Episode 145: Abbie Ward
Spinning Plates with Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Kat Rulach
4.8 • 527 Ratings
🗓️ 10 February 2025
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Abbie Ward is a professional rugby union player who plays at international level for England and at club level for Bristol Bears.
Abbie grew up in Cumbria in a very active family and tried out many sports before discovering rugby which she describes as a love affair she didn't see coming!
She is married to former Harlequins hooker Dave Ward, who is also her head coach, and together they have a daughter Hallie who was born in the summer of 2023.
Abbie trained up till 3 days before she had Hallie by C-section and was back at Bristol Bears 2 weeks after the birth. She remains in regular talks with England about how to make her career work alongside bringing up Hallie, who is no stranger to the dressing room or to being carried onto the pitch by her mum before a match. Hallie shows no fear of a huge, loud rugby crowd - and is living up to her name, which Abbie and Dave have found out means 'Ruler of the House'!
Spinning Plates is presented by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, produced by Claire Jones and post-production by Richard Jones.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Sophia Lusbexter and welcome to Spinning Plates, the podcast where I speak to |
| 0:09.6 | to busy working women who also happen to be mothers about how they make it work. |
| 0:14.1 | I'm a singer and I've released seven albums in between having my five sons aged 16 months to 16 |
| 0:19.6 | years, so I spin a few plates myself. |
| 0:22.3 | Being a mother can be the most amazing thing, |
| 0:24.9 | but can also be hard to find time for yourself |
| 0:26.8 | and your own ambitions. |
| 0:28.3 | I want to be a bit nosy and see how other people balance everything. |
| 0:31.9 | Welcome to spinning plates. |
| 0:35.1 | Well, this might be the trickiest place I've recorded for you. |
| 0:39.3 | I'm in a bowling alley, guys. |
| 0:41.3 | My second born son is 16 and if anyone out there has gone through this chapter of child raising knows |
| 0:52.3 | I am here at the birthday party in the capacity of bag watcher |
| 0:57.3 | a transport coordinator chaperone credit card I'm not participating in the party |
| 1:05.7 | there's minimum eye contact and yeah all seems to be going all right I was on coming kit your drink is on the way |
| 1:15.7 | they do table service I'm recording an intro for my podcast that was my child I thought for a minute |
| 1:26.3 | he'd noticed I was gone but actually he was just checking his drink was on the way. |
| 1:29.8 | Which it is. |
| 1:32.8 | Actually, where I am, they do like an app where you can order your drink, and then if you, it's added, like, a whopping service charge, and I thought, I'm not paying that on one drink. |
| 1:42.6 | I went over to their bar, ordered it, and then they just put it on it anyway. So I could have just sat where I was. |
| 1:48.5 | That's fascinating, isn't it? Anyway, I tell you what is genuinely fascinating is my guest this |
| 1:53.3 | week. I first reached out to Abby Ward. It would have probably been the middle of last year, |
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