Origin Stories #2 Gwennan Hopkins

Getting hit in the face taught Gwennan Hopkins to be patient. Winning a taekwondo world title taught her not to rush things. Weightlifting gold helped power her rugby. And turning down England for Wales? Well, that was just the right thing to do.

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Getting hit in the face is rarely, if ever, seen as a good thing, especially when you’re the recipient, but then Gwennan Hopkins is different gravy. The twenty-year-old Welsh backrower has more strings to her bow than even the most prolific archer, and with every additional moment you spend in her company, another skill, talent, curiosity or achievement gets uncovered. 

But we’ll start with the one that saw her take punches to the dome and which gave her the mindset she needed to become a full Welsh rugby international aged just nineteen. “Taekwondo is massive on discipline,” explains Gwennan, of the sport she started aged five. “When you get hit in the face you have to learn about controlled aggression, because if you just go back and hit them and go crazy in
the first ten seconds of the fight, then you have to defend for minutes, and it’s impossible. You have to be patient.

“Actually,” she considers, “the biggest lesson from taekwondo came from winning. I competed in World Championships when I was twelve, and I trained really hard for it, and when I won, it was great. I got up on the podium, loved it, it was incredible. It was everything I wanted, but then I walked off the podium and I just remember thinking, ‘that’s it, so what do I know?’. 

“I really struggled with that,” she concedes, “so I think that the lesson I took to rugby, was just not to rush into things.”

So much so, she chose to be patient in rugby, even when her country came calling. “I was invited into the Wales team two years before I got my first cap, but I told them I wasn’t ready,” she says. “And then I got invited in last year, and I finally felt ready and I enjoyed the journey. I had the best first cap of my life! And it was just an incredible day. I remember being on the field and thinking, ‘I am so grateful, and I’m so glad that I waited to get my first cap until I felt ready, because it was just like a dream come true’.”

A 36-5 defeat to Ireland might not have been the best result, but delivering the ‘5’ for Wales with a debut try, did soften the blow. “It wasn’t great for the team, it was a pretty bad defeat for us,” says Gwennan, who came on with the game effectively lost, “but in some ways, selfishly, it actually helped me out, because it wasn’t a very close game, so the pressure was kind of off. I could just go on and go one hundred per cent, so it was a really good game to be a part of in that sense.”

Whether it’s a slip of the tongue or not, given Gwennan’s sporting pedigree, she’s one of the few that can claim to have a ‘best first cap’ given she’s represented her country at three sports. In taekwondo, as well as the world crown, she took five British titles from the seven championships she competed in. 

Rugby was already on the radar, having followed in her older brother Mefin’s footsteps and started at local club Llandaff, aged four. “When my brother got selected for Cardiff Schools rugby, at under-11, he went on a tour to Ireland, and I thought that was really cool, so I wanted to do it too and I did [two years later] – I was the only girl that was selected for Cardiff Schools in my year. 

“That was the first time where I thought, rugby was what I wanted to do,” she continues. “There were no professional contracts in Wales then, but I’d still always tell my parents that I was going to be professional rugby player…”

But, there was another sport to conquer first. “I went to Eistedfodd [the Welsh festival] and there was a random stand with different exercises: climbing machines, bikes, and a weightlifting station. 

“This was the first time I’d really seen Olympic weightlifting, so I had a go, and the lady told my mum, ‘Gwennan’s not too bad, she’s got it straight away’.”

Weightlifting arrived at just the right time. “When you’re thirteen in Wales, you have to stop playing rugby with the boys, and start playing with the girls, which I struggled with a lot because I didn’t want a new team, I liked the team I was in. 

“So, mum said, ‘Okay, fine. Well, if you’re not doing rugby right now, or to make the transition easier, let’s just go into weightlifting, see how you like that’. And then I ended up doing both…”

Naturally, a Welsh championship followed, and she was quickly lifting some serious tin. “Before my 13th birthday, my goal was to deadlift 100kg, and, literally, the day before my birthday, I did it,” she says. “But when I was fifteen, I probably did around 80kg in clean and jerk, and then about 60kg in snatch.”

And these three sports weren’t the sole focus either. “I mean, those are the three I took seriously,” she says, “but I also did netball, hockey, football, you name it, I tried it. I even did walking at one point, you know, competitive speed walking?

“Ridiculous,” she adds of her teenage schedule. “I was always super busy, sometimes I’d have training before school. For example, on Fridays, I’d have hockey before school, go to school, and then go straight to weightlifting. And then from weightlifting, I’d go to rugby in the evening, then next morning I’d wake up at half seven to go back to weightlifting on Saturday. I’ve always been silly with my sports.”

Competition runs deep in the family. She talks about her mum, Anwen, battling injury in the run-up to a marathon, unable to train, but still deciding to do it, and complete it too; then how she chose to pick up rugby aged 43, and got so into it, she helped launch a new rugby club. She still plays now, aged 51. Even the gym we visit for the shoot, a proper lifting gym, is one of her mum’s favourite haunts.

The same spirit resides in Gwennan, whose ‘strings’ aren’t just sporting ones. “I used to compete a lot with acting, [at Eistedfodd],” she explains. “There’s loads of categories, but you basically get given a script and then there’s like a ten-minute window and you have to either produce or act in it, and then go and compete against people all over the country. And it’s like a week over summer. It’s really fun. 

Rugby remained at the forefront, quite specifically being the very best at it, which meant enrolling at, Hartpury College, aged sixteen. “There was no pathway in Wales there was nothing except the senior team,” she says. “That’s why I went to England in the first place, then I got offered to play in the English pathway, and I thought, ‘you know, I’ve come to England to get the best  of the best, it’d be silly for me to turn it down’, so I went for it. I just wanted to take rugby as seriously as I could.”

Being in the English pathway was ironic, especially considering even mastering the language was one of the first hurdles she had to overcome. “I’ve always done my education in Welsh, so English is my second language, and I only really started speaking it daily when I went to Hartpury,” she admits. 

Cardiff isn’t known for being a hotbed of Welsh speakers in the same way as other parts of the country, but Gwennan’s life was very much lived within a community where Welsh was the first language. “Yeah, up in north Wales, they pretty much only speak Welsh, and then down the border, and in the west it’s the same, but there’s small [Welsh-speaking] communities in Cardiff,” she explains. “Where we live, and a lot of my friends live as well, there’s quite a few Welsh-speaking people; that’s all I’ve known, speaking Welsh is all I’ve ever done. 

“My coach of Llandaff spoke Welsh, Taekwondo and weightlifting, I did that with my school friends who spoke Welsh; I went to Welsh schools… 

“A language barrier was definitely something I struggled with a little bit,” she admits, “it was the first time where I had to operate in English. I was on the phone to my parents after the first week [at Hartpury] saying ‘my jaw hurts’ [from speaking English].

“If I’d go home for half term, when I came back for those first few days, I’d struggle with the English, then I’d fall back into it, and it became a habit again.”

Whatever the standard of her English, her rugby did the talking and Gwennan – qualifying through an England-born grandparent – was on the Red Rose radar. “I got selected for England,” she explains, “so I was in that England pathway briefly, which was a bit scary.”

Taking part in training sessions and internal games, Gwennan caught the eye enough to get selected for age-grade Six Nations. “I got selected for England under-18s, and then a few months later, they announced it was going to be the first under-18 Six Nations which, obviously, Wales would be involved in. 

“And I had to basically choose,” she explains. “It was either play a game against Scotland for England or go for trials, on the same weekend, with Wales.”

Even though a guaranteed cap was on the line in the pathway for the No.1-ranked rugby side in the world, she couldn’t do it. “I had to tell England, ‘I’m really sorry, but I have to play for Wales’. 

“Logically, it may not make sense,” she admits, “I had a conversation with my college coach, and he said, ‘you’re basically leaving the best pathway in the world’. 

“And I was starting for them as opposed to trialling for Wales, who had never had an under-18 side before – so you’re kind of walking into the unknown. But, if I’m being honest, it was always going to be Wales. It always has to be Wales. 

“I just remember thinking, could I stand there singing the English national anthem in Wales, while facing all of my friends and the people I grew up with? I was like, ‘No, I can’t do that’. 

“I was risking it all,” she adds, “because there could have been a chance that I wasn’t selected for Wales, and I’d already left England, so it was definitely a bit of a risk. But for me, it was definitely worth it.”

Her parents, Anwen and Morgan, equally proud to be Welsh, allowed Gwennan to come to her own conclusion. “They’re really supportive, it was always whatever I want to do,” she says. “They’re like, ‘amazing’, but I think they were quite glad when I told them I can’t play for England over Wales.

“Yeah, we’re a pretty passionate family,” she says of her family’s love for their country. “Like, I’m pretty sure my dad has dragged me and my siblings to every castle possible in Wales, I know all the Welsh history – Dad likes to keep us updated – so we’re very Welsh as a family.”

Both parents work in television, Anwen a scriptwriter, Morgan an actor/director, both with a decent portfolio of Welsh TV work. Similarly, Gwennan’s passion for television, production, and even having a mentor in the world of content production, also stems from parental passion. “Dad was in Tracy Beaker,” says Gwennan, referencing the BBC kids’ sitcom. “And I loved Tracy Beaker, a little bit too much – I think I was banned at some points from watching it.”

Not that her dad had anything to do with her liking the show. “Yeah, I loved it, but I didn’t realise dad was even in it until he pointed it out,” she admits. “I was watching it one day and Dad said, ‘Do you know that person on screen?’ I’m like, ‘no?’ ‘That’s me.’ It just blew by mind!

“Dad did Doctor Who years ago too,” she continues, “I’ve been on the set down in the bay at Cardiff when Dad had to pick up the scripts, and it was the four of us siblings all running around seeing things from other shows like Sherlock – which was my favourite – that were also filmed there.”

Those memories have clearly inspired Gwennan. “I like to speak to my dad about making stories,” she says. “So sometimes we’ll have an idea for a film or a TV show, and we’ll talk about it for ages, and then they [Mum and Dad] are like, ‘right, you have to make it now’. They definitely push me to do different things like that, they want me to figure it all out for myself, to push myself to do these things.”

Gwennan isn’t afraid to push. Whether it’s people (back in rugby or over in taekwondo), weights, or just her own limits, which she’s yet to discover, hence her continual drive on all fronts. The fact she’s deaf in one ear, and partially deaf in the other due to perforated ear drums is so irrelevant to Gwennan that she only mentions it an hour or two after we meet, when the fire alarms in the studio are being set off by the smoke and spark machine we’re using for the photography. In fairness to her, none of us can hear either as the alarm shakes the warehouse to its core. 

“I’ve got perforated eardrums, which means I basically have holes in my eardrums: me, my younger brother and my mum all have it, so we’re all deaf partially,” she says. “We all have hearing aids, which is kind of normal to me, if that makes sense. It’s not something I tell people because I’ve always been deaf but it definitely does come with its challenges, especially in rugby.

“Around lineouts, when you have to make a huddle and call a lineout move, I never hear it, so I just kind of hope for the best if I’m in a lineout.

“But my team-mates are great about it, especially the younger ones that know me really well. Sian Jones is scrum-half and I play number eight, so we have a lot of connection in the back of the scrum and we’ve kind of made our own sign language around the scrum. They also like to make fun of me as well, so like Maisie Davies, for example, is one of my best friends in the team, if I don’t hear her, she goes, ‘oh, dial up, come on’.”

Another string, this time literal strings, sits in a musical corner of the Hopkins house. “I had a few lessons on the harp,” she says, explaining the curious instrument sat atop the piano. “My parents have always pushed us to do and explore as many different things. My younger brother and older brother did the trumpet and me and my sister did flute growing up, and we all had to play piano. 

“I wouldn’t say we’re the most musical family now,” admits Gwennan, “but we’ve definitely tried a lot of things out.”

Back to the rugby and Gwennan is uniquely placed for her rugby education. Contracted with Wales, she not only plays for Gwalia Lightning in the Celtic Challenge, but she represents Hartpury in the BUCS championship and trains and plays with the best England has to offer with triple Premiership champions Gloucester-Hartpury. “It’s weird to have to juggle playing in England and playing in Wales at the same time,” she admits. “I think I made my debut for Gloucester-Hartpury a week before I played the Six Nations with Wales, so for a while I had more international caps than Gloucester caps.

“I played a lot between September and November [this season], but Gloucester-Hartpury is incredibly competitive, the amount of internationals they have is insane.” 

Does she compare herself to team-mates? “I typically try to just focus on what I can do but, funnily enough, I was in the gym on Monday, and Alex Matthews was in too, and she’s obviously England number eight. So I was, ‘alright she’s doing this, so I need to be doing a little bit more’ – she’s the benchmark.”

Has her former life as weightlifter paid dividends in rugby? “I think when it gets to  power cleans and like Olympic weightlifting-specific skills, that kind of skill set is still with me,” she says. “So there’s stuff we do that I’m pretty confident about.

“But I think it’s hard, because training for weightlifting and rugby are different,” she adds. “With weightlifting, even though I had more muscle, it was also very heavy muscle so I wasn’t as aerobically capable of moving around and being more agile. I need to have that agility and speed and be able to carry myself around the field in rugby, while also being stronger, so it’d be quite different.”

On the plus side, the gym work required for rugby must at least be something she enjoys. “Weirdly, ironically enough, I don’t like the gym,” she admits. “If I go to a public gym I get anxiety of feeling out of place or uncomfortable. Whereas when I was doing weightlifting, I was in a weightlifting-specific gym with a youth group, so there was five girls in the group, we all lifted similar weights, so we were all friends. I do definitely miss that company and that youth group, but, no, I’m not a massive fan of the gym, I do get quite insecure.”

Gwennan’s rugby shows few insecurities: as well as scoring a try on her debut, she’s clearly being earmarked as one of the future leaders of this current crop. For inspiration, aside from the myriad internationals at Hartpury, she also looks across the Atlantic. “A number eight that I really like, who I think is the coolest rugby player is Sophie de Goede, the number eight for Canada. 

“She goes up in the lineout, she has amazing ball skills in the back of the scrum, but she also kicks for posts, such a skilful player.”

Wales, reckons Gwennan, will come good. “I’m in the senior team now and I see the girls coming through, I’ve played with them. And there’s definitely an exciting bunch coming through, a very talented group that  I’m really privileged to be a part of, so I do genuinely believe that one day we’ll be up there.

“I’d love to be a part of a Welsh team that wins the Six Nations,” she adds. “Or you know, lead a team to beat England, that would be great.”  

Do you think it’s feasible? “Yeah, I genuinely do believe, one day we can win the Six Nations,” she responds. “I really think there’s a special group of girls coming through, and also in the squad at the moment and I think we can do pretty special things in a few years’ time.” 

Story by Alex Mead

Pictures by Danté Kim and Russ Williams

This extract was taken from issue 30 of Rugby Journal.
To order the print journal, click here.

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