Poppy and Bryony Cleall have played together – and against each other – since the age of six and this weekend will be side by side in a top-of-the-table clash

As kids, Poppy and Bryony Cleall always sat back-to-back when they were unwrapping their birthday presents so they wouldn’t spoil the surprise if they were both given the same things. This stuff is always tricky for twins. Like the time Bryony got picked for England Under-18s but Poppy didn’t, or Poppy made the under-20s but Bryony was left out. Then there were the years they played for competing teams: Poppy was at Saracens while Bryony was at Bristol, and Poppy was at Bristol while Bryony was at Saracens. Just last week, when the RFU announced its first batch of permanent full-time contracts, Poppy got one but Bryony did not.

Bryony is still in the England elite player squad, but will carry on in her day job as the head of girls’ PE at the Harris City Academy in Crystal Palace. “Poppy’s never even asked me if I’m OK about not getting a full-time contract,” Bryony teases. She is. She missed five years of her career because of injuries which is why she is a step behind her sister. Bryony has not played for England yet but Poppy made her debut in 2016 and now has 24 caps. “The email that told me I was in the elite player squad said at the bottom of it: ‘I know you may be disappointed by this’ but I was over the moon. I rang Poppy and I shouted: ‘Woohoo! I got in!’ I’m proud just to be involved.”

England Women hope ‘revolutionary’ contracts will drive World Cup charge Read more

The twins started playing when they were six. Their brother Josh used to play in an after-school rugby club, Poppy explains, “but Mum and Dad would come and pick us up all together at four o’clock so we had to wait around and watch until one day the coach said: ‘Do you two want to come and play?’ We’ve been at it ever since.”

Sometimes they were playing with each other, sometimes against. Once they were on opposite sides in the Premiership semi-final. “Dad was like: ‘It’s OK, at least one Cleall will be in the final,’” Poppy says. Bryony cuts in: “Then she got injured and missed it anyway.”

“Poppy will hate me for saying this,” Bryony says, “but my favourite story is the time she pulled my hair. It should have been a red card. I was with the ball and she went to tackle me and got a fistful of my hair. She let go and went: ‘Oh my God! I’m so sorry!’”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Poppy Cleall is tackled by Wales’ Lleucu George during the Six Nations match at Twickenham Stoop in February 2018. Photograph: Adam Davy/PA

Now they are back playing together at Saracens. This Saturday Sarries, the leaders of the Women’s Premier15 table, are playing Harlequins, who are second. Poppy is recovering from an injury but says she’ll be fit, if picked, for the latest round of what is becoming one of the league’s defining rivalries. “It extends beyond the pitch,” Bryony says. “Quins are definitely pushing women’s rugby to the forefront and so are Sarries. Both clubs want to be the number one draw in women’s rugby.”

Lately the twins have been working together too. Poppy’s new contract means Bryony is going to have to find a new coach for Harris City’s under-18s team. Poppy took on the job when she moved back to London. But, as of 1 January, she is a full-time pro. “It’s such a privilege that we can be the first ever professionals,” Poppy says, “and it’s a little bit of pressure, too.” She has been a professional before, briefly, when the RFU gave the women full-time contracts before the last World Cup – but scrapped them when the tournament was over. “People just always ask me how come Poppy’s skinnier than me,” Bryony says, “and I always say it’s because she went professional four years ago.”

Before that Poppy worked as a prison officer. “Anyone that can juggle a sporting career and a job, hats off,” she says, “because it was so stressful and some days it really did get me down.” She used up her holiday allowance taking time off to play games on the weekends. “I remember one weekend when our manager told me I had to play but I just couldn’t get it off work. In the end I told her I’d play so long as she didn’t put my name on the teamsheet. Lo and behold I scored a hat-trick, and on Monday morning my name was right there at the top. Two days later at work they were like: ‘You know when you rang in sick at the weekend? How do you explain this?”

The Breakdown: sign up and get our weekly rugby union email.

She felt like she was always letting somebody down, either her coaches or her bosses. It was always “sorry I can’t train because I’ve got work, or sorry I can’t work I’ve got to play”. Bryony is lucky as the school allows her some flexibility. But she is still painfully aware of the problems her playing career causes for her teaching colleagues.

“It’s the work I leave behind, it’s really a burden for the department to have to pick up the load I’m missing.” For years, this was just the way it was if you were a woman who wanted to play international rugby. “You just put your head down and get on with it,” Poppy says. “Everyone’s got to make the sacrifices.”

It should not be that way. And now, at last, it is not. “The women’s game has taken a big step in the right direction,” Bryony says. “I would have loved to have that first professional contract but I think it’s really more important for kids who are six years old now who can pick up a ball and think ‘actually, I want to be professional’ not ‘I want to play rugby and do some other job for a living’ but ‘my dream is to be a professional rugby player’.” Poppy agrees: “That’s the history that’s being written now, we’re living a dream that all the little girls who come after us can have from the start.”