Becky Essex

Rebecca Essex has made an unusual career move to the pack and appears as a lock or blind side flanker nowadays. Four members of her family have played the game, including sister Kathryn, her rugby guru.

Rebecca’s first representative honours were for England Students in 2004-05 after she took up the game when 20 and appearances for England Academy and A team followed from 2005-07 before she gained the first of her 22 full Test caps.

This year has been a vintage one for Rebecca with awards as England Players’ Player and Richmond’s Player of the Season. Her best memories, though, are the 10-3 win over New Zealand in front of a record 12,500 crowd at Twickenham in November 2009 and the 2010 World Cup final.

Grantham-born Rebecca was schooled in Horsham at Chesworth Junior and Millais School before she took A levels at Colliers College and a BSc in Psychology at Loughborough University. She now works as a primary school teacher in a special needs’ school at Linden Bridge, Worcester Park in Surrey.

Playing for England in Madrid and Canada are on her CV but Twickenham remains her top ground. Rebecca’s other sporting penchant is for athletics and hockey at which she figures at county level and before joining Richmond she was with Worcester from 2004-06. That’s where her favourite women’s player Karen Jones, a 32 times capped Number 8, plays the game. Tom Croft, the England flanker, is her other most admired rugby technician. She has been a vegan for the past nine years.

Statistics
Squad: Richmond
Position: Lock/Flanker
Age :28
Height :1.76m (5'9")
Weight :76kg (11st 13lb)
Caps :22