Red Roses Abby Dow and Tatyana Heard are on a mission to unite the country ahead of the upcoming Women's Rugby World Cup

With England due to host the tournament come August, Dow and Heard are spearheading a national RFU initiative inviting youngsters to get into rugby union and back the Red Roses by contributing to spectacular Red Rose yarn art city takeovers across the country, inspired by the Red Roses' love of crochet as a team bonding activity.

Having introduced crochet to her teammates during the 2022 Women's Six Nations, Dow is revelling in the opportunity to combine the hobby with rugby the purpose of inspiring and uniting the nation alongside one of her most dedicated students in Heard.

“I’m really excited to be part of it,” said Dow, speaking at the initiative's launch at Hazelwood in Sunbury-on-Thames. “It’s an opportunity to get diversity in hobbies and showing that anyone can support rugby and be part of the sport.

“It’s a family event and an opportunity for people to pick up a hobby and combine it with sport to show off their personalities.

“Crochet has stereotypes but we deal with that in rugby as well in terms of who you have to be to be a rugby player and we're showing that it's not just a male space but a space where anyone can get involved.

“There are so many parts in life where that's true and crochet is a perfect example. Anyone can pick up a ball of yarn and a hook and start making whatever they want. It’s the same in rugby, you can pick up a rugby ball and start playing and having fun the way you want.”

Heard added: “Crochet is quite a niche hobby but a lot of us Red Roses are interested in it so to be able to have this campaign heading into the World Cup is exciting. Abby's big on crocheting and quite good at it and thought it’d be quite relaxing so she has taught me and a few of the other girls in the 6 Nations and I just liked it.

“It’ll be really cool to see people getting on board and getting behind us heading into a home world cup. To have people supporting us whether that’s in crochet or any other craft is exciting and will be a good boost to us as a squad.

It’s really cool to be a part of something, whether that’s crochet or rugby. Being part of a community is huge and making people feel like they're part of something where they can make friends is really important, whether that's through crochet or rugby or any other crafts and hobbies.”

Dow learnt to crochet during the first national lockdown in 2020 and quickly fell in love with the craft. Red Roses tradition dictates that a member of the playing squad receives a real red rose for getting a first cap, but with the gift difficult to preserve when away on tour, Dow has taken it upon herself to crochet gifts for players reaching special milestones; a red rose for first caps, silver for 50 and gold for 100.

But she insists that her gifts only scratch the surface of what you can achieve with crochet, with the craft lending itself to the creation of almost anything you can set your mind to.

She added: “With crochet, I thought I could just make something and the rest was history. You can’t kill a crochet flower and my love language is gift-giving so it’s a really easy gift to show someone that I like them. Flowers don’t take long to make and you get a quick sense of accomplishment because of that so lots of people took it up.

“It's an easy way to switch off from the rugby and the noise and the pressure and there are different disciplines and things you can do in crochet, like granny squares, clothing, toys, flowers or hairbands. You can go so far into it and it’s really nice going into different disciplines and seeing what people do.”

Abby Dow and Tatyana Heard are calling on the nation to take part in Yarn Art installation projects across the country ahead of Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025. For more information, visit englandrugby.com/RedRosesYarnArt