Infectiously joyous, Carson can talk for both her original and adopted homes, and you get the sense she’s always going somewhere. Last Sunday, she won her third Premiership Women’s Rugby title – a second with Gloucester-Hartpury after one with Saracens – and has joined England’s Six Nations squad to add to her 21 caps.
ADHD is one of a range of conditions covered by the umbrella term of neurodivergence, a difference in brain function from the wider population, estimated to affect around 15 per cent of people. Other neurodivergent conditions include autism, OCD, dyslexia and Tourette’s.
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This is despite lower rates of ADHD diagnosis in women than men, the product of long-standing stereotypes of a condition for misbehaving young boys and a lack of research around neurodivergence in women more generally.
“I once had a coach pull me aside for a serious chat and say, ‘You’re a great player, but you’re always the last person out and you just don’t give a shit’,” Carson explains. “’It seems like you’re rocking up and you think you’re better than everybody.’” A deeply anxious person who loves rugby, this just wasn’t true.
Carson won the 2023-24 PWR with Gloucester-Hartpury (Photo: Getty)Studies have shown neurotypical people struggle to read autistic people’s emotions, and tend to form negative first impressions of them. There are suggestions this expands to most neurodivergent people, who often feel most comfortable around those whose brains function like theirs.
Struggles with controlling emotional response are a common problem across neurodivergent athletes, more prone to lashing out or withdrawing completely.
She then contacted the head coach to apologise and explain, revealing her diagnosis for the first time and discussing how it impacted her. After receiving a short reply from the coach, she received no further help or safeguarding, before being told a few days later she had been dropped. She has since not been selected internationally at any level.
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Many of her difficulties come on the social side of the game – while Carson is one of Gloucester-Hartpury’s social secretaries, Ryall is quieter, more reserved. She doesn’t drink and actively avoids events where she could be singled out or forced to do something.
“I get worried that people think I’m rude or not paying attention,” Ryall says. “But it’s almost that I’m paying so much attention that I don’t have enough left in me to be able to talk, because everything else is like going at a million miles an hour, and something has to give.
This is a more pronounced difference between coaches, executives and players, rather than from player-to-player. But the men’s game could still learn a lot about building a neuroinclusive culture from their female counterparts.
“Rugby is almost a game for misfits. In a lot of sports, there’s a very strict mould of what you look like and what you are and who you are. We completely flip that on its head, and you don’t actually have to look a certain way at all. You can just be who you are.”
Meet UK sport’s first neurodiversity coach
A significant proportion of this is thanks to Jacob Kelly, better known as @adhdfatheruk on social media, a mental health worker with the NHS and ADHD advocate having been diagnosed aged 14.
Saracens are the first professional club to launch such a role, and Kelly’s work alongside women’s sports psychology lead Tiggy Teare is already widely praised by players he’s worked with. Former Exeter Chiefs and Bristol lock Aly Muldowney has recently started a similar position at his local club Stoke-on-Trent RUFC.
Kelly is a pioneer in neurodiversity provision in rugby (Photo: Alistair Durden)
Training on a quarter of the Shaftesbury Park pitch, a bus ride out of Bristol and about 200 yards into Gloucestershire, Dings is something of a neurodiverse Eden.
This had developed organically, with the club gaining a reputation for taking in players who struggled to find homes elsewhere.
“There’s no one way to teach anyone the same thing. It’s a lot of different understandings, different learning styles, clear communication, it’s a lot of people getting very overwhelmed very easily and it’s about knowing every single player within the team. We do a lot of debriefing.”
“My role can include working on the pitch, finding strategies around self-esteem, confidence, dealing with impulsive thoughts or mannerisms, negative symptoms of neurodivergence.
He also helps players pursuing diagnosis and medication, as well as work benefits and educational resources. Head coach Tom Lindsay, the former Wasps and Bristol hooker, has a complex job, but his openness and willingness to learn should set an example. Kelly suggests methods to get the best out of some of the neurodivergent players, including increased levels of praise.
A post shared by Jacob (@adhdfatheruk)
Neurodiversity coaching will appear an alien, perhaps redundant, concept to most, but you only have to watch Kelly work at Dings to realise there are the seeds of something vastly scalable and valuable here. His current dream is to work with the Red Roses and given their prevalence of neurodivergent players, this makes sense.
Somewhere within all this is the crucial point that catering for neurodivergent players, aside from being morally and legally necessary, can be hugely beneficial to both them and their clubs.
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“Neurodivergent players can bring something really special but you have to take the time with everyone to get the best out of them.”
“[Kelly] is very patient, and that goes a very, very long way for someone like me. I’m already kicking myself because I’m not understanding something. I know you’ve told me three times, but I don’t get it. If I could, I would. He’s very good at helping with emotion regulation.”
“I’ve been contacted by a few parents whose children are neurodivergent, and they left their clubs because they weren’t given enough support,” Kelly explains.
“There are a huge number of unbelievable neurodivergent players, so if you become the club that supports neurodivergent players, that’s a massive selling point. Imagine if we added some support everywhere – how much better could we be?”
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