Currently in her second season with Sale Sharks, Alba Capell expressed her comfort of living in Manchester alongside the pride she feels growing women’s rugby.
By the time Alba Capell was four years old, rugby had already chosen her. She doesn’t remember much from that beach tournament her mother played in, only that she spent the entire day passing a ball with a friend. The joy she felt in that moment stuck with her on the journey home.
She said: “I remember getting into the car and saying, ‘I had so much fun today, why can’t I do it every week?’.
Almost two decades later, that simple childhood question has led to a dream career including: international caps for Spain, a professional contract in England and increasing the visibility of the women’s game following the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup.
For Alba, rugby was never just a hobby, it was family. Both her parents played, as did her older brother, and although that was something you ‘didn’t see often back in the day’, these reduced barriers produced an environment where rugby was normal, inevitable some may say.
Growing up without role models
Like many women her age, Alba spent her early years playing with boys where she relished the opportunity to make new friends and develop her intensity. It was here that she met her longtime friend, Claudia Peña, who plays for fellow English side Harlequins, as well as Martina who accompanied her on her rugby journey.
“In my case it was fine’, she said. “I don’t think any girl has trouble saying that they enjoyed it, and I had the best time playing with the boys.”
At 15, the differences became too large and Alba found a new home at FC Barcelona within the women’s set-up, alongside Claudia and Martina.
She said: “It’s true that at some point it’s just too different between boys and girls. [In Barcelona] I had the best luck to be with two of my best friends, Claudia and Martina, all the way on my journey.”
The road to professional rugby wasn’t always smooth sailing, with reality soon hitting. The limited facilities and support, combined with a lack of female role models acted as a severe barrier to the top level.
At times, it felt like stepping backwards rather than forwards.
“My team was bottom of the league,” she admitted. “It was fragile and I didn’t want to go back there.”
Despite this, after five years at the club, improvements were made which saw the side reach new highs and finish top of the league.
More strikingly, however, was how little Alba knew about the professional women’s game.
Growing up in Spain, her role models were all men, and she was aware it was not a possibility for her to play in the men’s team, yet did not know where to find female role models.
“When I was little, I only thought about men rugby players as my role models because in my club there wasn’t a women’s team. I didn’t know what was next for me”, she said.
She watched the Six Nations without realising there was a women’s version. When she finally attended a women’s Six Nations match, she feels ‘awful’ about misjudging the women’s game herself.
She said: “I went on a trip to France to watch France and Ireland women in the Six Nations and I remember criticising them for being slower and not as fast as the men.”
Now, as an international herself, she laughs at these initial beliefs regarding the women’s games.
“How silly I was. I misunderstood women’s rugby for so long, and I was a woman.”
This replicates the sad reality for many women who are unable to see representation on the highest stage.
Body positivity and empowering strength
Alongside American superstar, Ilona Maher, Alba is keen to champion body positivity and ensure rugby is a safe space for women of all sizes.
Women’s rugby, she believes, offers something extremely powerful beyond the pitch.
She said: “We just have so much fun and grow strong and that’s so positive. I embrace that sort of body positivity because we’ve never really had that as women.
“I think women’s sports are powerful because we embrace our differences, our bodies, it doesn’t matter if it’s rugby or football – we’re just there to support each other.”
In a society dominated by unrealistic beauty standards, Alba insists that body positivity is no longer about ignoring insecurities, but rather shifting the focus to welcome the body we’ve been given.
“It’s wonderful to have a strong body that is able to perform at a high level,” she continued. “We should be confident about that.”
‘Dream’ move to England
Alba moved to the Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR) ahead of the 2024/2025 league season after a short spell in France.
Moving to the ‘most famous league in the world’ was all Alba had dreamed of after realising professional women’s rugby was a reality.
Signing her first Sale Sharks contract felt unbelievable.
She said: “I remember back in the days when I was still in Barcelona, talking
with my friends, like wouldn’t it be amazing to play in England. But it was just empty words at that moment.
“Who would have thought that a Spanish girl could go to the highest famous level league in the world. I couldn’t believe it when I first signed my contract.”
At Sale, Alba has discovered a world of rugby she could only imagine when she was four-years-old passing the ball at her mother’s tournament. Having access to professional facilities such as nutrition, personalised gym programmes and their own gym, is a stark difference to back home in Spain, and serves as a reminder that there is still so much growth needed.
Finding home away from home
Moving to Manchester at such a young age, Alba explains she first struggled with the idea of the ‘north’.
“For the first couple of months, I didn’t understand what was going on with the North. The team were all saying the North is everything, and I was like what’s the deal with it?”
However, having lived in Manchester for two years now, Alba acknowledges that there is ‘something special’ about the city. She expresses that the ‘togetherness’ of the team played a vital part in making Manchester feel like home.
“We’re not just teammates, we’re friends. We go for coffees, we go for everything”, she said. “My life now is them and that’s the thing that I appreciate the most.
“I’m just glad to have them in my life, because going to training and living my life far from home is so easy because I have those guys there.”
It was also here in Manchester that Alba came to the understanding that there is so much more to life than rugby. She has discovered the value of ‘switching off’, and how her childhood bubble of discipline and focus, can remain while still having fun off the field.
She said: “Once I started to move around other countries, I understood that yeah rugby is a big part of our lives, but it can’t be the only thing. I’m glad to know this now and integrate it into who I am.”
Alba admits that understanding this work-life balance has made her stronger both mentally and physically and, in-turn, improved her performances on the pitch.
“As athletes, we base our personality on how we perform, but we can actually have a lot of other things”, she said.
“You could be an amazing teammate or help people feel better. Or even this year I started to read, and it’s just those silly little things that are really helpful for us athletes because we’re not machines, we can’t perform 100% every day.”
Representing Las Leonas
This summer, Alba had the opportunity to represent her country on the biggest stage of all – the Women’s World Cup. Here, she represented Spain in front of more eyes than ever before.
For a nation without deep rugby traditions, simply qualifying for the tournament felt like a statement for the rugby landscape back home, for which there is so much ‘potential’:
“We’re here and we’re going to show you guys we deserve to be seen. We deserve respect, we deserve more attention, not just in terms of media, but also money.
“We’ve been working day and night non-stop for a whole year [to qualify], and I know what we’re capable of, we just need that trust from World Rugby and sponsors.”
It was on international duty that Alba realised she was becoming one the role models she never had as a young girl. She recalls when Spain travelled to Leicester to face England, and a young girl who was ‘around eight’ was brimming with excitement to see her after the match. This memory has changed the way Alba approaches fans after playing.
“She didn’t know who I was”, she recalled. “But it didn’t matter, she just saw a female rugby player and saw someone that she could be in the future.
“Now every time that I play somewhere and I see a young girl, I ask them if they play rugby, or tell them that it’s fine and it’s never too late to start.”
A tough group stage saw them face New Zealand, along with Ireland and Japan. The match against the Black Fearns was not about winning, but trying to ‘earn the respect’ of people back home.
Becoming the role model she didn’t have
When speaking about her experiences over the summer, Alba explains a story about a young girl in York who lived near their training complex. At first, the team were making friendship bracelets and Alba made one for the owner’s daughter as a token of appreciation for their hospitality.
The mother then informed Alba that she would be coming to the next group stage match with her daughter as a birthday present for when she turned seven.
“I remember giving her my shirt”, she recalled. “I was like, I want you to have it as a birthday present. Then I remember the mum texting me saying she wants to be Spanish now, she wants to play with you.
“It’s so inspiring, but also shocking that an English girl who didn’t know anything about rugby could know my and my teammates and feel that she wants to do the same as us.”
Alba admits this memory will ‘stay’ with her forever and that these tales are the ones that ‘make you realise you matter’.
The dark side of sport
Even as a role model to young girls, she is extremely open about the pressures of being a professional athlete. This season, she has struggled for game time at Sale Sharks and felt ashamed about telling her friends back home that she wasn’t playing.
She questioned whether she deserved to call herself a rugby player.
She said: “It’s hard when you’re not injured and you’re training well, but you still don’t get picked. Nobody really talks about that.”
Alba was keen to highlight these struggles on her social media to normalise these feelings and show people that it’s ok to put yourself first.
The solution came through a call-up to represent Spain’s sevens team in Nairobi, Kenya. Spain finished third in tournament, and although Alba prefers playing 15s, she acknowledges that this time away was a chance to ‘reset’ before the final third of the league season.