Laura Russell (born November 10, 1988) is a Canadian

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 it ...

player.

Rugby career

Laura and her sister

Kelly Kelly may refer to: Art and entertainment * Kelly (Kelly Price album) * Kelly (Andrea Faustini album) * ''Kelly'' (musical), a 1965 musical by Mark Charlap * "Kelly" (song), a 2018 single by Kelly Rowland * ''Kelly'' (film), a 1981 Canadi ...

, represented at the

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 ...

. They were also in the squad that toured

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in June 2014. In 2016, she was named the

Rugby Canada Rugby Canada is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in Canada. Rugby Canada was incorporated in 1974, and stems from the Canadian Rugby Football Union, a body established in 1884 that now governs amateur Canadian football a ...

Senior Women's Player of the Year. She took over the captaincy of the national team from her sister Kelly Russell. Russell also represents the national women's sevens team on the

Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour Working Group which was established on July 17, 2020. In 2022, Laura married long term partner,

Ray Barkwill Raymond "Ray" Barkwill (born 26 August 1980) is a retired Canadian rugby union player who played for a number of teams before ending his career at Seattle Seawolves of Major League Rugby where he helped win the inaugural title including scoring ...

. Barkwill also played for Rugby Canada from 2012-2019. In 2022, Russell was initially named in Canada's squad to the

Rugby World Cup The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb E ...

. She was later ruled out of the tournament due to an injury.

Awards and recognition

* 2018, Rugby Canada

Gillian Florence Gillian Florence is a Canadian rugby union player who has participated in five world cups (1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, and 2010). Starting out as a prop on the national team, she became one of Canada's top flankers. Florence first started playin ...

Award

References

External links

Rugby Canada Player Profile
1988 births Living people Canadian female rugby union players Canada women's international rugby union players Female rugby union players {{Canada-rugbyunion-bio-stub