Erica Jarrell-Searcy: How Harvard email set second row on route to Sale

It soon got better. In one of Harvard’s lecture halls, women’s rugby captain Maya Learned posted a video of the United States match.

“They were running at each other, hitting each other, full-on tackles with professional paid athletes,” Jarrell-Searcy says.

“And I was like ‘whoa, that looks great’

“My brother was a wrestler. Growing up, I loved wrestling, but girls weren’t allowed to do that; as a little tomboy athlete, it was a very justified experience.

“Our first training started by having the new recruits run around the challenge area and see how we react

“My teammates still make fun of me now because I was just grinning, sprinting, and running towards this motionless girl holding a pillow.

“After that it was either rugby or bust.”

That was fine when Jarrell-Searcy was at Harvard.

Harvard had a dedicated rugby field, a state-of-the-art weight room, indoor facilities and a number of fixtures against other university teams.

Title IX, a landmark piece of legislation, requires all educational institutions in the United States to spend the same amount on athletic services for women as they do for men.

But when he graduated, the reality of life outside the college bubble got a little tough.

Jarrell-Searcy would go to a public gym before 5 a.m., work a 12-hour ambulance shift transporting non-emergency patients to the hospital, then train at night under weak floodlights.

On his days off, he would find parks and trails to practice speed alone. On weekends, he would meet up with a few national standard players from his state and do some contact work at a central location that was not convenient for either side.

“It was almost impossible,” he says. “If I wasn’t obsessed, I’d be like, ‘Okay, it’s time to grow up, let’s get a real job.’

“That’s what it’s like to be an emerging player in the US, it’s all about bootstrapping.”

It is this reality that has made PWR, the world’s largest domestic women’s rugby league, a magnet for talented players from around the world.

That was Jarrell-Searcy’s goal as soon as she left Harvard. He achieved this by signing for Sale Sharks in January 2024, just before his 25th birthday.

“I remember coming to Carrington [Sale’s training base] “And just hearing them say ‘we’re in the fourth act’ meant there were four acts,” he says.

“Little things like that people don’t even think about here.”

The change was great and the curve was steep.

“I was watching these girls slam each other into the mud and I thought I was the United States international, but I’m actually not as good as the average person here,” she says.

“In my first season, it was very much like trial by fire. In my first games I was just fuming. I think I lost the ball on contact every time I carried it.

“But being in a training squad with Holly Aitchison, Courtney Knight, Morwenna Talling, Amy Cokayne – I could list the whole squad – it’s iron on iron.”

At the Women’s Rugby World Cup in August, England were divided by this sharpening skillset.

Just inside the opposition half Jarrell-Searcy shrugged off Jess Breach and headed in for the Eagles’ only try of the tournament opener.