Ulrika Andersson-Hall: Sweden raring to go

 

Training in the snow is a distant memory for Ulrika Andersson-Hall (left)

With only 15 days to go until Women's Rugby World Cup 2010 kicks off, we catch up with Sweden captain Ulrika Andersson-Hall to gain an insight into thier squad.

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After a beautiful summer here in Sweden it is finally time for the World Cup! At the beginning of July we held our final selection camp in Gothenburg, it was more than 30 degrees Celsius and scorching sun for the whole weekend. We get 18 hours a day this far north during the summer!

The camp itself was very good though, with a guest coach from Cambridge University in the notoriously grumpy Dick Matthews. Being an old Oxford University player I did my best to cheer Dick up by wearing my dark blue kit throughout the sessions!

He lived up to his reputation with fantastic coaching and no smiling - although when swimming in a pretty lake with 40 Swedish girls I think he must have been smiling inside!

So, between the two occasions we have had coaches from England coming over, the difference in temperature has been 55 degrees Celsius. I wonder what their respective impressions of Sweden are? The very good news is that Dick is coming along as one of our coaches at the World Cup.

The selection itself was, of course, tough for the coaches. There was heartbreak for some. Personally I'm very sad that an old friend Cissi Lundin didn't make it. She has been a regular centre/fullback in the Swedish team for almost 10 years and was one of our best players and leaders during the World Cup qualifiers last year, but after a winter and spring full of injuries she is not back to full fitness.

A geography lesson

A lot of other old ladies are still hanging in there though. There are four players from the last World Cup we played in 12 years ago - myself, scrum half Frida Ryberg, second row Katarina Boman and prop Jennie Ohman (then Bohlin).

In fact, Jennie Ohman is presumably the only player at this World Cup that participated in the 1991 and 1994 tournaments.

At Jennie's recent 40th birthday celebration with the team, we recounted the story of her rugby exploits against West Germany in the 80s, then had to explain to the younger team members what West Germany was. Young people, they don't know about anything unless they read it on Facebook!

Both Frida and Jennie are former captains of Sweden, and like myself they have had short breaks from international rugby starting up families and we have five boys between us.

I get tremendous support from these two through playing ability and leadership. With the aggression and fire in Jennie and the playmaking skills of Frida, I can calmly get about my business of organising attack and defence.

Three weeks to remember

I think this is one of our strengths, the experience and number of leaders we have on the pitch, including the four old ladies and vice captain Madde Lahti amongst others. The experience really showed in the World Cup qualifiers last year when we managed to win the tight games.

There is also, of course, a lot of younger talent in the team. A few players to look out for are back rower Elisabeth Ygge, centre Ninni Johansson Geibat and full back Jessica Melin.

As part of our World Cup build-up we went over to England last weekend for a warm-up game against Wasps. The feeling in the camp was really positive and we made the most of our two days together.

We have some good sessions and a good game against Wasps. They didn't have their first choice team out but had several quality players such as former England fly half Shelley Rae. We were happy to win the game and it was particularly nice to see the attacking ability from our backs starting to come together.

So now we're finally there, the date that we have been looking forward to for about 14 months since the qualifiers last year. Whatever happens, it will be three weeks to remember!