By Lucy Rees
Alisha Butchers has just agreed to a pay cut – and she couldn’t be happier.
The Wales rugby international will be heading into the forthcoming Women’s Six Nations tournament as one of the destined dozen, the 12 players who made history by becoming the country’s first group of female full-time professional players.
For Butchers, who was previously employed as sports development officer with Carmarthenshire Council, that decision has meant a small drop in wages.
That’s not something she says she is too concerned about at present. The chance to fulfil a lifetime ambition and the generosity of her previous employer in keeping her job open, meant it was an offer she could not refuse.
“It’s a slight pay cut but as I have said before, this is what I’ve wanted to do since I was a young girl,” says Butchers.
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“When you do something like playing sport, it’s a dream and you have to follow it. It’s something you can’t say no to.
“It’s one of those things you’ve just got to do, regardless. Obviously, you’ve got to make a decision with your head screwed on, but you’ve got to follow it at the end of the day.”
So, along with 11 other players – including her fiancé Jaz Joyce – 24-year-old Butchers has taken the plunge and the WRU will be hopeful the sole concentration their players are now giving to sport will pay dividends in a World Cup year.
Not that the decision was an easy one, given her equal dedication to her previous role, working in schools and trying to help children to become more active.
“I worked as a young people’s officer on the participation side in the pathway.
“I worked with Key Stage 2 up to 6th Form. I’d mainly be in secondary schools where I’d provide activities for SEN (Special Educational Needs) children, running engagement sessions.
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“My role was to focus on trying to get children as active as possible within schools and also a lot of work within the community. We’d work in deprived areas.
“We did the summer of fun kind of stuff, then I’d also link in with primary schools as well, running different initiatives.
“It was a massive decision to leave that, but my employers were really understanding and they’ve even given me a year’s unpaid leave, effectively. I’ve officially left the role, but I have the opportunity to go back in January if need be. I’m really lucky.”
It’s not the first time Butchers has had to make a big call when it came to her job versus her rugby.
“I was a hub officer for Cardiff Blues, in the Blues community team. Then, myself, Jaz and Hannah Jones moved to Australia for a few months to play.
“I left my role as a hub officer and I played in the AON Aevens league. Then we came back and that’s when I got my role with Carmarthenshire Council.
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By next January, the 12 Wales players on full-time contracts – plus 11 more on part-time deals – will have gone through a Six Nations tournament and a World Cup.
They will have had a full year of working, training and preparing together for matches, which it is hoped will improve performance levels and results.
If there are any doubts over what gains can be made by focusing on the sport full-time, then they have to look no further than the recent experiences of both Butchers and Joyce.
A year ago, Butchers did not even have sufficient medical insurance to pay for an operation after she injured her ankle.
Her club and international agreements did not stretch to covering her medical bills, so she had to crowd-fund to raise the £5,000 needed for the op.
Not long after, 26-year-old Joyce – arguably the world’s most exciting female rugby player – returned from Olympic Sevens duty in Tokyo to find herself unemployed.
It was while she was contemplating how to juggle another job around her rugby, that the WRU decided it was time follow the lead of other nations and ringfence money for full-time contracts for elite women players.
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Joyce – who recently became the first female player to feature on the front cover of Rugby Journal – says: “I think a lot of us kind of stood up for ourselves and stood up about the programme itself and were like, ‘this isn’t good enough’.
“There were a lot of people who’ve been in the system for a long time, who were saying ‘we’re not going to continue doing this anymore, it’s not fair on us’.
“It wasn’t fair on our mental health, and it wasn’t fair on us physically to work 38 hours a week – most people will do more than that – and then train pretty much 38 hours a week as well.”
For both players – who announced their engagement earlier this year – the decision to become full-time professional athletes is daunting, but thrillingly exciting.
“It means an absolute lot to us, I think it’s a massive step forward in the right direction for rugby in Wales,” says Butchers.
“I think it was much-needed and we’ve all taken the opportunity with both hands. It’s great and a step in the right direction for us and the only way is up.
“The Six Nations is my next focus and it’s obviously a World Cup year. I am just aiming to become the best rugby player I can be.
“I’m flying into the World Cup and performing on the world stage, I guess. We have lots of training at the moment, we’re in the tenth block of it, but we’re enjoying ourselves.
“I am actually living the dream.”