Shaunagh Brown column: England prop says wins over New Zealand show investing in women works

If you want to see what investment in women looks like, the evidence is there in England's two record wins against New Zealand.

When people compare the men's Premiership in this country to the women's Premier 15s league, it is worth remembering that most of the women's players have full-time jobs.

The standard is going to be very different but, by the way, if you do give us the chance to be full-time rugby players and do give us the investment, this is what we can do: beat the five-time world champions twice with record winning margins.

It is not even just in rugby: if you put money into a situation and belief into women, they come out better the other side.

It is proving to other people that we can do it but more importantly it is about proving to ourselves and other women that we are worthy, we are here and we are not going anywhere - so you might as well work with us.

If you invest in us, everything becomes better. There are no downsides for a men's rugby team if they invest in a women's rugby team. It is only going to grow the game.

If you have got 100% more rugby on, the whole sport will benefit and ultimately make money. That goes for all sports.

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'This does not seal the World Cup deal'

There was another nice little reminder in England's back-to-back wins.

We are ranked number one in the world but so many people have doubted us in the past because New Zealand had not played for two years.

They thought the Black Ferns would be world number one if their international rugby schedule had not been stopped by coronavirus. So we showed those people.

But this is certainly not it. The World Cup takes place in New Zealand in 2022 - but despite the fact we beat the Black Ferns twice, it does not seal the deal for that tournament at all.

This will hurt New Zealand in a very deep way and they will come out all guns blazing next year.

'Our next opponents will have a point to prove'

Rather than just being Twickenham-based, we take our Test matches on the road. The two matches against New Zealand were at Exeter and Northampton.

Both games had crowds of more than 9,000 and the sight of all the families in the crowd shows that taking our games on tour works.

We play Canada next at the Twickenham Stoop and round off the autumn in Worcester against the United States.

Both teams are pretty unique in that their women are more renowned for playing rugby than their men. Canada are ranked third in the world, while the United States are sixth.

Their sides are full of power athletes who have been found from other sports such as ice hockey or basketball.

No matter how good your decision-making is, if you have a 15-stone player running at you, it gets scary

It will be a physical battle but also quite free-flowing. They will both be hungry for it and will have a point to prove after seeing our wins over New Zealand.

'There is a lot of competition for England places'

There are so many good players around the England squad now and a lot of competition. You want to get the balance of healthy competition because that makes the team better.

We train against ourselves a lot. If you have got healthy competition, even training can be tough.

People do not realise that there are a lot more people in camp than just the 23 who get to play the game.

With them, we can train 15 v 15 during the week and those people are just as much part of the team.

This week it could just as easily be me - I am not definitely selected and I missed out on the New Zealand games. It is tough being left out but I still happily sit at home watching and cheering on the girls.

I am proud to know I am still part of that team.

Shaunagh Brown was speaking to BBC Sport's Becky Grey.

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