The season following the Women’s Rugby World Cup is always an interesting one. Who’s retired? Who are the new up-and-comers? Who’s transitioned to coaching? But a new category is starting to creep into vision: Who’s playing abroad? At present, the U.S. has three high-level athletes playing in Europe and Australia, and we’ve caught up with all of them.

A veteran of three World Cups (15s and 7s), Emilie Bydwell is currently playing for London’s Saracens (11-1) in the Women’s Premiership, and fortunately, the outside center has been able to bill this season as a work experience. As a Serevi Rugby coach, Bydwell has not only been supported in her pursuit of Career Professional Development (she’s now a Level 200 coach), but has also seen firsthand how a club like Saracens runs its Academy and community foundation programs.

“The idea has been to maximize my rugby experience here and immerse in the culture,” explained Bydwell, who was also tasked with discovering how “the RFU and professional clubs run things, so I can bring back ideas, styles, what works, what doesn't work, and integrate that into my work with Serevi and USA Rugby programs.”

Serevi and Saracens are connected, so finding a club wasn’t an issue for Bydwell. However, she was pleasantly surprised that one of her coaches, Alex Austerberry, is a Talent Development Manager for women in the RFU, and her insight into the talent pathway has been beneficial.

But it’s not a one-way street; Saracens didn’t have to relax its standards when it added Bydwell to the roster. Playing outside center in 11 of 12 games thus far, Bydwell has scored two tries in the Premiership, and was recently invited to play with the Nomads, an international all-star team, in Scotland. The team, which boasted 765 caps among its members, defeated Scotland 43-10 on Jan. 3, and Bydwell added a try to her tally. Bydwell will glean as much as can during the remaining two games with a team that includes current internationals Maggie Alphonsi and Hannah Gallagher of England and Kerrie-Ann Craddock and Hannah Casey of Ireland.

Immediately after the season ends, Bydwell will head back to the United States and join the Serevi and USA Rugby crews at the National Development Summit in Chicago.

Bydwell isn’t the only U.S. rep in Europe; Collegiate All American Baylee Annis is also in England. The prop graduated from Norwich University in May 2014, but she wasn’t ready to choose a Women’s Premier League (WPL) team yet or look toward national team selection. Annis reached out to a group of Welshman, who regularly host the Midwest Thunderbirds on tour and have set up the WPL Twin Cities Amazons next year. They offered to host her for the season, and now Annis has been playing for Bristol (5-7) since September.

“The level of play here is awesome,” Annis wrote. “My teammates are such incredible players and many of them represented England, Ireland and Wales in the August World Cup. Their level of play is constantly high and intense. The whole team welcomed me so quickly, I'll be sad to go.”

Annis, normally a prop, has been playing hooker for the Premiership team, which is currently 4th in the standings. She’ll be with the team until early February.

“I've been really pleased with my playing time,” Annis said. “I've started at least half of the season and played over 60 minutes nearly every game since the first two weeks when I started for their second side.”

As for the future?

“I'm not sure yet,” Annis confessed. “I know I want to play for the [U.S.] national team, but I'm untethered to a location for a while. Glendale and Berkeley have intrigued me, but I'd be lying if I told you I wanted to stay within the WPL for a while. Seeing how other countries view the sport and play the game has changed my vision and given me a chance to add dimension to my game. I'm hoping for a Southern Hemisphere team next, or maybe Canada. Their styles are quite different from the U.S. Women's game.”

The USA Women’s game is something with which Deven Oswiany is familiar. A recently released USA 7s resident, Owsiany accompanied the 15s team to the World Cup, and then kept the travels going.

The 7s and 15s Eagle flew to Australia in late October to play with the Stars in the Central Coast 7s tournament. Owsiany then relocated to Sydney, and former USA 7s teammate Katie Dowty (who played a bunch of 7s there after her tenure with the Eagles ended) set her up with temporary accommodation and educated her on the lay of the land.

Soon enough, Owsiany landed a job with Hays Recruiting Agency on her six-month holiday visa as well as a beachfront rental in Coogee Beach.

Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania native has been busy training with the New South Wales Elite 7s team alongside Australia 7s players like Shontelle Stowers and Iliseva Batibasaga, with whom Owsiany is friendly thanks to the 7s World Series. Lots of training – including a day racing up the Cronulla beach sand dunes with 35 other players – dominates her schedule, but Owsiany has played in a handful of tournaments. NSW teammate Josie Bavatu invited the American to join the Sydney Fiji team at the Coral Coast 7s, and at the end of the month, Owsiany will head to the Darwin 7s, the “World’s Hottest Tournament” … because of the heat.

“The NSW squad had a round robin tournament with ACT [Australian Capital Territory] about a month ago where I was playing some flyhalf, which was fun,” Owsiany said. “I’m used to playing scrumhalf or hooker, so it was nice to have a little change-up. On January 18, the NSW squad will be travelling to ACT to have another round robin tournament and hopefully I can try out a little more flyhalf to learn a few more skills.”

Once the 7s season is over, Owsiany plans to play 15s for Sydney University, “and my roommate plays league rugby, so I think I might check that out while I’m here as well,” she wrote.

Owsiany is uncertain whether she'll extend her stay in Australia, but for these three players, opportunity is steering the boat. We'll keep updating on their stints abroad.