Emily Scarratt: England’s Centre of Excellence Retires After 17 Years

After 17 years of exemplary service at the centre position for England, Emily Scarratt has announced her retirement from playing rugby at age 35. The accomplished centre’s career statistics include 119 international caps, 754 points as England’s all-time leading scorer, and two World Cup victories. Her mastery of the centre position established new standards for the role in women’s rugby.
Scarratt’s England career began in 2008, and she quickly established herself as one of the world’s finest centres. She contributed to 11 Six Nations championship victories, consistently demonstrating the complete skill set required of a world-class centre—defensive solidity, attacking creativity, goal-kicking accuracy, and tactical intelligence. Her achievement of competing in five World Cups allowed her to showcase these abilities across multiple tournament cycles, cementing her reputation as the premier centre of her generation.
The 2014 Rugby World Cup showcased Scarratt’s centre play at its absolute peak. She finished as the tournament’s leading scorer with 70 points and earned player of the final recognition as England won the championship. Her performances demonstrated why the centre position, when played to perfection, can dominate matches. This excellence earned her the 2019 World Rugby Player of the Year award, recognizing her mastery of her position.
Her centre play also translated to sevens rugby, where she captained Great Britain at the 2016 Rio Olympics. She won a Commonwealth Games bronze medal with England sevens in 2018, demonstrating her positional versatility across formats. At club level, she excelled at centre for Lichfield and Loughborough Lightning, maintaining the same high standards.
As she retires from the centre position, Scarratt will share her positional expertise through coaching. She has been appointed as an assistant coach with Loughborough Lightning for the upcoming season and will also work with the RFU in a specialist coaching and mentoring role. In her retirement message, Scarratt expressed pride in being part of women’s rugby’s transformation into a professional sport and gratitude for the privilege of retiring on her own terms. England head coach John Mitchell paid tribute to her as a once-in-a-generation player whose mastery of the centre position set benchmarks that will influence the role for years to come.