{"id":453044,"date":"2026-03-02T04:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T04:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/453044\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T04:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T04:23:08","slug":"england-rugby-world-cup-winner-becomes-headteacher-after-career-switch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/453044\/","title":{"rendered":"England Rugby World Cup winner becomes headteacher after career switch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A former England Rugby World Cup winner has swapped the try line for the classroom \u2014 and she\u2019s loving every minute of it.<\/p>\n<p>Annie Cole, who lifted the Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup with England back in 1994 after defeating the USA in the final at Edinburgh\u2019s Raeburn Place, has taken her first headteacher role at Braywood CE First School in Oakley Green this September.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/channel\/AbYd2l05pp1bM_Ix\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Join RUCK\u2019s Instagram broadcast channel <\/a>and get the latest rugby news straight to your phone.<\/p>\n<p>After hanging up her boots, Cole pursued her long-held dream of teaching \u2014 a passion she\u2019s carried for nearly two decades.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to be a teacher,\u201d Cole said. \u201cI love seeing children grow, learn, and develop that same love for learning that I\u2019ve always had.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Before turning to education, Cole graduated with a degree in Applied Chemistry and worked in the industry \u2014 all while juggling her rugby commitments.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ruck.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/12192-1994-rwc-winners.jpg.avif\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"227304\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.ruck.co.uk\/england-rugby-world-cup-winner-becomes-headteacher-after-career-change\/12192-1994-rwc-winners-jpg\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.ruck.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/12192-1994-rwc-winners.jpg.avif\" data-orig-size=\"\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"[]\" data-image-title=\"12192-1994-rwc-winners.jpg\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.ruck.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/12192-1994-rwc-winners.jpg.avif\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.ruck.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/12192-1994-rwc-winners.jpg.avif\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-227304\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.ruck.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/12192-1994-rwc-winners.jpg.avif\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now 58, she reflected on her sporting journey: \u201cI played a lot of different sports as a child, and a local rugby club asked me to give rugby a go. I got hooked straight away \u2014 it became my passion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That passion led to more than 20 years in the game, representing top clubs including\u00a0Saracens\u00a0and\u00a0Henley, and ultimately achieving the pinnacle of women\u2019s rugby by becoming a\u00a0World Cup winner.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWinning the World Cup was an amazing achievement,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was a real privilege to play, travel, and be part of such an incredible sport.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>From rugby pitches to school halls, Annie Cole continues to lead with the same determination and enthusiasm that made her a world champion.<\/p>\n<p>LATEST IRELAND NEWS<\/p>\n<p>Like this:<\/p>\n<p>Like Loading&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"sd-link-color\"\/>\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former England Rugby World Cup winner has swapped the try line for the classroom \u2014 and she\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-453044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}