Emily Henrich: Ex-aerial skier turned Leicester Tigers’ United States recruit

Her early experience of rugby union proved to be the ideal grounding for a career in which Henrich has gone from being roped into the Orchard High School team coached by her mum, to becoming a High School All-American before going on to play for Dartmouth College, the United States national team and now English top-flight women’s side Tigers.

The 24-year-old is among Leicester’s summer arrivals before their second season in the Women’s Premiership – which starts against title holders Gloucester-Hartpury on Sunday.

“In middle school I was playing tackle football, American football, and my mum started coaching the high school team in my town and she offered to bring me out to some practices because they were low on numbers, low for bodies, and she thought I could hold my own in some of the contact drills,” Henrich said.

“I had a base line from when I was playing as a child, so I went and found I could outcompete girls at the breakdown and in tackles, so I started playing that year when I was 13 years old on the high school team and just stuck with it.”

And so, tackles and mauls went on to replace the more extreme-sounding triple-twisting double-somersaults of the freestyle ski world.

Not that Henrich still does not enjoy the same sense of exhilaration.

“You’re still chasing that sort of adrenaline high,” she said. “A jump in skiing, that feeling you get, is pretty similar to when you score a try in rugby or make a big play or make that big hit.”