Following the recent success of the England women’s rugby team winning the World Cup in August this year, we have chosen Maggie Alphonsi as our Inspirational Diversity Champion for September.

Despite being born with a club foot Maggie was encouraged to play rugby by her PE teacher and she joined Saracens RFC. She progressed quickly and, at the age of just 18, was selected for the England Academy squad. She earned her first international cap at the age of 19 and a hugely successful career in the sport followed.  She has played in three Rugby World Cups and in 2012 shared in a record-breaking seventh successive Six Nations title and a sixth Grand Slam in seven years.

Maggie has been named in the Powerlist for three years running, a highly respected publication which profiles 100 of the most influential people of African and African-Caribbean descent in Britain. She won the Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year prize in 2010, and the prestigious Pat Marshall award from the Rugby Union Writers’ Club in 2012 becoming the first woman to claim the prize in its 50-year history. Also in 2012 Maggie was awarded an MBE for Services to Rugby.

In what little spare time she has, she acts as an Athlete Mentor Manager for the Youth Sport Trust. She is also one of four Rugby World Cup 2015 Ambassadors along with Lawrence Dallaglio, Will Greenwood and Jonny Wilkinson and is an ambassador of several charities including Wooden Spoon, Sporting Equals and SKRUM which aims to give the youth of Africa hope for the future through rugby.

Maggie is currently deciding whether to retire from playing having finally achieved her greatest desire to win the world cup.  Whatever she decides to do she will always be one of the greatest players ever to have represented their country.