Gloucester-Hartpury Women

Gloucester-Hartpury Women's Rugby Football Club are a English women's rugby union club based in Hartpury, Gloucestershire. They are the unified women's team of Gloucester Rugby and Hartpury University R.F.C. They were founded in 2014 and since 2017 they have played in Premiership Women's Rugby.

Gloucester-Hartpury Women
Full nameGloucester-Hartpury Women's Rugby Football Club
UnionGloucestershire RFU
Nickname(s)The Circus
Cherry and Whites
Founded2014 (2014)
Ground(s)The Hartpury Arena
Kingsholm Stadium
CEOJames Forrester
Coach(es)Sean Lynn
Captain(s)Natasha Hunt
Zoe Aldcroft
League(s)Premiership Women's Rugby
2023–231st (Champions)
First match
Gloucester-Hartpury 36–22 Worcester Warriors Women II
(Kingsholm Stadium, Gloucester)
13 September 2015
Largest win
Birmingham Moseley Ladies 0–95 Gloucester-Hartpury
(Billesley Common, Moseley)
11 September 2016
Largest defeat
Gloucester-Hartpury 0–62 Saracens Women
(The ALPAS Arena, Hartpury)
7 April 2018
Harlequins Women 62–0 Gloucester-Hartpury
(Twickenham Stoop, Twickenham)
30 March 2019
Official website
www.gloucesterrugby.co.uk/gloucester-hartpury-women-home

History

In 2014, Gloucester Rugby and Hartpury College came together to found a women's team to be run under the jurisdiction of Gloucester Rugby to capitalise upon the popularity of women's rugby in the area. Hartpury College already had a women's team competing in the BUCS rugby union leagues.[1]

In their first year, Gloucester-Hartpury only played friendly matches, some of which were at Gloucester Rugby's home ground Kingsholm Stadium,[2] whilst the Rugby Football Union decided which league to place them in. The team started with numbers as low as 4 and grew into a much bigger squad. The first captain was Stacy Payne (Hardie) and the vice-captain was Jessica Morgan. The team won the Junior Cup in their first season.

In 2015, the RFU placed them in National 2 South West.[3] In their first season they finished second in the league.[4] The following season, they were unbeaten.[5]

In 2017, to take advantage of an increase in women's rugby participation following England's victory in the 2014 Women's Rugby World Cup,[6] it was announced that Gloucester-Hartpury Women were awarded a franchise in the new women's top flight, initially known as Women's Super Rugby and now as Premier 15s, as part of a reorganisation of women's rugby in England, despite never competing in the Women's Premiership or Women's Championship and moving up two leagues as a result. This was controversial as, despite the franchises being awarded by an independent body,[7] Gloucester-Hartpury Women were awarded the position in top flight at the expense of Lichfield Ladies who had been competing in the top flight of English women's rugby for 15 years.[8] There was speculation that this was due to geographical considerations.[9]

In 2023, the team won the Premier 15s by beating Exeter Chiefs Women. By doing so, Gloucester-Hartpury became the first team based outside of London to win.[10] The final was held at Kingsholm Stadium, renamed 'Queensholm' for the occasion.[11] The final drew a crowd of over 9,600 spectators, setting a new record and tripling the finals attendance of the previous season.[12]

Club honours

Current squad

The Gloucester-Hartpury squad for the 2023–24 season is:[13][14]

Note: Flags indicate national union under World Rugby eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-World Rugby nationality.

Player Position Union
Amy Dale Hooker England England
Kelsey Jones Hooker Wales Wales
Neve Jones Hooker Ireland Ireland
Kathryn Buggy Prop Ireland Ireland
Mackenzie Carson Prop England England
Abbey Constable Prop Wales Wales
Oliva Constable Prop England England
Laura Delgado Prop Spain Spain
Ellie Gilbert Prop England England
Cerys Hale Prop Wales Wales
Maud Muir Prop England England
Evie Roach Prop England England
Ranni Samuda Prop Jamaica Jamaica
Sisilia Tuipulotu Prop Wales Wales
Zoe Aldcroft Lock England England
Carmen Castelucci Lock Spain Spain
Trudy Cowan Lock England England
Gwen Crabb Lock Wales Wales
Steph Else Lock England England
Sam Monaghan Lock Ireland Ireland
Liz Shermer Lock England England
Lola Whitley Lock England England
Sarah Beckett Back row England England
Georgia Brock Back row England England
Tabitha Copson Back row England England
Bethan Lewis Back row Wales Wales
Alex Matthews Back row England England
Jordan Russell Back row Jamaica Jamaica
Kate Williams Back row Wales Wales
Player Position Union
Bianca Blackburn Scrum-half England England
Natasha Hunt Scrum-half England England
Lleucu George Fly-half Wales Wales
Lizzie Goulden Fly-half New Zealand New Zealand
Charlie Mai-Manns Fly-half England England
Tatyana Heard Centre England England
Hannah Jones Centre Wales Wales
Kerin Lake Centre Wales Wales
Rachel Lund Centre England England
Abbie Priestnall Centre England England
Nel Metcalfe Wing Wales Wales
Lisa Neumann Wing Wales Wales
Cath Richards Wing Wales Wales
Ellie Rugman Wing England England
Kelly Smith Wing England England
Sophie Tandy Wing England England
Lucia Scott Fullback England England
Emma Sing Fullback England England
Mia Venner Fullback England England
Pip Hendy Utility back England England

Season Summaries

League Cup
Season Competition Final position Points Play-offs Competition Performance
2015–16 Women's Championship Midlands 2 2nd [15] 56 - No competition N/A
2016–17 Women's Championship Midlands 2 1st [16] 58 -
2017–18 Tyrrells Premier 15s 4th 60 Semi-final
2018–19 Tyrrells Premier 15s 5th 50 -
2019–20 Tyrrells Premier 15s 4th 39 Season Annulled
2020–21 Allianz Premier 15s 5th 50 -
2021–22 Allianz Premier 15s 6th 51 - Allianz Cup 5th place play-off
2022–23 Allianz Premier 15s 1st 79 Champions Allianz Cup 3rd place play-off
2023–24 Allianz Premiership Women's Rugby Allianz Cup

Gold background denotes champions
Silver background denotes runners-up
Pink background denotes relegated

Notable players

Below is a non-exhaustive list of former players for the club who have been particularly notable during their time at the club.

Rugby World Cup

The following are players who have represented their countries at the Rugby World Cup whilst playing for Gloucester-Hartpury:

Tournament Players selected England England players Other national team players
2021 17 Zoe Aldcroft, Connie Powell, Alex Matthews, Tatyana Heard, Maud Muir Wales WalesLisa Neumann, Bethan Lewis, Kelsey Jones, Gwen Crabb, Kerin Lake, Lleucu George, Cerys Hale, Hannah Jones, Cara Hope, Siwan Lillicrap (C), Sisilia Tuipulotu
United States United StatesMaya Learned

Premiership Women's Rugby Record

Results per opposition

The following table details the past performance of Gloucester-Hartpury against different opponents in Premiership Women's Rugby, between the 2017-18 and 2022–23 seasons.[19]

Premiership Women's Rugby
Opposition Span Played Won Drawn Lost Win% Points for Average PF Points against Best points difference Worst points difference
Bristol2017–20231180372.73%30527.7217046 (2018–19)-38 (2018–19)
DMP Sharks2017–20231090190.00%56156.16984 (2021–22)-14 (2018–19)
Exeter Chiefs2020–2023750271.43%17224.5716420 (2020–21)-39 (2022–23)
Harlequins2017–20231030730.00%22622.630853 (2022–23)-62 (2018–19)
Loughborough Lightning2017–20231031630.00%28828.828629 (2017–18)-19 (2018–19)
Richmond2017–2019431075.00%12631.55646 (2018–19)0 (2018–19)
Sale Sharks2020–20236600100.00%19432.336634 (2022–23)3 (2020–21)
Saracens2017–20231211108.33%25020.8343246 (2022–23)-62 (2017–18)
Wasps2017–2023930633.33%25027.7819864 (2022–23)-17 (2018–19)
Waterloo2017–20194400100.00%168426234 (2017–18)7 (2017–18)
Worcester2017–2023101000100.00%41341.38080 (2017–18)3 (2021–22)
Overall935533559.14%295331.75189184 vs DMP Sharks (2021–22)-62 vs Saracens (2017–18) & vs Harlequins (2018–19)
  • Data includes all regular season and play-off matches (semi-finals and finals).
  • The 2019-20 season is excluded due to it being abandoned because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • All fixtures added from 2017–18 to 2022–23.
  • Excludes Allianz Cup results.

References

  1. "Gloucester & Hartpury join for women's rugby". Severn Sport. 21 April 2014. Archived from the original on 25 August 2020. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  2. Burrows, Tom (5 July 2016). "Gloucester-Hartpury Ladies Team confirm fixtures for the 2016–17 season". Gloucester Rugby. Archived from the original on 25 August 2020. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  3. "Gloucester-Hartpury Women". Womens Club Rugby. Archived from the original on 22 July 2020. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  4. "The history of rugby through its competitions". Rugbyarchive.net. Archived from the original on 19 March 2018. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  5. "Lichfield Ladies left out of new premier women's rugby competition". ITV. 10 March 2017. Archived from the original on 31 March 2017. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  6. "Gloucester-Hartpury grab one of ten places as Women's Premiership rugby reinvents itself". Hartpury.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 16 September 2017. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  7. "Rugby Football Union announces 10-team Women's Super Rugby competition". ESPN. 28 February 2017. Archived from the original on 17 September 2017. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  8. "Lichfield Ladies left out of new premier women's rugby competition". ITV. 9 March 2017. Archived from the original on 7 November 2018. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  9. Tomas, Fiona (28 February 2017). "Women's rugby: Chronicle columnist Fiona Tomas examines the RFU's controversial changes to the women's game". Reading Chronicle. Archived from the original on 17 September 2017. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  10. "Gloucester-Hartpury 34-19 Exeter Chiefs: Cherry and Whites win Premier 15s final at 'Queensholm'". BBC Sport. 24 June 2023. Retrieved 24 June 2023.
  11. "Home of Gloucester Rugby becomes Queensholm this week". Gloucestershire Live. 19 June 2023. Retrieved 24 June 2023.
  12. "Gloucester-Hartpury triumph in enthralling Premier 15s final". The Daily Telegraph. 24 June 2023. Retrieved 24 June 2023.
  13. "Squad List". Gloucester Rugby.
  14. "WXV squads revealed". Gloucester Rugby.
  15. "Gloucester-Hartpury Women's RFC Table 2015-2016". www.englandrugby.com. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
  16. "Gloucester-Hartpury Women's RFC Table 2016-2017". www.englandrugby.com. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
  17. "Zoe Aldcroft and Antoine Dupont named World Rugby's players of the year for 2021". Sky Sports. 10 December 2021. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
  18. "England Women's Rugby World Cup final will be extra special for Gloucestershire". soglos.com. 11 November 2022. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
  19. "Gloucester-Hartpury Women's RFC Results". RFU. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
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