Hippo caught up with Ella Wyrwas to chat all things rugby
Words Harry Johnson
Images Millie Noble
.Ella, tell us about your rugby career so far, and how it all began
I’ve played rugby since I was five – I was always lucky to have really supportive coaches through minis rugby who went above and beyond to help me develop and that’s a massive part of why I still play now. I had early success with Saracens which culminated in winning the Premier 15s in 2018 whilst representing England u20s.
My years at Hartpury College were very defining for me, teaching me how to really push myself and giving me a glimpse of life as a professional athlete, something that I definitely wanted to pursue.
You have fairly recently overcome injury, how was that?
That's right, I ruptured my ACL and LCL during my first season at Loughborough Lightning in 2019. I had to have two operations. I had also fairly recently transitioned from a centre to scrum half and felt like I was just properly finding my feet in my new position at the time, so was gutted to be out of action for 18 months.
Obviously COVID 19 postponed much of your season whilst you were injured. Did lockdown effect your rehab?
So Covid-19 came around the stage in my rehab that I was getting back into running. It actually ended up being a great opportunity for me to properly focus on my fitness and put myself in a strong position going into 2020/21 preseason.
It’s quite easy to get out of the loop when you’re out injured for so long, so when I was able too I took up coaching the Women's Team at the University of Nottingham to help me keep developing my knowledge of the game.
You are now back from injury and playing for Lightning, how is it all going?
Since returning from injury, I’ve been balancing my time between playing for Loughborough Lightning, studying Biology at the University of Nottingham and working part time. My schedule is pretty hectic and it’s quite overwhelming sometimes, but I’ve got high aspirations in both my rugby and academics, so it’s got to be done.
