Gloucester-Hartpury Women's Rugby Football Club is a women's rugby union club based in

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, England. They are the unified women's team of

Gloucester Rugby Gloucester Rugby are a professional rugby union club based in the West Country city of Gloucester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby, as well as in the European Rugby Champions Cup. The club was formed in ...

and Hartpury University R.F.C. They were founded in 2014 and as of 2017, play in the

Premier 15s The Premier 15s, currently known for sponsorship purposes as the Allianz Premier 15s, is the top tier of the women's English rugby union domestic league system run by the Rugby Football Union (RFU). The league was created mainly from teams in ...

History

In 2014, Gloucester 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

British Universities and Colleges Sport British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) is the governing body for higher education sport in the United Kingdom. BUCS was formed in June 2008 following a merger of British Universities Sports Association (BUSA) and University College Sport ...

rugby union leagues. In their first year, Gloucester-Hartpury Women only played friendly matches, some of which were at Gloucester Rugby's home ground

Kingsholm Stadium Kingsholm Stadium is a rugby union stadium located in the Kingsholm area of Gloucester, England, and is the home stadium of Gloucester Rugby. The stadium has a capacity of 16,115. It is sometimes nicknamed 'Castle Grim', after the estate where ...

, whilst the

Rugby Football Union The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is the Sports governing body, national governing body for rugby union in England. It was founded in 1871, and was the sport's international governing body prior to the formation of what is now known as World Rugby ...

decided which league to place them in. The team originally started with numbers as low as 4 and grew to a much bigger squad. The first captain was Stacy Payne (Hardie) and vice-captain Jessica Morgan. The team won the Junior Cup in their first season. In 2015, the RFU placed them in National 2 South West. In their first season they finished second in the league. The following season, they were unbeaten. 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, 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 The Women's Premiership, also called the RFUW Premiership was the top level of women's rugby union in England until 2017. It was formed in 1990 and was run by the Rugby Football Union for Women. It was superseded in the 2017/18 season by Premier ...

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, Gloucester-Hartpury Women were awarded the position in top flight at the expense of

Lichfield Ladies Lichfield Ladies Rugby Union Football Club is a women's rugby union club based in Lichfield, Staffordshire, England. They play their home matches at Cooke Fields and play in the Women's Premiership. They are also the women's team of Lichfield Rugby ...

who had been competing in the top flight of English women's rugby for 15 years. There was speculation that this was due to geographical considerations.

Current squad

The Gloucester-Hartpury squad for the 2022–23 season is:

Season summaries

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

References

{{Premier 15s Women's rugby union teams in England Sport in Gloucester Gloucester Rugby Rugby clubs established in 2014 Hartpury College