My Story: Jess Breach
After watching the Red Roses at three Rugby World Cups, Jess Breach found herself surrounded by some familiar faces in 2017.
It’s November 2017. The Red Roses are preparing to face Canada at Allianz Park with seven uncapped players in the squad. Some players are dreaming of their debut, perhaps even a try-scoring debut. Jess Breach, aged 20, scores with her first touch and goes on to register six tries that night in her first-ever Test match.
“Even when people say it now, I’m like ‘did that actually happen?’” said the 22-year-old wing. “The team were in a very good place going into that game and no-one knew of us newbies so I think no-one knew how to defend us, or how good or bad we were going to be.
“It’s still really surreal when people say it [six tries on debut]. It was an important part of me going into international rugby but the team did a big part.”
It could have been so different for Breach who very nearly pursued a career in athletics before focusing her efforts on rugby, and competed in the hurdles at the English Schools Athletics Championships.
“I got to the stage where my coach said I needed to do it to my full heart’s content or not at all. I wanted to compete at the top level, which I was, but I wanted to do even better which was hard with the rugby training. The athletics was really beneficial for the rugby but the rugby wasn’t beneficial for the athletics when I came in with knocks and bruises.
“It was a good journey in my sporting life so far, I’d never take it back and some days I want to go over hurdles and my dad will have to tell me no.”
'Jess Express'
If you go through any of Breach’s 22 tries in 13 Tests so far it will be obvious that her raw, natural speed is one of her biggest assets. Give her space on the outside and more often than not, Breach will find herself to the try line.
This was recognised from her first foray into the game where she was nicknamed the ‘Jess Express’ at Chichester Rugby Club, where her dad, John, played in the first team and her brother Ryan also featured for youth teams.
“It came from my coach when I was in age group rugby with the boys – I think it was probably a little bit of favouritism,” Breach says with a smile. “It has stayed with me a bit, the local paper love to use it. It was a confidence builder when I was playing with the boys.”
From Chichester playing mixed rugby, the Harlequins Women wing moved to Pulborough Rugby Club on the edge of the South Downs National Park. It was here where her family and rugby career mixed as her dad John coached her from the age of 14.
“He’d pick me up from school and he’d have my chocolate spread sandwiches in the car ready,” Breach fondly recalls. “We’d be chatting in the car on the way there, and sometimes the training session would be awful and we’d be shouting at each other – in the car journey on the way home it would be like an hour drive home and we’d just sit there in silence.
“We’d get home and mum would ask ‘how was training?’ and I would be like ‘fine, I don’t want to talk about it’.
“It was really good and I really enjoyed it and I think he really enjoyed coaching me, and he hasn’t stopped now which is crazy. We’ve got that bond where we can talk about rugby for days and sometimes I have to be ‘dad, I do want to talk about something else, I do, do other things in my life.’”
Making memories
Breach is a self-confessed England fan, watching the Red Roses whenever she could, growing up, going to three Women’s Rugby World Cups with her family – in England in 2010, the Red Roses triumph in France in 2014 and the last World Cup in Ireland in 2017.
After that final in Belfast, where England lost an enthralling match against New Zealand, Breach would make her incredible Test debut just two months later following a superb try-scoring start to the inaugural Tyrrells Premier 15s with Harlequins.
The week before her debut, Breach was in familiar company with long-time friend Zoe Harrison along with Ellie Kildunne and Hannah Botterman all set for international debuts.
“It was so scary. Me and Zoe were in our room every day going ‘is this actually going to happen?’ and then when the team got announced and we realised we were actually going to get our first cap.
“I wouldn’t think of a better person to get it with than Zoe who’s been my roomie since 16 and it’s really nice to have that special moment I can share with her. We’re still roomies now, we have that bond and we’re friends off the pitch as well as on.
“We made a bet that we’d all get a tattoo of the date and I think I’m the only one with a tattoo on me. Hannah might actually, but Zoe definitely doesn’t and neither does Ellie but we shook on it, how we made our debut on the same day.”
There is though one aspect of a game day that Breach does not always enjoy with Saracens Women fly half Harrison, the anthems.
“I stand next to Zoe and she can’t sing – she’s stone cold death, her tone is nowhere,” Breach laughs. “When the camera comes across I think maybe she should mouth it or maybe not go so loud and I have to bite my cheeks and still try and sing as it is so bad, it’s awful.”
The anthem though remains a special part of the match day for the Breach family with dad John insisting on recording the national anthems on his phone no matter what.
“He is so proud, and so are my mum and my brother, but that’s just his way of being a part of it still, where he has the recording and he can look back at it. He still looks back at my U18s national final on YouTube and I’m like ‘dad that was five years ago you need to get over it!’”
“He always wears a bright coloured coat. He had a black and orange one and then mum and me bought him a new one for Christmas and it’s black and yellow. I’m always scouting for him, in fact I don’t even need to scout as he’s got bright colours on, but it is just nice for him and for my family to be a part of it still and I think it’s really important for me.”
