Special Guest "Maggie the Machine"

Margaret "Maggie the Machine" Alphonsi MBE (born 20 December 1983) has been confirmed as our special guest speaker at the 2015 Sports Awards Evening.

An English women's rugby player who plays as a flanker for Saracens W.R.F.C. and England she was Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year in 2010. Maggie was born in Lewisham, South London, and was also born with club foot, which she had to over come in order to play rugby.

She retired shortly after England's win of the France 2014 World Cup and now continues to coach and promote female participation and coaching in sport. She is also one of four Rugby World Cup 2015 Ambassadors along with Lawrence Dallaglio, Will Greenwood and Jonny Wilkinson and is an ambassador of several charities including Wooden Spoon, Sporting Equals and SKRUM which aims to give the youth of Africa hope for the future through rugby.

She has played in two XVs Rugby World Cups and in 2012 shared in a record-breaking seventh successive Six Nations title and a sixth Grand Slam in seven years. There was also the Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year prize in 2010 and the prestigious Pat Marshall award from the Rugby Union Writers’ Club, where she pipped New Zealand captain, Richie McCaw, to the gong to become the first woman to claim the prize in its 50-year history.