MAGNIFICENT mum Emma Croker’s super year has been capped with another honour as the England rugby World Cup winner and her team-mates received the Team of the Year award at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year event.

The rugby team finished first, beating off stiff competition from Europe’s Ryder Cup golfers and the newly-crowned F1 champions Mercedes.

The England team beat Canada 21-9 in Paris to win the World Cup for the first time since 1994 after suffering three cup final defeats.

The 32-year-old wife of former Basingstoke RFC director of rugby James Croker was at the star-studded glittering ceremony at The Hydro, Glasgow – and the only mother in the team went up on the stage to pick up the award.

Croker, who lives in Charter Alley, said: “It was really surreal to win when you look at who we were up against.”

“It is great for women’s rugby and for women’s sport in general. I hope it will inspire others to follow in our footsteps.

“It has just been amazing since the World Cup, and this is really the icing on the cake for us.

“When you looked around at all the sporting talent in the arena it was just amazing.

“We were well received and we got a lot of congratulations after winning the award, which was very nice.”

She met a number of top British sportsmen and women, including Sir Chris Hoy, who won the lifetime achievement award on the evening.

Croker said: “It was nice to chat with Sir Chris Hoy, Tom Daley and many others.”

It continued an amazing year for the 32-year-old from Charter Alley, which peaked in August, when England beat Canada in Paris to take the world crown.

The team attended many events, including a visit to 10 Downing Street, before scooping the top team award last weekend.

Back on the rugby field, the wife of former Basingstoke RFC director of rugby James Croker, has now taken over as captain of her club side Richmond, where she plays as a hooker.

She is also hard in training ahead of the Six Nations, which starts early next year, in which France will be one of the visitors to Twickenham.

Croker said: “Now we are world champions everyone will want to beat us and I am sure as we won the World Cup in France, they will really want to win on our home soil.”

The PE teacher at Swakeleys School for Girls in Uxbridge admits that without her employer’s support this year, it would not have been possible to achieve what she did with England rugby.