Polly Barnes Biography
Polly, a former player who is currently a co-founder of the Women’s Rugby Association, had her early rugby instruction from Lydney, who famously bloodied Pienaar’s Saracens’ nose and skipped work to sneak into Twickenham.
Later, trying to bloody the nose of a certain Welsh scrum-half, she tried the tactic herself.
She is also the spouse of Wayne, a previous “mega loser” who used to wear curtains and have his ears pierced. who also happens to be the world’s greatest referee.
Polly Barnes Wikipedia
Full Name: Polly Barnes
Stage Name: Polly Barnes
Born: 1980s
Age: 40s
Birthplace: Sydney, Australia
Nationality: Australian
Occupation: Former rugby player
Height: unknown
Parent: Mr. and Mrs. Barnes
Siblings: unknown
Spouse: unknown
Children: unknown
Relationship: Married
Net Worth: $1 million to $5 million
Instagram handle: @pollybarnes_
Facebook handle: Polly Barnes
Twitter handle: @pollybarnes_
Polly Barnes’s Early Life
In the 1980s, Polly Barnes was born in Sydney, Australia. Although information on any siblings she could have had is not made public, she was raised by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Barnes.
Everything You Need To Know About Polly Barnes
My mother had a season ticket to Fulham and was a huge fan of the team. She requested that her ashes be strewn at Craven Cottage before she passed away. We were a football family, and my dad played the game as well.
At seven I was exposed to rugby. When we inquired about the local club after moving to the Forest of Dean, we were informed about Lydney.
Thinking it would be a football club, we went there and discovered it was a rugby club. Although I was only a toddler, our eyes were opened.
My father was always the extremely annoying person, yelling at the referee, and I used to go down with him all the time after that.
When Lydney played for the Saracens, I recall. Around 1996, the town of Lydney came to an abrupt halt due to the cup.
Being the head girl at the time, I conducted interviews for the local newspaper while I was still in the brass band.
It felt like a party, the game. With all the big players playing, including Francois Pienaar, Kyran Bracken, and Tony Diprose, it was a significant match, and we lost by a score of sixty points or so.
I will never forget the scene when the players were carted off the field, their players staggering back onto the bus from their injuries, and Kyran Bracken’s face shattered to bits with blood all over the place.
I believe that some of my husband’s relatives were involved, as they had dragged a few players from the hoardings into the throng and given them a solid kicking.
That makes that one of my favorite childhood memories. We were ignorant of the existence of individuals such as Francois Pienaar and showed no regard for them.
I started playing rugby when I was around eleven, and Lydney organized a fantastic girls’ squad for us.
However, I will never forget that a few years later, my buddies and I had just returned from county trials.
We couldn’t wait to play here, so we asked our PE teachers when we got to school.
We were warned that if girls played rugby and were injured in the chest, they would develop breast cancer.
We played at our club and were going through county trials. Can you picture being informed that your risk of developing cancer makes playing sports impossible?
I was a nine-year-old whiny irritant. About ten, I used to play there too. At the time, I was very, very small, irrationally angry, and gobby.
I cherished rugby because it accommodated players of all sizes and shapes, with a position for each one of us. Not just everyone in terms of appearance, but also all personality types.
Some are more strategic, those who are leaders, those who are team players, those who are tough defenders, and then some just want to run.
Sports like rugby are less critical of others. There were a lot of people playing for the first time when I was a student, and it seemed extremely welcoming.
We used to put girls from American colleges at fullback, and even if they occasionally didn’t know the laws, they could destroy anyone.
My degree was in dance. I had to give up rugby because it wasn’t appropriate for me to show up to dance sessions with black eyes and other things, which were pretty typical. After all, I was constantly in the mix when I played rugby. Instead, I ended up in London doing ballet and contemporary dance.
My mother was correct when she said the degree was an absurd concept. After graduating, I moved on to land a real career.
I currently work in marketing and occasionally sing with the City of London Choir, so you can find me both on the sidelines of rugby matches and in the Albert Hall.
I was employed at the Twickenham store once. Being a student at the time meant that you had to go out till around four in the morning, arrive at work, and then pass out on the job.
However, I used to sneak away and that’s how I watched my first matches—I remember it was Romania and we won 127-0 or something.
I’ve been with my spouse since the age of eleven. He was approximately sixteen when I went to the school, and he had to show me around.
My mother asked me, “Oh, what are you going to do when you grow up?” when I showed up with her.
“You’re going to marry him,” she said to me after he described himself as a barrister. And I thought, “Oh my god, that’s gross.”
My mother didn’t waver even though he was a huge loser, had curtains, and had a pierced ear.
And so I gave in in the end. I was about sixteen when he started asking me out, and I gave in when I was about twenty-four.
The Premiership final is a unique occasion every year. It’s usually a big day because my buddies and I always attend and we humiliate ourselves by getting extremely hammered.
My husband Wayne has been referring people for around nine now.
Since I’m married to the referee and can’t support Premiership teams, I think every Premiership final holds a special place in my heart.
This is because I can enjoy watching them all, regardless of the players, and there’s always an incredible amount of homegrown talent shining on the biggest stage.
On Premiership final day, I believe the atmosphere at Twickenham is often better than that of international matches.
My viewpoint on supporting rugby is distinct. Because I’m not supporting either team, I’m supporting the person in the center, whoever they may be.
Even though I used to be an avid fan of England, even when I watch them today, I no longer feel that way; instead, I just back the referee.
Wayne officiated everything. He began when he was around fifteen years old since he was a bad player. When he was hurt one day, the physical education teacher gave him a whistle and told him to “have a go at that.”
He was so already on the national panel by the age of 21. Therefore, he has been ready for a piss-take for more than 20 years.
Hearing criticism [of Wayne] is very difficult. At first, it was hard to understand why everyone was criticizing someone I liked, and I used to take name-calling, criticism, and that type of pressure very personally.
Now though, it just passes by and I don’t give a damn. I can shield him from it by reading things, but he doesn’t read anything. Instead, I just take it all in, and he is blissfully ignorant of it.
In 2007, there were threats of death. That was hard after the France vs. New Zealand World Cup quarterfinal. Although we weren’t romantically involved at the time, we remained close friends.
After my mother passed away approximately two weeks before that [France’s 10–18 defeat of New Zealand], he began receiving death threats.
I recall seeing his obituary when I clicked on his Wikipedia page. I thought, “What a fucking shit show, why? Why would you act in such a manner? Why would you participate in this sport at all? It’s wicked.
I was furious for a very long time before I was able to digest that and move on to a more optimistic perspective.
In 2011, we weren’t exactly welcomed in New Zealand. I didn’t enjoy being there, and it made the tournament fairly difficult, but that’s just one of those things, which is frustrating.
These days, it’s simpler to understand, and I believe that everyone is fair game. As a fan, you can come along and voice your opinions if you pay for it. However, you should educate yourself because there is information available.
Still, rugby is a fun sport. I recognize that it can be challenging for some people to keep up with the laws because they are intricate and always changing, and that occasionally this makes it challenging to attract new participants to the sport. I therefore view it from all angles.
Everyone is an extremely decent person, in my husband’s opinion. Because he is such a wonderful person, he believes that everyone has a pure heart.
Though I tend to be skeptical, we have every right to go out and enjoy a drink after a game just like everyone else.
Sure, sometimes folks will act a little strange in a bar. However, following that 2007 game, he was forced to flee the stadium via an ambulance.
We too made a speedy getaway from Paris. When France played Ireland, under Declan Kidney’s direction, I believe the attendance was 90,000, and the game had to be canceled due to a frozen field.
Dave Pearson officiated the match, and Wayne served as touch judge. Once more, you could feel the energy shift from being very upbeat to being critical of the officials. So we also needed to go as soon as possible.
One day, I attempted to strike Mike Phillips in the face. After the Auckland playoffs for third and fourth place in 2011, we entered a bar.
We had to be home by that time because we hadn’t had the best World Cup and I had been drinking all day. Mike Phillips, who was standing with the Welsh boys across the bar, yelled, “Barnesy, you wanker.”
I remember launching myself at him, saying, “I’ve fucking had enough,” and sprinting across the bar while attempting, with all my might, to smash him in the face.
When Andy Powell, I believe, took me up, I was furious and acting like Scrappy Doo. Then, Ryan Jones, or whoever was sitting on me, told me to “calm down, he was being friendly.” But ever since, everything has gone smoothly.
I gain a great deal of insight into the state of rugby worldwide. Our phone rings every night at nine o’clock, or it’s a conference call that comes in when New Zealand gets up.
The calls start coming in first thing in the morning from the northern hemisphere. I became so immersed in rugby and know so much about the sport almost by osmosis.
Although it’s none of my business, even if it’s merely because I’m proofreading a PowerPoint on jacking laws, I will be the first to learn about working groups, revisions to the legislation, and other related information.
Referees spend a lot of time in our house, which is great because there are now fantastic southern hemisphere boys and girls here.
We have a reputation for having a lot of debates at our dining table. We discuss everything from perception to government to how the lads from New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, and Argentina feel about new laws that were put into effect two weeks before the World Cup!
I’ve worked in marketing and communications for a long time. I’ve also specialized in sports, especially women’s sports, which is why I’m currently working in women’s rugby.
I find it incredibly aggravating because rugby often says something is difficult to achieve, which prevents things from happening. Or they can say, “Oh, this is how it’s always been done.”
I very never take my two kids [a boy and a girl] to watch men’s rugby; instead, I like taking them to watch women’s.
They witness role models and athletes putting on incredible shows; they are not raised with the notion that men’s or women’s sports will be better or worse.
However, there is less yelling and swearing—though rugby doesn’t involve much of that—but when you’re with small children, you’re always aware when you’re in a stadium full of people who are drinking, but women’s rugby doesn’t feel like that.
The spectator base for women’s rugby is more varied. Since we didn’t witness any of that when we were growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, I want them to see new role models.
In many ways, the way women were portrayed was pretty destructive, and I don’t want that. We live close to Harlequins, so I take them to watch a lot of visiting teams.
It’s fantastic that I take them to watch the England ladies. Fans and players are more approachable, spend more time with them, and it’s a wonderful experience for a child to speak with and take pictures of them.
When I looked a little deeper at women’s rugby from a worker’s viewpoint, I was startled by some of the stories I heard.
To put it mildly, I lean left politically, and I just felt that a lot of the material I was reading about rights and contracts was entirely false.
When Alicia Butcher had to crowdfund her medical care, it was just wrong. “How is it right that an elite-level player has to crowdfund for this?” tweeted Nolli Waterman at the time.
After that, I received a message from my neighbor Emma Lax, a marketing strategist, who I had never met in person.
She said she lived close by and asked, “I hear you’re involved in women’s sport. Do you want to meet for coffee?” We thus completed roughly five circuits of Twickenham Green together, and after those laps, we decided to form the Women’s Rugby Association.
To see what we could do, we gave Bill Sweeney a call. When we contacted the RPA to inquire about their actions regarding circumstances like Alicia’s, they informed us that they were currently unable to take any action due to time constraints.
You have no support system if you are a player for an Allianz Premier 15s club and are not from England. Nothing, not even advice. Nobody else covers the Red Roses save the RPA.
Furthermore, these females are required to sign contracts, but they have no idea what they are signing or even whether they have one at all.
Every Premier 15s club isn’t always following the guidelines for centralized contracts, and there are differences between the younger players entering the leagues and the more seasoned players.
Additionally, the players’ representatives only represent international players—they don’t represent the teachers and doctors who are working full-time jobs and training harder than they have ever done.
The differences between the contracts astounded us. There was a noticeable disparity between what certain players were entitled to and what others weren’t when we looked around the league and looked at a few different contracts.
I believe it’s amazing that anyone’s contract doesn’t include enough insurance or medical coverage for them to play a sport like this.
We will not be promoting equitable compensation. We’re not advocating for equality, but fundamental welfare requirements should be covered.
I know that things like medical care might be expensive, and the league isn’t as lucrative as the men’s. Furthermore, they aren’t always met, which is unacceptable.
Some players are unsure about their next move. In addition to striving to hold down jobs and deliver high-quality work, they have to deal with financial matters, invoicing, tax returns, and other challenging life situations.
These guys get paid so little for their work, and although I’m not arguing they should always get paid more, there are moments when you wonder if that’s minimum wage.
But it needs to be examined merely from a welfare standpoint. Women are curious about what happens during pregnancy as well, and things shouldn’t be that way.
It was all moving to me. During my player consultations, I was deeply touched by what I heard from some of the players.
In certain situations, I broke down in tears after learning that they were having trouble making ends meet. It was very much in the vein of “Oh my god, I see you with my kids, you’re an inspiration, I can’t believe how you live.” It was simply incorrect.
Not every issue can be resolved by us. However, since everyone claims they are powerless, we believed it was necessary to act.
We’re not taking on the RPA because we wanted to; rather, we’re doing this so that we can work together with them.
Polly Barnes Net Worth
Public knowledge of Polly Barnes’s’ precise net worth is lacking. Her estimated net worth is said to have decreased from $1 million to $5 million, nevertheless. Her lucrative profession has contributed to her projected net worth.
Polly Barnes Social Media
Instagram handle: @pollybarnes_
Facebook handle: Polly Barnes
Twitter handle: @pollybarnes_
What does Polly Barnes do?
As a Chief People Officer for the previous fifteen years, Polly has modeled and fostered the human capacities that yield outcomes in high-growth environments. empowering companies to establish people teams and strategies from the ground up and enabling them to make people decisions that are more objective and significant.
