Daniel James Hipkiss (born 4 June 1982) is a retired

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 won 13 caps for between 2007–10, including the

2007 Rugby World Cup Final The 2007 Rugby World Cup Final was a rugby union match, played on Saturday, 20 October 2007 at the Stade de France, Saint-Denis, Paris, to determine the winner of the 2007 Rugby World Cup. South Africa beat England 15–6. Having also won the 19 ...

. Hipkiss played 130 times for

Leicester Tigers Leicester Tigers (officially Leicester Football Club) are a professional rugby union club based in Leicester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1880 and since 1892 plays its hom ...

between 2001–11 before moving to

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

prior to retiring in May 2013. Principally an outside centre Hipkiss also played inside centre, and earlier in his career on the wing.

Career

Early life

Born in

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

he attended

Hartismere School Hartismere is a state funded co-educational day school for scholars aged 11–18 in Eye, a town in High Suffolk. The headmaster is James McAtear who joined the School in 2006. In 2009 the school changed its status to become a Foundation School, ...

Eye, Suffolk Eye () is a market town and civil parish in the north of the English county of Suffolk, about south of Diss, north of Ipswich and south-west of Norwich. The population in the 2011 Census of 2,154 was estimated to be 2,361 in 2019. It lies ...

and played club rugby for

Diss Rugby Club Diss Rugby Club is an English rugby union team based in Diss in Norfolk. The club runs three senior teams, a veterans side, a ladies team called Diss Vixens and a full range of junior teams. The first XV plays in London 2 North East - a league ...

before attending

Uppingham School Uppingham School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils 13-18) in Uppingham, Rutland, England, founded in 1584 by Robert Johnson (rector), Robert Johnson, the Archdeacon of Leicester, who also established Oa ...

, where he was captain of the firsts. He was in Farleigh house.

Beginning at Leicester

Having overcome a career-threatening injury to his left knee in November 1999, Hipkiss made his first start for the Tigers' U21s against Leeds on 9 November 2001, scoring a try on his debut. He was called into the first team squad for summer training in 2002 and had his Premiership debut away at Leeds that year. Hipkiss was one of five Leicester players called up for the 2003 IRB U21 World Cup. He was chosen for the

England Sevens The England national rugby sevens team competes in the World Rugby Sevens Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens and the Commonwealth Games. England's best finish in the Sevens Series is second place, which they have achieved four times, most recently i ...

squad in 2004. He quickly became a regular member of the successful Tigers 2002–03 U21 team, and captained a Leicester side in the 2006

Middlesex Sevens The Middlesex Sevens was a Rugby Sevens tournament held annually at Twickenham stadium in London, England until 2011. It was first held in 1926, and started by Dr J.A. Russell-Cargill, a London-based Scot.Bath, ''Scotland Rugby Miscellany'', p82 Th ...

at Twickenham.

Breakout season and World Cup

Initially Hipkiss struggled to break into Leicester's starting team before playing twelve times in the 2005–06 season. The following year was to be his breakout year playing thirty games for Leicester and being named Tigers Players' Player of the Year in 2006–07. That year he won his first Premiership medal, starting the final as Leicester defeated

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 ...

. Hipkiss made his debut on 4 August 2007 in a 62–5 win against at

Twickenham Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the boroug ...

in a warm up test for the

2007 Rugby World Cup The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 2 ...

. He was named in England's 2007 Rugby World Cup squad and played in group stage matches against and . He was not involved in the quarter-final but replaced an injured

Josh Lewsey Owen Joshua Lewsey MBE (born 30 November 1976) is an English former rugby union player who represented England and the British and Irish Lions. Lewsey is a former British Army Officer. Background and early life Lewsey was born in Bromley, Lo ...

before half time in the semi-final win over . Hipkiss was a substitute for the

against and replaced Jason Robinson in the second half as England lost 15–6.

Injuries and 2010 title win

Returning from the World Cup Hipkiss played regularly for Leicester but missed January with a groin injury and subsequently was left out of the England Squad for the

2008 Six Nations Championship The 2008 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2008 RBS 6 Nations because of sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the ninth series of the rugby union Six Nations Championship, the 114th series of the international championship. Fifteen ...

. Hipkiss started both the 2008 Premiership Final against

Wasps A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. T ...

and the 2008 Anglo-Welsh Cup Final against

Ospreys The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...

which Leicester lost. On 20 May 2008 he was selected for England's squad to play against , however he was injured in the Premiership final with a fractured cheekbone. This injury meant Hipkiss missed the tour to New Zealand. 2008–09 saw the Tigers feature in two finals with Hipkiss again starting both. He played 12 as Leicester beat

London Irish London Irish RFC is a professional rugby union club which competes in the Premiership, the top division of English rugby union. The club has also competed in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, the European Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup. While ...

10–9 in the 2009 Premiership Final and again the next week as Leicester lost the

2009 Heineken Cup Final The 2009 Heineken Cup Final was the final match of the 2008–09 Heineken Cup, the 14th season of Europe's top club rugby union competition. The match was played on 23 May 2009 at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh; this was the second time that the ...

to Leinster 19–16. Hipkiss' form in these matches saw him start both summer Tests for against . He played in the 2009 Autumn International against , in the centre with former Tigers clubmate Ayoola Erinle his partner in both 2009 finals for Leicester. During the 2009–10 season, Hipkiss suffered an injury midway through the season, but returned to play for Tigers' A-league side in their semi-final against the Saracens' A-league side. He scored a try, and the team won 23–11. He went on to score a further try in the final, where the team won the 'A' league. He continued his streak of tries when playing as a substitute in the 2010 Premiership Final, again against

Saracens file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century Germany in the Middle Ages, German woodcut depicting Saracens Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings, to refer ...

. Tigers went one point behind four minutes from time, and Hipkiss wriggled through an attempted tackle from the retiring Glen Jackson to score the winning try, to leave the game at 33–27.

Bath

Hipkiss joined Bath on a 2-year contract from the 2011-2012 season. After a two-year spell with Bath a shoulder injury forced Hipkiss to retire in May 2013.

Post career life

After retiring from rugby Hipkiss worked in a professional kitchen as a chef before training to become a project manager in the building trade.

References

External links

*
Leicester Tigers profile
* * *
Dan Hipkiss Blog, Living Rugby
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hipkiss, Dan 1982 births Living people English rugby union players Leicester Tigers players Bath Rugby players Rugby union centres England international rugby union players Loughborough Students RUFC players Rugby union players from Ipswich