England World Cup winner Dow retires aged 28

England's World Cup-winning wing Abby Dow has announced her retirement from rugby at the age of 28.

Speaking exclusively to BBC Sport, Dow revealed: "I 100% could go to another World Cup, I could go on a Lions tour, I do appreciate they are big things that could have been on the radar.

"But I'm also so excited for different chapters of my life, I think I've given as much as I can in this form of the game, and I'm just ready for the next move."

Dow has revealed she plans on returning to a career in mechanical engineering, having completed her degree at Imperial College London in 2020.

"I personally believe that we are losing arguably the best right winger in world rugby at the peak of her powers, but we fully respect her decision to move on to a new chapter," said England head coach John Mitchell.

After her debut in 2017, Dow went on to score 50 tries in 59 caps, a number she delights in: "I quite like finishing on an awkward number with 59 caps. It's just awkward, and I think it's perfect."

She won seven Six Nations titles, including six Grand Slams, before lifting the World Cup in September with a 33-13 win over Canada on home soil.

There had been clues of Dow's intentions to quit the sport. After playing for Wasps, Harlequins and Ealing in Premiership Women's Rugby she did not sign for another club at the conclusion of the 2024-25 season when her Trailfinders contract ended.

She revealed to BBC Sport that she had initially not intended to play more than one World Cup but following the loss to New Zealand in 2022, as she sat in the changing room crying after the game she knew "I wanted to carry on".

Three years later as Dow sat in the Twickenham changing room as a world champion, she knew that her rugby career was now at a close.

"I'm really happy with my lot here - I think the opportunity I've had, it's been incredible, it's been brilliant," she said.

"I've had five years of being a professional athlete that I would never regret. But I'm also so excited for different chapters of my life. I think I've given as much as I can in this form of the game, and I'm just ready for the next move."

Dow's personality has shone through during her England career.

Off the pitch she became known for her crochet, making puns, and her brother's fancy dress costumes in honour of opposition teams at England games., external

At the 2025 World Cup, England fans were quick to adopt the crochet life that Dow lived in her down-time away from the rugby pitch, with the Women's Institute producing a "yarnbombing" artwork in Northampton before the Red Roses' pool-stage meeting with Samoa., external

Dow was blown away by the crochet love, but also by how two very different worlds could come together.

"I think it's really important in women's spaces that we don't stereotype," she said.

"You could stereotype quite easily the WI but actually they were a bunch of women who had an incredible amount of fun, who turned up to all the games, who supported whoever, the loudest cheerers, and really participated.

"It just shows that actually there wasn't a limit, and there isn't a limit for a young girl picking up a rugby ball for the first time. There isn't a limit for me as a professional athlete or soon to not be, and there isn't a limit for a woman who wanted to be part of the WI community.

"Seeing Northampton covered in what the WI did there, it was outstanding. Seeing Twickenham absolutely covered in crochet, it showed it was more than just rugby, it was more than women's rugby. It was about women and it was just incredible to have touched that ever so slightly in my way."

Having juggled the early stages of her rugby career with her studies, a life in engineering now beckons for Dow.

No job is lined up but she's in talks with different companies in a sector she describes as "so logical - it's literally a bit of me".

"I do love probably the automotive area, that sort of engineering where it's quite high performance," she said.

"You're trying to design the best, and you're trying to push innovation, and push yourself as well as the engineering, and learn new things - and learn things that aren't learned yet."

As she walks towards her new engineering life - naturally with a small crocheted World Cup - she says she won't turn her back on the game.

Having picked up a ball at Maidenhead at age five then moving to play for Reading, some of her core memories growing up are with sister Ruth and brother Chris playing on different pitches and then begging their parents "for the one pound to go and buy the chips at the clubhouse".

"I think with time, I will probably come back to the game, because I love the sport," she added.

"I just know that my professional career is done and I'm ready to love the sport in a different way. And I think that's the joy of rugby, is that you can love it in so many different ways.

It's not just there for you just to play, it's for there for you to watch. It's there for you to be a volunteer. It's there to be part of a family. I look at how it how it started for me when it was a family affair, and I hope in the future for me that it could be the same.

"So no, it's never a goodbye to rugby."