Harlequins Women have announced several retirements ahead of their last Premiership Women’s Rugby match of the season this weekend. Former England internationals Rachael Burford, Shaunagh Brown, and Emily Scott are among those ending their playing careers. Katy Mew and Georgia Gray, both club mainstays, will retire at the end of the season.
Burford and Brown began playing rugby at Medway RFC in Kent and went on to excel at the club and international levels. Burford, an England centre with 84 caps, won the Rugby World Cup in 2014 and wore the legendary Harlequins quarters for seven years.
The 37-year-old also played for England in the 2006, 2010, and 2017 Rugby World Cups, as well as two Grand Slams, and was a member of Harlequins’ 2020/21 Premiership-winning team. Brown, who retired in 2022 but returned for the 2023/24 season, just achieved her 100th appearance for Harlequins and has 30 caps for England between 2017 and 2022.
During her stint in the England team, she was a crucial figure in four consecutive Six Nations Grand Slams and competed in the Rugby World Cup in 2022, with her final Test match being the World Cup final.
The 34-year-old announced her retirement in December 2022 before taking on a temporary coaching position in the Cayman Islands, but she returned to The Stoop for one final season last summer.
Scott earned 38 caps for England after making her debut against France in 2013, and she also represented Team GB in the Rio 2016 Olympics and England at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, where she and the sevens team won bronze.
She won two Premiership titles, first with Saracens and then with Quins in 2020/21, starting at fly-half in the final.
Mew joined Harlequins in 2018/19 and played every minute of their 2021 final victory. A significant presence in the Quins quarters, she leaves the club after six seasons. On the club’s social media, Mew announced her retirement: “It’s been a very difficult decision to hang up my boots, but it’s the right decision for me.” I suffered a serious hip injury just over a year ago, and doctors warned me that it could terminate my career. I’d like to leave Harlequins with my head held high, knowing that I proved them wrong and returned to the pitch wearing the legendary Quins shirt.
Gray, characterized on the team’s social media as being ‘there since the beginning’ , began her top-flight rugby career with Harlequins before briefly joining local rivals Richmond. After returning to The Stoop in 2020, she helped the team win the league in 2021. Harlequins meet their newest local rivals Trailfinders Women in the final match of the PWR season on Sunday at Twickenham Stoop, and they are currently sixth in the table heading into the final round of the regular season. Trailfinders are currently only four points behind in seventh place as they enter the last match of their inaugural PWR season.
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