England women's rugby captain Katy McLean is living the dream

World Cup-winning England women's rugby captain Katy McLean admits she has still has to pinch herself to believe she is now a fully-fledged professional.

The fly-half, who skippered England to their first Women's World Cup triumph for 20 years, has turned pro as a Sevens player along with 11 other members of that squad. 

The RFU’s announcement that they were handing professional contracts to 20 Sevens players came a week after England's World Cup win, but McLean said the move had been on the cards for some time.

 "I am 28 years old and I’ve sort of played rugby as a hobby even though it was at the really top level because I've always had to work," McLean told Sky Sports.

"So that first day coming in last Thursday with my England kit on was surreal thinking that this is what we are getting paid to do now.

"I was working at school up until the Friday so I had three days to pack some stuff up and I got a bit of stick from the girls for being seven weeks late but its nice to finally get in there and get started.

"The wheels were in motion for this to happen pre-World Cup but obviously there was a massive focus from all of us on the tournament, so in terms of an announcement, it was always going to happen afterwards.

"The fact that we'd done so well and there was so much interest and some fabulous coverage from Sky really boosted that and added momentum to keep the women's rugby bandwagon rolling."

England clinched the World Cup in the summer after three successive final defeats to New Zealand.

And McLean, who has been part of the squad for the last three tournaments, admits she still reminisces about what England achieved earlier this year.

“It's still amazing when I look back at it,” she said. “Life has quietened down a little bit since - the first few weeks after winning was quite manic for a lot of us.

“But it's sometimes quite nice to have that little moment to think I am a World Cup winner to know that we have done it and put that to bed. It's not as raw as it was but it’s still pretty powerful to think about what we did.

“Sometimes it feels like it was only yesterday. Even coming back down to Guildford where we are based now as professional Sevens players brings back memories because it’s the facility where we were based before the World Cup.

“A year ago we were preparing for the Autumn Internationals and it's amazing to think how quickly time goes and how much we have achieved in that time as well.”