Scaz & Mo’s Big North America Review

Scaz and Mo get a well-earned week off, because let’s be honest, it was never going to be FAIR to let them pick a Lions team. So we called in the big guns: World Cup-winning Red Roses captain and Sale Sharks Head of Performance Katy Daley-Mclean, and our very own Reverend, Nick Heath, our favourite commentator.  Under a year out from the Lions first test, Nick and Katy do their best Jo Yapp impression and debate it out to pick a joint Lions match day 23. The rules are - if you didn’t play in WXV, you couldn’t be selected - so there are some big names that didn’t were not up for selection. For example, no Abbie Ward or Zoe Stratford… yet.  The final count is 12 from England, 6 from Ireland, 3 Welsh players and 2 from Scotland, so there’s a LOT more green on the team sheet than many of us expected… but you’ll have to listen to find out who went where! Elsewhere this week: 👑 Who should be Tour captain? KDM might surprise you with a curve ball suggestion! 🧑‍🏫 Who will round out Jo Yapp’s coaching team? We go rogue with some long list suggestions including even Rassie, Gats and Wayne Smith…! 🦁 Bonus Lions Trivia on the 1908 tourists and why that tour was a remarkable event 🌧️ September in New Zealand, and why it changes how you pick your squad 😬 Humble apologies to everyone we didn’t pick 👀 Keep an eye out for our survey, especially if you’re thinking of going on Tour or are planning to come to Cardiff for the first ever fixture v France!  On the topic of going places: Are you coming to Sale Sharks’ opening game of the season? Producer Shira is heading north to host a GSR live show with KDM, Zoe Stratford and Sarah Beckett! You’ll need to buy a hospitality ticket, or simply upgrade the one you’ve got by emailing: [email protected] Come say hi to us and our Grassroots Partners this Saturday at the Allianz Kick Start Pitch ahead of England v Japan at Allianz Stadium. Bring the kids down early to the fan village for some T1 rugby, a photo booth, a claw machine and a selfie with Megan Jones and Owen Farrell! 👉 allianz.co.uk Also, remember that applications for the Allianz All Together Sports Fund close on 21 November. Grants of up to £5,000 for grassroots clubs across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are available and the overall pot of funding available has been boosted from £100k to £150k. Apply here 👉 https://www.allianz.co.uk/about-allianz/partnerships/sports-fund.html  We love that Mitsubishi Electric is helping players chase their potential on and off the pitch. Find out more about their work on this topic at parallelpotential.com I’ll never get over Katy’s new lacrosse teammate asking if she’d ever played sport before… chef’s kiss, no notes.  Send your hate mail, compliments and Lions tour suggestions to [email protected]. We LOVE hearing from you! Shira x Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We need to talk about Canada… again. Two defeats in a week, the series is gone, and for the first time in about a decade the Red Roses have lost back-to-back games. What went wrong in Ottawa, and where does Mitch go from here? This week we’ve got a double act to help us work it out. GSR regular and Scotland lock Emma “Wass” Wassell is back, and joining her on her first ever trip to the pod is Trailfinders back-rower and Red Rose No. 271, Haidee Head! The Rev’s away this week, so we’ve done the stats homework ourselves. The headline number: Canada made 13 line breaks to England’s 2 in Ottawa. Ouch. Haidee’s journey to an England shirt is one of the wildest we’ve heard. A year ago, she’d just been dropped by the Queensland Reds. Her plan was a season in the PWR, then maybe a season in Super Rugby Aupiki in New Zealand, then back to Queensland to try to win her Reds contract back. Instead, she moved to Trailfinders, became a Red Rose and won a Six Nations… a tournament she’d never actually watched until she was playing in it! Now she’s an England player, and it sounds like she’s here to stay. We also get into what it means to blood new talent. Haidee tells us how that trust gives a young player the confidence to step up in the big moments, and Wass explains why there’s no substitute for experience at international level. Elsewhere this week: 🌹 England v Canada: the numbers behind losing the series, and what has to change. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scotland: nine defeats in a row and four different attack coaches in the last year. But they led at half-time in Canberra, so are there signs of real improvement by the end of WXV? Wass gives us the inside view. 🇺🇸 USA v England: the Eagles arrive on a five-Test winning run for the Red Roses’ final WXV game this Friday (kick-off 21:15 UK - NOT a midnight KO, praise be!). Will it be a bounce back or a banana skin? Make sure you check out Mitsubishi Electric’s toolkit at parallelpotential.com 💬 And if you need money for your rugby club, you can apply here for the Allianz All Together Sports Fund: https://www.allianz.co.uk/about-allianz/partnerships/sports-fund.html They have £100,000 to giveaway to grassroots rugby clubs. Any RFU, WRU, Scottish Rugby or IRFU club in Northern Ireland can apply and the deadline is 21 November 2026. Send us your post tour questions for Scaz & Mo - we’re recording with them straight off their flight back from North America… [email protected] 💬 Don’t sleep on Magic Meg’s merch: https://magicmegltd.myshopify.com & please join us in manifesting a Red Roses win in New Jersey 🌹 Happy listening & watching, GSR fam! Shira x Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We need to talk about Canada… The Red Roses have lost, the record is gone, and there's a series to save. Can England bounce back? We're asking the big questions this week, and we've got the perfect guest to help: Red Rose World Cup-winning hooker and brand-new mum, Lark Atkin-Davies! Our very own Reverend, Nick Heath, is also in with his analysis of the Canada clash. As always, he's brought the facts and stats to preview this weekend's third and final test. Last weekend, Lark made it back on the pitch for Bristol Bears just 16 weeks after having baby Olive, and she scored their two opening tries, to boot! She shared some really honest truths about the trials and tribulations of a professional athlete's journey through pregnancy, childbirth and becoming a mother. We talk about how her body changed during pregnancy (that bump really got in the way of her knee drive!), how she managed gestational diabetes, and her decision to have a vaginal birth. Like Abbie Ward, who has been a real inspiration to her, Lark is hell-bent on making pregnancy & early motherhood taboos a thing of the past, in society and especially in women's sport. Breast pumping in the Bears cafeteria is just one of the ways she's pushing herself out of her comfort zone, for the good of her baby and the good of the cause.  Spoiler: she wants to be the best mum AND the best rugby player, and she's got big plans for Lark 2.0. There are now FOUR mums in the Red Roses set-up, so we also get into how much Mitch and the England environment have backed Lark, Abbie, Zoe, Rosie and Marlie, giving them the confidence to make the choices that are right for their families. Elsewhere this week: 🌹 Losing the record: Nick has the stats on that defeat and tells us why letting go of the record might actually be freeing for this squad. It's only the size of the streak that makes this loss feel so big! Thanks to Opta for supporting the Rev's stat work. 🏉 WXV match-ups: who's playing who this weekend. Look out for a rundown of all the match-ups, and where to watch them, on our socials again on Friday. 🦁 Lions vs France: who has the edge at the Principality, and Lark's promise to be there whether she's in the squad or not. 🏆 PWR final: our summary, plus Lark's campaign to take the final to Allianz Stadium, which we're 100% here for. Grab a cuppa and press play. And if you're a mum juggling work, sport or both, we'd love to hear from you in the comments, or email us at [email protected] 💬 Don't sleep on Magic Meg's merch: https://magicmegltd.myshopify.com Please join us in manifesting a Red Roses win for our girls 🌹 Happy listening & watching, GSR fam! Shira x Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Red Roses take on their big rivals, Canada this weekend over in Toronto - so before Scaz & Mo flew to Canada, they popped to the Cabbage Patch to have a catch up with Elma. They’d been training at Allianz Stadium before they left - something no Red Roses team had ever done for an entire camp before now. We hear all about that and look ahead to what they’re looking forward to doing in Canada.  It’s safe to say it’s quite a delirious episode. Scaz hasn’t had a day off in a while and she fully gets the giggles, which means there’s a Scazisms and Moisms around every corner.  We do manage to get enough sense out of her to look ahead to the ‘Rugby Rematch Tour’ with Amy Cokayne back in the starting line up and Sadia back on the bench, things are shaping up NICELY.  The girls take a vote on who’ll be best at running GSR Media Ltd’s HR department and we open some of the greatest listener messages and presents we’ve ever received.  Send us your emails at [email protected]. This episode is brought to you by Apple: Scaz talks about her Apple Watch Series 12, and how the Readiness Score helps her decide between a “let’s go” day and a “do less” day. Learn more at apple.com/uk/apple-watch-series-12. Requires iPhone 11 or later. For general wellness purposes only. Not intended for clinical use or to detect, diagnose, monitor or treat medical conditions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ⁠podcastchoices.com/adchoices Thank you to Tight Five Designs for sending us the caps - if you like the look of them, here’s the link: https://tightfive.co.uk/?srsltid=AU7gw4VZnPd-Kngp2IRLmQ7s6b9rjF7SbU16pxSH2IFhtibB084NYpEV  And don’t sleep on the Magic Meg merch, either: https://magicmegltd.myshopify.com/?utm_source=shop_app  Happy listening & watching GSR fam! Shira x Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Scotland’s 75-cap star Lisa Thomson pulls up a seat at the Cabbage Patch in Twickenham to join Elma, Mo and Meggy for this week's episode. Meggy kicks things off with a Chardonnay slap (IYKYK) and then we get into how competitive the girls want that inaugural British & Lions Squad selection to be, before the conversation takes a rainbow-flavoured turn nobody saw coming.  Tommo, real name Lisa, is now known for her incredible skillset, but openly admits that she’s learnt a lot on the job. She couldn’t even pass off her left hand when she first got called into Scotland camp! She tells us about the goosebumps versus Wales a year ago, and what it was like to compete in what nearly felt like a home World Cup - all while playing through a serious Achilles tear, that would have seen a mere mortal like Elma, on crutches! The efficiency with which Tommo speaks Mo-isms fluently, is revealed when a towel (?!) debate goes way too far. Then we take a journey through Tommo’s rehab experiences over the last year, just to keep things semi grounded.  Also in this episode: Scotland’s WXV campaign and the three-Test series against Australia, plus a fresh batch of listener emails, including the relentless penne debate. Tommo, good luck with the rehab! Meggy, happy birthday in Canada! Send us your emails at [email protected]. This episode is brought to you by Apple: Meggy talks about her Apple Watch Series 12, and how the Readiness Score helps her decide between a “let’s go” day and a “do less” day. Learn more at apple.com/uk/apple-watch-series-12. Requires iPhone 11 or later. For general wellness purposes only. Not intended for clinical use or to detect, diagnose, monitor or treat medical conditions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Happy listening & watching GSR fam! Shira x Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices