Matthews, Heard and George stay with Glos-Harptury

BBC News

16 hours ago

England duo Alex Matthews and Tatyana Heard and Wales' Lleucu George have agreed new deals to stay at Premiership Women's Rugby champions Gloucester-Hartpury.The trio have all been part of the club's three-peat of league titles between 2023 and 2025.Back row Matthews, 31, has 75 caps for the Red Roses and joined the club from Worcester in 2022.Centre Heard, 30, is one of Gloucester-Hartpury's longest serving players, moving to the club in 2017 and has 29 international caps since her debut in 2018.Fly-half George, 25, will go into her sixth season with Gloucester-Hartpury in 2025-26 and has 25 international caps to her name, after making her Wales debut aged 17 initially playing in the back row.The club have not disclosed the length of any of the new contracts.
Gloucester-Hartpury are undergoing a major change this summer following the departure of head of women's rugby Sean Lynn, who spearheaded the team's transformation into PWR dominance.Dan Murphy, who was appointed head of rugby in April, said "Alex is one of those rare players who is so consistent at every level of rugby she plays, she rarely has a poor game at club or international level."When you watch [Heard], you can see the athletic abilities she has and what that can bring to the team, but she's worked incredibly hard to develop other areas of her game over the last couple of seasons to become a more well-rounded player, and she's gone up yet another gear."Lleucu's game management and kicking ability are exceptional and a key part of why we've been so successful."