Premier 15s: Harlequins coach Karen Findlay wants to improve game's diversity

Karen Findlay is also a Chief Superintendent with the Metropolitan Police

Forwards coach Karen Findlay will bid farewell to Harlequins at the end of the Premier 15s season - but that does not mean the end of her rugby career.

The former Scottish captain and coach, 52, has combined coaching with her full-time job as a Chief Superintendent with the Metropolitan Police.

Findlay wants to use her experience to contribute to the way the sport is run and ask "some uncomfortable questions."

"There is a lot to do in the game with diversity and inclusion," she said.

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Findlay is helping to prepare Quins to face Wasps at Twickenham Stoop in their Premier 15s semi-final on Saturday in a match she says will be a "physical humdinger".

As one of the most senior female officers in the Met she leads a command of uniformed police officers at large-scale protests, sports events and any "top end" public order policing.

It's her experience of working on diversity and inclusion with The Met that has led her to think about transferring her skills to rugby union.

"When you're trying to grow whatever business you're in I think there are so many lessons to share with rugby," she said.

"Also when you've been a woman within a historically male dominated game - as a player or a coach - and incurred that amount of experience, I'd like to put that to good use and make sure the future of the game is in good hands."

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Despite her ambitions she is adamant a break will come first when her season with Quins ends.

"I haven't seen my family for a year and a half because of the difference in the [Covid] regulations in force between Scotland and down here," she said.

"For me that's been really, really hard."

Findlay, capped 85 times by Scotland, is one of women's rugby's most respected names having coached Scotland, Richmond and Harlequins, and has no plans to leave coaching permanently.

After five years at Quins, where she originally joined as co-head coach alongside England's 2014 World Cup-winning coach Gary Street, she is fully focused on Saturday's semi-final.

When asked if she is allowed to dream of getting to a third Premier 15s final she is clear: "I don't dream, you have to earn the right."

The winners will face either Saracens or Loughborough Lightning in the final at Kingsholm on Sunday, 30 May.

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