Alexandra (Alex) Matthews (born 3 August 1993) is an English

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player. She made her debut for England in 2011 and was a member of the winning

2014 Women's Rugby World Cup The 2014 Women's Rugby World Cup was the seventh edition of the Women's Rugby World Cup, and the sixth held in Europe. The World Cup Final took place on 17 August. All of the pool games for the World Cup took place at the Centre National du R ...

squad.

International career

Matthews first played for England in 2011. In 2014 she was one of the youngest members of the England

squad, having played in the final versus Canada. Matthews had returned from a hip operation just two weeks pre-selection for the tournament to win a place on the team. She played for the England 7s team, going semi-professional in 2013 and full-time in 2014 while completing her degree. In 2014 she was part of the training squad for the

2016 Olympic Games ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro d ...

but was forced to leave three months before the Games due to illness and injury. In 2017 she returned to England 15s as part of the

2017 Women's Rugby World Cup The 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup was the eighth edition of the Women's Rugby World Cup and was held in Ireland in August 2017. New Zealand became the 2017 champions by beating England 41–32 in the final on 26 August. Matches were held in Dubl ...

squad, playing in every game. England finished second in the tournament. Matthews was named Player of the Match for the side's game against the USA. She switched back to 7s again in 2018 to take Bronze at the

2018 Commonwealth Games The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth that were held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, bet ...

and is currently on a hybrid contract between England's senior team and the Great Britain women's rugby 7s team that was meant to play at the

2020 Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

, postponed due to COVID-19. Matthews was named RPA Women's Sevens Player of the Year in 2018. She played for England in the

2020 Women's Six Nations Championship The 2020 Women's Six Nations Championship was the 19th series of the Women's Six Nations Championship, an annual women's rugby union competition between six European rugby union national teams. Matches were originally scheduled for February and ...

, which the side won. She was named in the England squad for the delayed

2021 Rugby World Cup The 2021 Rugby World Cup was the ninth staging of the women's Rugby World Cup, as organised by World Rugby. It was held from 8 October to 12 November 2022 in Auckland and Whangārei, New Zealand. It was originally scheduled to be held in 2021, ...

held in New Zealand in October and November 2022.

Club career

Matthews joined Worcester Warriors in 2020 after the funding for the Women's 7s GB team was cut earlier that year. She previously played for Richmond alongside her older sister, Fran Matthews. In 2014, Matthews won the Premiership and Cup with Richmond.

Early life and education

She started playing rugby aged three at Camberley RFC, where she played minis rugby until she had to stop playing with the boys' U12 team, although she continued to train with the boys' team for a further two years. Her sister Fran Matthews also plays both sevens and fifteens rugby for England. Matthews attended Kings International College secondary school and Hartpury College before completing a degree in Sports Psychology at

Roehampton University The University of Roehampton, London, formerly Roehampton Institute of Higher Education, is a public university in the United Kingdom, situated on three major sites in Roehampton, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. Roehampton was formerly an e ...

alongside her rugby commitments. She worked as a part time carer between 2012 and 201

During the 2020 pandemic lockdown she spent time travelling the UK in her campervan.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Matthews, Alex 1993 births Living people Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England Commonwealth Games medallists in rugby sevens England women's international rugby union players English female rugby union players Female rugby union players Olympic rugby sevens players of Great Britain Rugby sevens players at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Rugby sevens players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Rugby union players from Camberley England international women's rugby sevens players Medallists at the 2018 Commonwealth Games