Hunter, right, was part of the 2017 World Cup squad which reached the final, only to be told their full-time contracts would not be renewed Brian Lawless/PAThe RFU today named the 28 women who have been offered full-time professional contracts to play 15-a-side rugby for England, with the immediate focus being the Six Nations Championship. As announced last month, three key players will be returning to XVs from the sevens programme: Natasha Hunt and Emily Scarratt, who are both World Cup winners from 2014, and Jess Breach. Their move to the 15-a-side code shows the priority that this form of the game is now being accorded. The contracts started on January 1 but are a permanent commitment from the RFU, which has ended its policy of flipping priorities between women’s sevens and Test rugby. The agreement over full-time contracts, reported by The Times in September, ended a year of uncertainty and…

Source: The Times January 03, 2019 12:00 UTC