{"id":364353,"date":"2025-12-22T10:51:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T10:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/364353\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T10:51:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T10:51:08","slug":"hannah-casey-reflects-on-a-mesmeric-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/364353\/","title":{"rendered":"Hannah Casey reflects on a mesmeric career"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Those more eagle-eyed followers of Premiership Women\u2019s Rugby will have noted the retirement of Hannah Casey<\/a> from elite women\u2019s rugby. For those who don\u2019t recognise the name, you may have just missed a hugely pivotal player in the history of domestic English rugby.<\/p>\n

It was a humble and unpretentious retirement, announced three weeks ago via a Facebook post from the Saracens<\/a> Supporters Association. It reflects the person and player Casey is, a straightforward servant to rugby. She is an uncompromising, physical centre that imposed herself in the midfield, but is fun, friendly and laid back off the pitch.<\/p>\n

She has stepped back from the elite level to focus on her full-time career in the Fire Service, after winning 121 caps for Saracens, international honours with Ireland<\/a> in 7s and 15s and representing the historic Barbarians women\u2019s team at Twickenham in 2019.<\/p>\n

She started rugby like so many do, at school, before establishing herself in the higher leagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did 7s, so we were National School 7s Champions, and then linked with Fullerians back in the day at U15s and U16s,\u201d Casey told RugbyPass. \u201cBut they didn\u2019t have a women\u2019s team so then I moved to Tabard RFC for a couple of seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was actually Alex Austerberry [Saracens current Director of Women\u2019s Rugby], he was a player there but coaching Saracens at the same time, who saw me and said you need to come to Sarries. So I\u2019ve known Alex nearly 15 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI started playing in the 2s, because we had the twos team back in the day. Ross McLennan was the first team coach. But I was playing with the likes of like Maggie Alphonsi, Sonic [Sonia Green], Kat Evans. Mandy Marchak was there as well. She was a Canadian centre at the time. But like, I was like, \u2018oh, I want to be like her\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was from there that Casey went from strength to strength and ultimately achieved international honours for Ireland in both 7s and 15s after she was scouted through the Irish Exiles programme.<\/p>\n

\u201cIrish Exiles just turned up one day and then, yeah, I went over to Ireland and played Leinster and Munster in the same weekend, which was intense. And from there the coach went, yeah, we\u2019ll take you. I played in the 7s, got dropped from them and then 15s picked me up. I played that Six Nations<\/a> and stayed with them through the 2014 World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Casey played in the quarter-final between England<\/a> and Ireland, a Red Roses squad that went on to lift the trophy as champions.<\/p>\n

Speaking on playing against her club teammates at Twickenham, the home of rugby, she said: \u201cI played against Maggie Alphonsi, Nolli Waterman, Kat Merchant. I think Fleeto [Vicky Fleetwood] was playing, Packer [Marlie Packer] maybe back then. So they were all there, I was like, put me on. I\u2019m ready.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we [Ireland] were going to play teams, they [the coaches] say \u2018oh, they\u2019ve got this player and this player\u2019 \u2013 I\u2019m like, I don\u2019t care, whoever\u2019s in front, it doesn\u2019t matter, it\u2019s just who\u2019s in front. I don\u2019t need to know how they play. I think \u2018Am I going to get run over? Maybe\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s with this no-nonsense attitude that Casey earned herself the nickname \u2018Choppa\u2019 i.e. to chop one down. It is a moniker she has embraced on and off the pitch: \u201cThey [the spectators at Tabard RFC] kind of gave me the name because they were watching and I was a bit psychotic on the pitch and liked to tackle. So I think that\u2019s where it came from, so I don\u2019t know the proper reference, but like tackling, I think it goes well too.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a break from rugby following the 2014 World Cup, Casey would resume top flight rugby at Saracens and fulfil a hugely prolific career. From the period of 2011-2025, the club has transformed from the muddy pitches of Bramley Road to the domestic powerhouse that it is and integrated into the men\u2019s set up.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on how top division women\u2019s rugby has changed over her career, Casey said\u201d \u201cBack in the day at Bramley Road, you\u2019re sweeping the changing rooms, you\u2019re doing your own kit, you\u2019re paying to play, whereas now people are getting paid. So I think the progress in women\u2019s rugby is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

When pressed about how the environment at Saracens has changed since professionalising, Casey offered: \u201cBack in the day, at Sarries, it was like a \u2018you played for each other\u2019 type thing. And the through the years I feel like that has kind of changed, money starts and like the loyalty kind of changes a little bit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a different club\u2019s offering you more money, especially in this climate and as a female rugby player, go for it, go do it. So I think it kind of does take that loyalty, but then it\u2019s the same with the men\u2019s team or any other sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though this observation seemed less a criticism and more a reflection of how much the generations of elite players past had to band together to succeed in spite of the underfunding, exclusion and amateurism of their game as well as the loyalist Casey is herself.<\/p>\n

Casey\u2019s time at Saracens was highlighted by the 33-17 Premier 15s final win against Harlequins<\/a> in 2019, where Casey started at outside centre alongside now household women\u2019s rugby names like Zoe Harrison<\/a> and Poppy Cleall.<\/p>\n

This was a historic match for the women\u2019s game at the time, the first women\u2019s match to be held at Franklin\u2019s Gardens. It also cemented the shift in how women\u2019s top division rugby was run, with play-offs and a final introduced into the Premier 15s calendar in the 2017-2018 season.<\/p>\n

She remembers this as one her favourite matches: \u201cI always want to play the big games. Like, the ones where it\u2019s hard and you have to fight for it. The ones where you win, like, 70-0, they\u2019re all right. But I want to fight for the win. They\u2019re the games because then you feel like you\u2019ve accomplished something then. Because if it\u2019s easy, it takes the shine away. If it\u2019s a battle then you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflecting on her decision to retire, Casey said: \u201cWell it\u2019s 15 years of your life, full on. There were no breaks, only when rugby had a break. Since then, I\u2019ve travelled so much more. And in my career when I was playing, I just had a 9-5 boring job so I could get to training but getting older I actually wanted a career in something I can enjoy and really be proud of, so rugby has had to take a back foot.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor younger players now it\u2019s a brilliant opportunity that they can do this as a job which is crazy good but ten years ago we weren\u2019t even in stadiums yet. I was aiming for 150 but I got to 121 and I liked that number and now I have it tattooed on my arm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Casey is by no means done with done with rugby. Whilst relaxed about her commitments to any future rugby clubs (including a potential Championship 1 South signing \u2013 eyebrows), she looks forward to the potential of playing with the Women\u2019s Fire Service team.<\/p>\n

She recognises that she is in an illustrious group of one of only a handful of Saracens players to receive 100 caps, when I asked what credited her success and longevity, in classic Choppa style, she shrugged and replied; \u201cI don\u2019t know, just turning up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Those more eagle-eyed followers of Premiership Women\u2019s Rugby will have noted the retirement of Hannah Casey from elite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-364353","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}