Heather Cowell
Heather Cowell
Harlequins player and studying for her accounting qualifications
I loved all sports as a kid and would participate in every after-school club possible, cricket, rugby, football, you name it, I would play it.
Being from Twickenham, I was brought up in a rugby environment, my primary school being less than 100m away from the home of England rugby, Twickenham Stadium. Rugby was a big part of my family growing up, my mum worked for the RFU, both brothers played and my dad a volunteer managing the ball boy team. It was safe to say there was no getting away from not playing - I played at school and in the minis at London Scottish from around the age of 8.
I loved the weekends with my dad and brothers in the mud and cold, we were extremely competitive and were always wanting to win.
At the age of 7, I started gymnastics, and this quickly became my world. Training was increased from one day a week to 4/5 times a week, discipline and hard work was instilled from an early age – and I loved it. I competed in my first world championships for Great Britain at the age of 11 in Canada, Quebec.
At the age of 12, girls can no longer play rugby with the boys. I had a decision to make. Do I continue to play rugby without my brothers and find a new club, or do I continue with gymnastics and no longer play rugby? Unfortunately in 2008, there were limited options for girl’s rugby, and it was not something that was popular. The idea of having to find a whole new club and not being able to play with my twin was extremely sad.
I chose gymnastics.
I had a fantastic career in gymnastics, was able to travel the world and compete at a high level for many years. My favourite achievements were winning the Junior World Championships (2013) in Bulgaria and winning the Senior European Champion Team Event (2014) in Portugal.
I attended the University of Birmingham where I studied Mathematics and Sport Science. In my first year, I continued to juggle Gymnastics and studying, other than supporting my brother (who was playing for England 7’s at the time) and watching the Six Nations/World Cups on TV, rugby was not really a part of my life anymore.
Moving away to University presented some challenges, I found it extremely difficult to manage the gymnastics alongside my studying. I was away from University for many weeks in training camps and competing in the US so found it difficult to dive into the ‘University experience’ when I was hardly there, and as a result I was slowly falling out of love with sport. I had reached my goals in gymnastics and was hungry for a new challenge…
I got chatting to a someone on my course about rugby, she suggested I come down and try it for an evening. Something I have always loved to do is just throw a ball about in the park with my brothers so if it were anything like that, I knew I would love it. After a few more nudges from my friend, I showed up on a Monday night, very excited and a little nervous, not knowing what to expect as I had never played rugby as an adult. Very quickly, I knew that I would be returning.
Everyone was extremely welcoming, the set up was very friendly and lots of fun, I had loved it just as much as I did when I was a kid back at London Scottish. I started to attend fixtures with the team and enjoyed the Wednesday game days with the teams, my competitive nature soon returned.
I love sport and it has always been my release, and this was exactly what I needed having found it difficult to get into the University experience.
Not only was the rugby great, but the community of people involved in the club was amazing. The club consisted of so many wonderful people, from both the women’s and men’s section. Being part of a team was not something I had ever really experienced properly as an adult, and I bloody loved it. People coming together to play a game they all love, support each other and have fun together, what is not to love?
The “rugby girls” became my group of friends at university – we trained quite a lot at University so naturally spent a lot of time together, as well as the Wednesday away days and sports nights that came with it. I continued to play throughout my 2nd year and 3rd year and joined the nearest premiership club, Worcester Valkyries and got my premiership debut. The facilities and coaching at Worcester were incredible and I was able to train with some really experienced players, learning a lot but knowing I had a long way to go. I was able to get a taste of the highest level of women’s rugby and it was something I thoroughly enjoyed however just I was getting my teeth into it; I broke my hand quite badly and this stopped me playing for quite a while. I was able to finish off the University season winning the BUCS league, and it was a great way to finish University with some of my best mates.
I moved back home to Twickenham having finished my degree and I remember getting a call from Gary Street, asking if I would like to come down to Harlequins and try it out. I was ecstatic.
I had not really thought about playing for another premiership club since moving home because I was set on the idea of taking a break from sport and going travelling. This was something I said I would always do once I finish gymnastics and had booked to go 1stJan 2018.
I went down to Harlequins and was extremely excited to be welcomed into such an experienced and successful squad. The facilities and professionalism within the club was brilliant and I was thrilled to be a part of it. I remember my debut was Wasps away where we managed to grab the win and I even got a try; it was a pretty great day! I continued to play for a few months and then I went away for 6 months…
Whilst I did miss sport, I came back with a refreshed motivation and raring to go (with a nice tan too), I was ready to give my all to sport again and I was excited to be given the opportunity back into the Quins set up. I was able to really throw myself into training this time round and quickly became motivated to be better and learn from the more experienced players in the squad.
I found it useful having my gymnastics background, being such a highly conditioned sport I had lots of physical attributes which I was able to transfer into the sport. However, being part of a team is something I have had to learn whilst playing rugby. I have found this one of the most useful skills in my day-to-day life. The ability to be part of a team, utilise your strengths to counter others weakness and vice versa, is a skill that I feel is important and something that has helped me in my work too.
I have so many memories that I could share of my time with Quins, mainly good but some bad... Losing in the premiership final last year is probably my pit of my career, albeit a great achievement to get to the final, I was devasted not to take the title with it being my first premiership final. However, from that loss the squad grew closer and stronger together which has helped us build into this season, and fingers crossed we can finish on top this year.
My favourite moment in a rugby shirt has to be playing in the Big Game at Twickenham, Quins vs Leinster where we won 47-26 in front of a record-breaking crowd.
It was amazing to be a part of this historical game and to do it in my hometown in front of so many family and friends was special. I have loved seeing the development of the game over the 5 years I have been played and I hope that the game continues to grow in this fashion.