CV doesn’t cover the sevens bit. Yes, I’m an experienced head coach with years of squad and tournament management to draw on, but I don’t know enough about sevens, so I won’t apply’.”

It’s testament to her reputation that the organisation, despite having already assembled a strong field, picked up the phone. She told them the same thing – she’d not done enough within the shorter format of the game – but they urged her to throw her hat into the ring, and ‘just see where the application went’. 

“So, I did… and now I’m doing it!”

Mather had always appreciated sevens as, “a massive skills opportunity. There’s nowhere to hide: you’ve got to be able to tackle, pass really well off both hands, and have superb athleticism”. 

She added: “It’s also fun – a lot of fun.”

Fun when the sailing’s smooth, perhaps. The challenge here? To reinvigorate a programme which had limped home eighth on last year’s circuit, frequently finding themselves scrapping for places nine through 12, with those back-to-back Olympic semi-finals a distant memory.

Accepting the job was followed by countless hours of poring over footage and ‘picking a lot of brains’, but without ever simply accepting things as gospel. 

“The fact I see it all through different eyes is important,” she said. “I ask, ‘why?’ when those who’ve lived and breathed sevens for a long time might not.” 

Trademark Mather

Her perspective on the status quo, on recent trends and tussles, has already resulted in some innovations. Mather-honed attacks are up there with the most lethal and entertaining in the business, and – without giving anything away – we should expect to see some 15s-influenced strike moves in this campaign…  

What’s also trademark Mather is that, within seconds of us discussing her time in her coach’s tracksuit, she’s heaping praise on her colleagues. 

First, there’s Will Broderick – never without lurid wraparounds, or (you suspect) a centimetre-thick layer of SPF 50 – whose Brazilian Yaras became regular series quarter-finalists. “I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing without him. He’s done fabulous, fabulous work leading out there on the field.”

They’re yin and yang, not just in age and gender, but their completely different Mastermind topics, too. 

Broderick’s an unabashed sevens geek and ‘massive about defence’, while the head coach is encyclopaedic on Great Britain’s player pool and as passionate as  they come about attacking potency.

Scotland centurion Sean Lamont isn’t just a team manager, but one with an awesome understanding of performance – and the ability to enthuse and motivate wherever he goes.

Last year’s head honcho, Ciaran Beattie, now director of rugby, ‘has been brilliant: allowed me to settle in and just be me’; while physiotherapist John Swain, by all accounts, is a top-end speed and repeatability maestro.

“They’re the reason I’ve been able to cross over,” Mather says. “That said, the last few weeks have been… intense.”

Learning curve

Absolutely everything, she’s realising, is different. Everything. From ball placement to clear-outs. 

“I’m swimming in a choppy sea with it all, but on a fantastic learning curve, and bringing my own strengths. Culture, management, and tactics are covered, and then I ensure everyone around me is able to excel in theirs.”

With all the space on a sevens field, competitive virtuosos have room to flex their respective USPs – and that’s something she’s bought into with relish. “We’ve worked hard on identifying the girls’ super strengths, and then empowering them to bring those to the fore.”

It’s about more than athletic ability, though. Vertical jumps and bronco scores are handy indicators of output, but what about the soft stuff? 

“That’s very much what I’m about as a coach – and utterly essential. We travel so much, and it’s so intense, you have to understand what it means to put other people’s needs before your own: to flex with the rest of the group, and work towards a common goal.

“Then you need psychological robustness. In this format, an error usually leads to a try, but you can’t chew yourself up over those: you’ve got to be able to let go. 

“It’s on all of us to move on from mistakes, while working hard to minimise them in the future. At the same time, you need bravery. If you really go for it and get it right, then you might just do something incredible.

“Finally, you need people who can empty themselves, but then somehow keep going… The rawness of sevens is unbelievable: you’re breathing so hard, your thought processes have gone, and your body’s all that’s left, doing what needs to be done.”

Mather’s love for her craft is tangible. Her promise that, “the girls will be painting some pretty pictures out there” appears in vivid, arresting brush strokes, and it’s easy to imagine the passion she exudes in camp, but the coach is keen to temper expectations before anything gets underway in the desert. 

Patience first

“It’ll take time. Performance is a long-term thing – you can’t just wave a wand and expect everyone to be on the same page.” 

The early signs are promising: an unbeaten title tilt in Elche in October, with improvements game-on-game, before nine fixtures over the course of an ‘amazing and educational’ couple of days sparring with France and Ireland in Gibraltar. “Everyone was bombed by the end of it, but, wow – what an experience.”

Dubai and Cape Town, where the sport’s heavyweights are cracking their knuckles in 30-degree heat, will prove a generous twist of the intensity dial, and she stresses that Great Britain won’t be, ‘too outcome-based’ with their first forays under her tenure. “We’re right at the beginning of a journey, and about to throw all these new ingredients into a melting pot. What will happen will happen.”

First up, there are feet to find and combinations – on-field and in the coaches’ box – to meld. Down the line, there’s more measurable success to stalk down. Pulling right back, there’s a legacy piece at stake. 

“The girls are amazing role models, but the world doesn’t know them in the way they know the Red Roses. I want that to change.”

Recognition

She reels off some of the most irresistible individuals in the sport’s dominant force: Meg Jones, Emily Scarratt, Mo Hunt, Holly Aitchison, and Alex Matthews. 

Where did they start? Sevens. “That skill and fitness has allowed them to become world-class, and that’s the game boys and girls will play, if they win next year, and a whole new generation wants to pick up a rugby ball.

“Sevens deserves recognition, and we should be working so much better with unions than we currently are. 

“I’m not naive – I know switching between the two is difficult, and there’s a World Cup on the horizon – but imagine, down the line, if we got that relationship to work. I’m so passionate about making that happen.”

She paints the picture: a squad combining a core of her current crop – “I love them, and their potential is massive” – augmented with a few of 15s’ deadliest. 

A prospect to frighten the Pacific Four’s giants? “One hundred percent, and that’s what the game needs: more teams that can fight at the top. 

“If we put the necessary time, energy and effort into what we’re doing here, and get the support systems right, then we’ll have an amazing environment. Athletes could gain so much – speed, strength, skill – all of it, and that then flows back to the unions.”

A masterplan delivered with characteristic, infectious energy by one of the signings of the off-season. 

This coaching superpower’s not getting ahead of herself – the stabilisers come right off in Dubai, and things are about to get very real, very fast – but, as she departs to pack for her first Series stop as head coach, you get the sense that it was a landmark moment in this programme’s history when Giselle Mather finally sent in her CV.