Hope Rogers: 'It is like Christmas! Winning the final, I'd take that as the best Christmas present ever.'

USA Eagle Hope Rogers soared into the Premier 15s last season and has had an undeniable impact on her club and the league ever since she landed in England.

The forward, described by her club Exeter Chiefs as a ‘Barnstorming prop’ has certainly taken the club scene by storm and her name can regularly be found high up the statistics tables, scoresheets, and player of the match nominations.

On Saturday, Rogers will start in her second consecutive Premier 15s final, in only her second year in the league.

Exeter will face the cherry and white of Gloucester-Hartpury in the final, but the home side will not be the only ones turning up at Kingsholm, named ‘Queensholm’ for the occasion, in red and white.

Rogers is often seen arriving at games with a beaming smile on her face complemented by her now trademark Santa hat. The prop tells RugbyPass of the origins of her wearing the hat and the accompanying nickname she has been given by her team.

“It’s so silly,” she said with a laugh. “In America, a lot of the pitches aren’t as wet as damp as they are here, you play on much drier surfaces. You don’t really need the big studs that you need in England. I showed up to my first training session and Duncan [McNaughton] was our scrum coach at the time.

“He said: ‘Is this what you’re scrumming in?’ I said ‘This is all I have’ and he said I had to get new boots. I went online and I looked for new boots, I didn’t have much money so I found this pair of boots that were on sale but they were bright red. I didn’t think much of it because I thought it doesn’t matter about the colour, I just need to get these boots.

“I bought the boots, and I showed up in the middle of January to what would have been my second week of training, everyone’s boots are muddy and dirty and there I am, with these bright red boots.

“Poppy [Leitch] and some of the girls started joking around saying ‘Is it Santa, ho ho ho!’ We get in a circle and Poppy says to Susie [Appleby] ‘Out of everyone in this group, who would you say is Santa?’ Susie looks around, and she said ‘Hope, because she’s just so jolly!’

“It kind of became a thing where they were calling me Santa and we would make jokes and then one day I thought it would be fun that during our walk through I’d wear my Santa hat so I wore it.

“Then some of our fans started asking questions about it and they loved it. It started growing, and in the semi-final, there was a big group of supporters that had Santa hats on. To look out in the crowd and see the support for me and the team and who we are as people is a feeling that you can’t really explain. It means so much,” she added with delight.

Rogers’ association with Christmas isn’t solely confined to her nickname and statement hat, she’s also somewhat of a super fan of the Jim Carrey version of the film The Grinch and knows most of the script by heart.

While the date of the final on 24th June marks six months until Christmas Eve and is perhaps slightly early to be thinking ahead to Christmas, the mood on Saturday won’t be too dissimilar to the festive holiday in terms of the excitement and anticipation Rogers will feel about playing in her second Premier 15s final.

She said: “It is like Christmas! Winning the final, I’d take that as the best Christmas present ever. I love the Grinch, I don’t know why but I just think he’s a very misunderstood character. It’s a funny movie, I can quote nearly the whole thing. It definitely feels like Christmas coming up, a lot of anticipation!

“I will be wearing my Santa hat in the walk through at the final and then I take it off when it’s time for business. It’s just a little bit of fun, just to remember the joy and the fun in rugby, but we also have to prep and be ready to go for everything.”

On the outside, before a game, Rogers appears to be her usual jolly self, however, like many she experiences internal pre-game nerves.

Her processes before the final will be consistent with those carried out before every game she plays, and her faith is a key part of her preparation for rugby as well as her life outside of sport.

“I have really bad nerves, but I have bad nerves for every game,” she confessed. “I approach a big game the exact same way I approach every game. You focus on your job and your role. For me, the more fun I have, the more I’m smiling and enjoying it the better I’m playing.

“The approach will be just like it is for any game. The pressure is a bit higher, you understand that, but you’ve just got to get your mental skills there to know that you’re staying present in the moment, focusing on your next job and what will be will be if you can be at your best.

“I don’t really like to do the same things in terms of rituals because I always worry that if something is different it will freak me out. I definitely pray before every game, my faith is very important to me, but that’s the only thing that I do consistently.”

Last year’s loss in the final to Saracens provided Rogers and Exeter with added perspectives and important lessons learned which they will use going into this year’s preparations for their second chance to compete for the league title.

She said: “It’s a bit similar in that you still feel the pressure and the emotions. A win or a loss in this game is huge. It’s not just another game where you win or you lose and it could determine something, but a win or a loss in this game determines the whole Premiership.

“We understand the pressure and everything that’s riding on it. A lot of us are prepared a bit more because we have been through the experience of being in the final last year as well. We know a bit of what’s to come, we’ve already been there. In championship kind of rugby, anything can happen.

“The week after our semi-final we had a little bit of a rest, we had a little bit of fun. We obviously play rugby for fun so it was really good to do some fun things to get moving and recovering a bit, crack down on a couple of changes and things we want to do. This week we’ve been on it and training has been really good, we’ve been sharp.

“You can look at any loss and any failure that you have and you can definitely learn things from it. Last year, we learned a lot from our loss in the final. I’ve said this before but I think winning is a habit and it’s something that you learn how to do. I think this year we’ll be a bit more prepped to be able to go into the final and understand the pressure that comes with it.

“I think that we’ve shown that we can come back from adversity and that we can come back from losses, we can also start strong as well. We’re a bit of a dogged-style team, we just never quit. On Saturday we’ll definitely go out there and give it our all. We know that Gloucester are going to do the same thing and I think it will be a really good game of rugby. Hopefully, we come out on top!

Their win over the old foes Saracens in the semi-final a few weekends ago at Sandy Park was a historic turning point for women’s rugby in England in addition to it being a jubilant occasion for Chiefs.

For the first time in Premier 15s history, the final will not only not include Saracens, and it will also be won by a team outside of London.

“It’s amazing for women’s rugby,” Rogers said. “This season there have been so many competitive games. It’s not like a lot of teams are just dropping huge numbers all the time, every game is competitive and every game is hard.

“To see that for the first time there are two teams outside of London in the final just shows the growth and development of women’s rugby. I understand that next year there will be a bit more around the number of EPQ players which is understandable, but also having international players over here in the league is making the league and the competition better.

“Everyone is being challenged and growing in different ways as well, that’s making everyone better in the long run.”

Rogers is one of a strong North American contingent in the Chiefs squad, which is additionally made up of a diverse group of players from across the globe that have formed strong connections over their shared love of the sport and subsequent relocations to the West Country.

As the Premier 15s league continues to go from strength to strength, the players from overseas who have chosen to ply their trade in England have not only bolstered the ranks of their club teams but also their international sides, bringing new perspectives and learnings to both.

As a result, loosehead prop Rogers, who was named in the World Rugby Dream Team for 2022, hopes that international fixtures will continue to increase in competitiveness as the Premier 15s fixtures have over time.

She said: “We take things that we’re learning here back to our own countries to help try to grow our country as well to try to make international games competitive. All of that is going to help grow women’s rugby.

“The semi-final game, Saracens versus Exeter last week, that was an amazing game of rugby. As a spectator, you had to have been on the edge of your seat the whole time, it was a good performance and it was good rugby.

“Those are the kind of games that are going to grow women’s rugby. Those are the games that you want to have. The more we can grow all of the countries and all the players within them as well, it’s going to grow the sport. Ultimately, that’s what everyone hopefully wants.”

“It’s really hard to be away from family and friends and support systems so you have to rely on your teammates and each other. You’re also bringing new cultures and you’re learning a lot about different cultures and styles of rugby, different perspectives.

“There’s a lot of learning and growth and understanding that’s happening here at Chiefs and a lot of other clubs, although not necessarily to the degree that it is here. We have a lot of younger English players coming through the ranks as well; they’re hungry and they’re developing. To see their growth has been incredible to be a part of and to watch and help support. We’re all learning from each other which is what’s great.”

Exeter will call on the experience of the likes of Rogers as they strive to become the first team outside of London to lift the Premier 15s trophy in what promises to be a thrilling West Country final in Gloucester.