Join our Women's Rugby Academy
More than 20 England Under-20s and 10 senior England squad members have come through the women’s rugby programme at Hartpury, including Women’s Rugby World Cup winners Alex Matthews and Ceri Large. And many of our current degree students are already plying their trade in the Women’s Premiership, including Worcester’s Kelly Smith (studying a Physical Education and School Sport degree) and Lichfield’s Molly Morrissey (studying a Sports Business Management degree), who both play for England Under-20s. Hannah Jones, a full Welsh international and Scotland Under-20s player, Kristin Jones, are also Hartpury students.
And we’ve joined forces with Gloucester Rugby to create a Gloucester-Hartpury women’s rugby team, who play some of their home games at Kingsholm. Led by England women’s rugby legend, Susie Appleby, the team’s ultimate aim is to compete in the Women’s Premiership. A number of our degree students are part of this set-up alongside playing for our university level team in the BUCS leagues.
We will work with you to ensure you can be the best you can be on the rugby pitch and achieve academically, with supervised study and bespoke timetables on offer to elite level players. There is also a real emphasis on individual development and progression through the RFU performance pathway and we've forged strong links with both Worcester and Bristol.
As well as top level coaching, our elite players have access to performance services that can include physiotherapy, sports psychology, nutrition advice and strength and conditioning.
You don’t have to be playing at the highest level to be part of our university women's rugby programme though and all students have access to our exceptional sports facilities, from the cardio and power gyms to the six grass and two 3G pitches and the human performance laboratory.
In order for you to be selected onto the elite women’s rugby programme, you must first be applying for, or have already accepted, a place onto a university course. The elite squad is then selected through a series of trials held throughout the year prior to joining Hartpury.
