England’s Amy Cokayne hints at retirement after 2025 World Cup

England forward Amy Cokayne, who has participated in every England fixture at the previous two World Cup tournaments, has indicated that the Women’s Rugby World Cup next year could mark her final appearance in the competition before her retirement. The Leicester Tigers hooker, Cokayne, has secured six Six Nations titles since her senior international debut in 2015 and was the second-highest try scorer at the 2021 World Cup, notably scoring a hat-trick against New Zealand in England’s second consecutive final defeat. Cokayne, who possesses 79 caps, shared with BBC Radio Leicester, “People say you should never retire, you should wait to not get selected anymore.” She further stated, “I very much want to jump before I am pushed. I don’t want to be that old woman out there, where people are asking ‘why is she still playing?'” Cokayne expressed her desire to conclude her career positively, adding, “I want to finish on a high. I joke with my team all the time that I’m going to retire after the World Cup.” “I don’t think I’m going to quite retire then, I don’t know. I haven’t really put any pressure on myself over when I want to do that, but I can’t imagine it’ll be more than 33 [years old], max,” Cokayne remarked. She secured her initial full-time Red Roses contract in 2019 and will be 29 years old when the World Cup is hosted in England during August and September of the upcoming year. As a Provost Officer in the Royal Air Force and a top-flight champion with Harlequins in 2020-21, Cokayne has observed the sport evolve into one that demands players “commit your entire life to it”. She commented, “We joke that we only get five weeks off a year and it’s all in one block.” Cokayne elaborated on the demands, stating, “When I go on holiday, say, with my friends, I’ve got to do a running session four times a week and a gym session.”They ask ‘why do you do it? we’re on holiday.’ It’s those things that differ your life. “I’m more than happy to do that at the minute – but whether I’ll be more than happy to do that when I’m in my mid-30s, I’m not so sure.” Cokayne recently returned from Canada, where she replicated her success of winning the top division of the inaugural WXV in New Zealand in 2023. Regarding the three-tier competition involving national teams, she remarked, “It’s still really new and finding its feet but it was really good.” She added, “As players, the more fixtures we can get against the best teams in the world, the better.” She described her return, saying, “There was a lot of jetlag during the first week back, for sure. I was still very much living on Canada time, for a while.”It was a bit of a shock when I came back to the dark cold of Leicester that we’ve had.” England, currently the world’s top-ranked team, commenced their successful defence of the WXV 1 title with a 61-21 victory against the United States in Vancouver in September. In their inaugural Premiership Women’s Rugby campaign during 2023-24, Leicester concluded in eighth place out of nine teams and have secured a single losing-bonus point from their initial three games this season. Cokayne holds the view that Alana Bainbridge, the 22-year-old Tigers hooker, is among the athletes who can gain from her extensive experience in rugby. Cokayne stated, “If I can help Alana to be a better hooker than me, and she’s then the best and takes me out of that number two jersey, that’s fine by me.” She added, “Wherever I can, giving tips and tricks, saying ‘let’s go out and do a session’ or giving little pieces of advice – that’s definitely a key part of being an older person.” She reflected, “Where I am now, I understand who I am and what I have to offer.”I’ve accepted that and I’m not chasing too much.” Cokayne concluded, “I know what my job is, my core skills and what I have to do. It’s fine-tuning those instead of trying to find myself.”I want to help people as much as I can. I want to leave Tigers and England in the best place to be successful.”