Gloucester-Hartpury
RACHEL LUND - MAKING A DIFFERENCE ON AND OFF THE PITCH
Whether it is teaching someone how to brush their teeth again, or creating opportunities on the rugby pitch, Rachel Lund’s goal is to make an impact, writes Elise Hamersley.
The Gloucester-Hartpury centre and Worcester Acute Hospitals physiotherapist is one of the defending champions’ longest-serving players and has balanced her two careers with passion since joining the club in 2017.
After five years as a sports therapist at Hartpury College, Lund made the decision to switch to NHS physiotherapy over two years ago.
“There was more opportunity to make a meaningful difference,” the 29-year-old explained. “There is a satisfaction in rehabbing someone’s knee and helping them get back on a rugby pitch, but now I’m helping people that have had major medical surgeries reinstate quality of life, get them back to independence, life-altering things.”
Lund’s role on the field for the West Country outfit and her work in hospitals have more in common than you might think.
“In a nutshell, you have to be a really good motivator, an educator and coach as a physio,” she said. “You can take people from diagnosis right through to discharge.
“You see them every day, five times a week, spend time with their family.
“You get invested in people. Ultimately, you’re the person they build trust with at an incredibly vulnerable moment in their lives.
“Even something as simple as teaching someone how to brush their teeth again or brush their hair. That tiny piece of independence is really impactful.
“You take these stories and people and carry them with you.”
Carrying experiences from work into training is common at Gloucester-Hartpury, where the club is split between those who can call themselves professional rugby players through international contracts and those who have what the club calls ‘dual-careers’.
“Dual-careers acknowledges what we’re doing – trying to maintain professional rugby careers alongside another profession,” Lund said. “At Gloucester we’ve got police officers, teachers, NHS professionals.
“A whole group of people that finish a day’s work and come to train for three hours.
“It's hard work but I don’t ever call things like that a sacrifice.
“I don’t think I make sacrifices; I think I make choices based on my sport and that I love my job. I want to be able to do both for as long as I can.
“We do it because we love it.”
Lund grew up on an old dairy farm in Yorkshire and took up rugby at the age of six when her father took her down to Malton & Norton Rugby Club to watch her brother play.
“I started playing with a big group of boys,” she said. “There I met [England international and club teammate] Tatyana Heard when she came to play with us at Under 11s.
“When I turned 12, I moved around to various different rugby clubs in Yorkshire, basically wherever we could get a game and there were enough girls to put a team together.
“When I think about it now, we travelled phenomenal distances considering how accessible now women’s rugby is.”
“Playing with boys at first I found quite early on that I liked the idea of trying to prove a point, that actually I was good enough and that I can make good things happen when I got on the ball and for me that is something that has stayed with me as an adult playing in the Premiership.
“I love the idea that when my teammates give me the ball more often than not I can give them go forward and make a good impact.”
Having played rugby for over 20 years, Lund can see the progress in the women’s game and the importance of being a positive role model for those who were in her position.
“In terms of female rugby role models I wouldn’t say I had loads," she added.
“That’s very much changed. The accessibility young players have now to see female players as role models is worlds apart from when I was their age.
“That’s why it’s so important as players to take photos and sign autographs after games because that just never happened when we were kids.
“We never got to watch women play because it just wasn’t on our doorstep.”
The Cherry & Whites launch their campaign this weekend with an historic double header against Leicester Tigers in the first women's edition of the Slater Cup and are keen to maintain their crown.
“We know that now we’re Premiership champions, we’re going to have targets on our back and people are going to want to say they’ve beaten the league champions," she said.
“It was a bit of a fairy-tale season last year for us and a very special one.
“But that’s what we achieved last year. Because we tasted success we’re now more hungry than ever to back it up again with another win and another championship.”
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