Gillian Ann Burns (born 12 July 1964) is a former

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 who represented

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

between 1988 and 2002, including when they won the

1994 Women's Rugby World Cup The 1994 Women's Rugby World Cup was the second world cup for women. It was originally scheduled to be held in Amsterdam, Netherlands (April 10–24) but was cancelled only weeks before. However, a replacement competition was organised around the s ...

. She also captained her country between 1994 and 1999. She was selected for England only one year after first playing rugby union. She went on to play in four World Cups, including the inaugural

Women's Rugby World Cup The Rugby World Cup is the women's rugby union world championship which is organised by World Rugby. The first Rugby World Cup for women was held in 1991, but it was not until the 1998 tournament that the tournament received official backing ...

hosted by Wales in

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

.where England lost to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

19–6. Burns was also appointed a

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) in the

2005 Birthday Honours The Birthday Honours 2005 for the Commonwealth realms were announced on 11 June 2005 to celebrate the Queen's Birthday of 2005. The recipients of honours are displayed here as they were styled before their new honour, and arranged first by the coun ...

for services to sport. One season after retiring from the England squad, Burns was asked to captain the first ever Women's World XV for their 2 test series in New Zealand. After retiring as a player, Burns was appointed President of the

Rugby Football Union for Women The Rugby Football Union for Women (RFUW) was the governing body for women's rugby union in England. As of 2014 the RFUW and Rugby Football Union, RFU combined to be one National Governing Body. The headquarters are at Twickenham Stadium, Londo ...

who helped administer the Women's game in England and also worked briefly as a guest commentator for

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

. Burns was the first woman to be made a Privileged Member of the RFU in 2012. She was inducted into the

IRB Hall of Fame The World Rugby Hall of Fame (formerly the IRB Hall of Fame) recognises special achievement and contribution to the sport of rugby union. The World Rugby Hall of Fame covers players, coaches, administrators, match officials, institutions and other ...

on 17 November 2014. , Burns is a teacher at

Range High School Range High School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form located in Formby, Merseyside, England. It was built during the early 1970s after a contracted period of delays and was necessary due to the increasing overcrowding at near ...

, she stopped teaching in 2016..

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burns, Gill 1964 births Living people England women's international rugby union players English female rugby union players Female rugby union players Rugby union number eights Members of the Order of the British Empire