Origin Stories #3 Pip Hendy

With a sidekick called Rebel, she rears up to one hundred calves before training with the three-time champions of England. She scores tries in historic finals, then returns to the farm. This is the double life of Gloucester-Hartpury’s Pip Hendy.

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To the right of the farmhouse, just behind the hens clucking happily in their coop, a flock of ten or so sheep are grazing away in the mid-morning October sun. In front of them, a small herd of four-month-old calves are curled up together underneath a tree, awaiting their next feed, and to their right, a row of stables lodge two ponies, both poking their heads out inquisitively. A daschund – we soon learn she’s called Delilah – scuttles between our feet, rolling over in expectation of a belly rub, while Daphne, an older, wiser terrier, has nestled herself comfortably in a basket of boots and riding chaps. But its Iggy, the one-year-old working cocker spaniel, who is the most energetic and eager to greet us, accompanied by the ‘get downs’ and ‘sorrys’ of his owner, Gloucester-Hartpury’s Pip Hendy. 

Rugby Journal is here to visit the 22-year-old utility back, already a two-time PWR champion, to learn about her origin story, and where better than at the family farm she was brought up on. Sandwiched between Bristol and Bath on the lower fringes of the Cotswolds, it’s set in rolling hills that more than live up to their status as an area of outstanding natural beauty, with panoramic views stretching all the way to the Severn Bridge. It’s a proper working farm – its 350-plus acres are home to 550 store cattle, one hundred suckler cows and five hundred breeding ewes – but it’s also an idyllic countryside haven for any person to spend their early years. 

“I just remember being outside all the time,” recalls Pip. “I became really independent growing up on a farm because we had our own animals to look after – I had a horse and a few cows – and they were our responsibility. I guess life was a bit different because my chores were mucking out the horses or putting straw in the cow shed, rather than doing the laundry, or something like that. It’s definitely made me the person I am today.”

It’s been an extra-long off-season for players like Pip, who ply their trade in the PWR. With last season being condensed due to the Rugby World Cup, the final between Gloucester-Hartpury and Saracens, which Pip’s Gloucester-Hartpury won 34-19, took place on 16th March, leaving a 224-day gap, more than seven months, before their first game of the new season on 26th October. 

So long has it been since the last game, it takes Pip a moment to remember how she’s spent her summer. “Um, what have I been up to?” she ponders. “Honestly, my life has just been a lot of rugby since we’ve been back, we train three times a week and I’ve been doing a lot of rehab [after a shoulder surgery]. What did I do in the off-season, let me just have a think … 

“Oh, I got a new horse,” she remembers, scrolling through the photos on her phone to jog her memory. “He’s called Rebel. It’s the name that he came with – I wanted to change it, but it’s bad luck. I wanted him to be called Hugo or something.” Why Hugo? “Well, it’s just a nice name, isn’t it?”.

“I went to South Africa too, and my cat had kittens,” she says, continuing her off-season wrap-up. “I’m going to Spain tomorrow on a rogue solo trip, just to get some sun, read a book and lie on the beach. I was just so tempted last week, and then booked it, so I guess I’m going now. 

“I also went to Wimbledon for the first time, that was very cool, not that I knew anything that was going on. I didn’t realise how long a rally was … is it called a rally? I have played before, but I can’t say I’m very good at racket sports, due to my coordination which is absolutely terrible. I can hit the ball, but the aiming is not very good, it will usually go out or over the fence.” 

As one of the brightest young talents at the most successful club in England, it’s no surprise that sport has always been a passion for Pip. “I was one of those kids that just tried anything,” she says. “I was always very sporty, even if I wasn’t very good. I’m just average at everything; I can do it but I’m just not the best. 

“If I had to choose another sport outside of rugby,” she ponders, “it would be hockey or netball, but my other main sport is horse riding. But not many people count that as a sport, do they?”

It’s in the Olympics, it’s definitely a sport. “It is, but horse showing, which is what I do, isn’t in the Olympics,” she says. “In dressage, for example, you’re scored on the moves you do and the performance of your horse, but with showing, you ride around in a ring and show your horse off, basically. You’re judged on your horse’s confirmation [physical structure], it’s a bit like a dog show, a pageant really. 

“I also do ‘working hunter’, which is also showing, but you do jumps, and your score is based on how you jump the jumps, not how quickly you jump them, like in show jumping. It’s all basically marked on how good your horse looks.”

Given where she was brought up, her equine skills are to be expected. “Growing up on a farm I always had a horse, basically as soon as I was born I was sat on a pony. My mum comes from an equine background, she was very into horses when she was younger, so it’s always been in my life. I’m quite a confident, ballsy rider, I’ll jump on anything. 

“My first ever pony was called George, he was an absolute legend, you just pointed him at a hedge and he’d jump it. But he was a rascal, he’d bolt quite a lot and he’d just run off with you, you couldn’t stop him.” 

It was a full childhood, one that never had a dull moment, especially with such a big family around her. “I actually have five siblings,” she says. “I have a brother that’s two years older than me and one that’s three years older than me, and I have three sisters, the youngest is twelve and the oldest is thirty.

“I was very much the middle child of the family; I’m definitely one of the most independent. It’s difficult being a middle child, you’re sort of forgotten about. I think it makes you a good person, doesn’t it? You’re very aware of everything going on, you don’t have people fussing about you all the time, you don’t need that fuss. That said, I still can’t make a phone call to a stranger, I still need my mum to do it.

“We’re definitely a close family. My family is so chaotic to be honest – it’s always been chaos at my house, always has been, always will be.”

While Pip has been riding horses as long as she can remember, rugby has been part of her life almost as long. “I was four when I joined Walcot RFC [on the outskirts of Bath], that was my local club. My older brothers used to play and I was just watching them on the sideline, I would just be cartwheeling around, doing anything other than watching. So, my mum was like, ‘why don’t you have a go?’.” 

It turned out she was rather good. “I moved up an age group when I was in under-8s, so I started tackling before all the boys I played with, they got angry with me – we obviously start puberty before boys so I was always taller than them. It’s funny, there’s a team picture and I’m one of the tallest there. 

“Me and my brothers used to play rugby in the garden, that was always fun. When my parents went away, we’d get the sofa cushions out from the house and tackle each other, so there was a fair few times I’d get smashed into cow poo or something, because the cows were always walking around the garden too. Yeah, that’s a great memory that sticks in the mind…

“When I was ten, I moved to Chippenham because they were a better club, but when girls rugby started I moved back to Walcot as they’d just started a team. Later I went back to Chippenham, and then to Weston Hornets when I was sixteen. That was an hour away, so after school I was getting the train for an hour.” 

Tackling her brothers may have been Pip’s pastime, but contact wasn’t everything. “It’s definitely the skilful side of the game for me,” she says. “When you’re on a rugby field it’s fun, it’s not about bashing and hurting someone, for me it’s running around smiling, enjoying being on the pitch, win or lose. 

“As long as I have fun out there, I don’t really care about the result,” she adds. “It sounds terrible, of course you want to win, but it’s true. I want to move the ball, I want to try something fancy, even if it doesn’t come off. Even the props have got insane skills these days. It’s amazing how much the sport has developed, the speed of it and everything.”

After moving to Hartpury University, she featured heavily at BUCS level. “I never knew what I wanted to do after school,” says Pip. “I wanted to go to university and study something I was interested in, but it’s never been like, ‘I want to have a career in this thing, I’m going to go study it’. With Hartpury, I just wanted to play rugby, I wanted to be in the best environment, so that’s what I did.”

And it didn’t take long for the Gloucester-Hartpury coaching staff to take notice – in fact, she was just eighteen when she made her debut for the club in the league. “I played atrociously,” she remembers with a slight wince. “I came off the bench and was playing on the wing against Worcester, and I remember I went to tackle and I got handed off so badly that I literally flew in the air, it was a joke.” 

Shaky start aside, the 2023/24 season brought Pip’s first proper run of games in the side – not a bad time to make her entrance, with their maiden league title now in their back pocket. “I was in Mozambique a couple of weeks before the season, and somebody got injured and they were like, ‘can you come and train?’. I came back, trained for a couple of weeks, and I was playing. That season there were a lot of injuries, so I got opportunities and I just had to make the most of what I had.” 

And make the most she did – she got her first start of the season against Saracens in January 2024 in a 24-15 win, and kept her place as they beat Leicester, Bristol and Sale. A rearranged fixture meant they played Sale again the week after, Pip coming out of the blocks firing and touching down within a minute.

As Gloucester-Hartpury’s winning run continued, so did Hendy’s try-scoring, touching down the following week against Exeter and the week after against Harlequins. With the Red Roses back from the Six Nations she kept her place, and with three tries in nine appearances she cemented herself a starting spot on the wing as Gloucester-Hartpury went into the play-offs looking to go back-to-back. 

They faced Exeter in the semi-final, their opponents in the final the previous year, and swept them aside by 50-19, with Pip scoring one of the tries of the season from fifty metres out, pacing past the cover defence before evading the full-back with an in-and-out to score in the corner. 

But her try-scoring endeavours weren’t over yet. The following week, in the final against Bristol, a nervy first half had seen Gloucester-Hartpury fall 17-7 behind at half time. Up stepped Pip Hendy – early in the second half she dotted down in the left corner, a score that kickstarted the comeback from the reigning champions as they went on to claim their second title with a 36-24 victory. Pip had been the instigator.  “I don’t know about that,” she laughs, “but what I do remember about that game is I just wanted the ball to get wide, but we just couldn’t get it out to the edge. Then we finally scored, and then we scored again… it always happens with Gloucester, we start off a bit slow, but then we get into it.”

The 2025 final, this time against Saracens, was much the same story; after twenty minutes, the three-peat had looked in danger of slipping away as Saracens stormed to a 19-5 lead. “I think when everyone said, ‘oh you’re going for three in a row, is there going to be a third?’, they think they’re putting pressure on us. But for us, we just go out there, have fun, and put on a show. There’s no pressure on us within the team, and we know how to pick each other up.”

Tries from Emma Sing and Mia Venner had got Gloucester-Hartpury back on track before the half-time break, then a second-half flourish saw them home by 34-19 – an unprecedented third PWR title in three years secured. 

In between league titles with Gloucester-Hartpury, Pip also got her first taste of the international scene, when she was called up to the Red Roses’ pre-season camp in the summer of 2024. “That was a very cool experience,” she reflects. “I was excited, I knew a lot of the girls in there so I wasn’t nervous. It was definitely a big jump up – it was a very different environment to under-20s and under-18s; you have to be properly switched on, you can’t be dropping a ball. 

“It was just a very cool opportunity,” continues Pip, “but then, on the last day I found out my shoulder was injured, which was gutting. I played the season on it, and then I tore my labrum, which is why I had to have surgery. They’ve put some ropes in my shoulder to keep it together.”

Having more opportunities with the Red Roses is certainly on the radar for Pip, but still being only 22, she is in no rush. “I want to be the best player I can be, physically, mentally, and headspace as well; I still feel I have a lot to learn as a young player. There are so many good girls out there, I just have to be one hundred per cent committed.”

There’s no doubt that Pip has plenty ahead of her in her career – a fourth league title in a row would certainly put her in the England conversation as they enter a new cycle, but for now, it will be rugby, farming, more rugby, more farming. 

She now lives on her own small holding, just five minutes down the road from the family farm, where she looks after her horse, Rebel, as well as rearing up to one hundred calves at a time. “It was always my favourite job when I was younger,” says Pip. “I had a couple of show cows myself that I looked after, I had Midnight, Moonlight, Starlight. I also had one called Orange. 

“They [the calves] come from the market, they’re little babies and I just feed them, ideally twice a day, just to get the best out of them really. I have them for a couple of months and then they go onto hard food, then they go outside and graze. They live a nice lifestyle actually. But they make a bit of a racket – I live in a rural area but I don’t want to disturb them [the locals] with the cows mooing. One of my neighbours was like, ‘can you make your shed soundproof?’, and I was like, ‘I don’t know how you want me to do that’.

“Having a horse and training for rugby can be difficult, because you have to feed them, ride them and fit in training,” she continues. “And when I’m looking after calves, the day is even longer. 

“I get up around 6.30am and feed the cows and my horse, that takes about an hour. We have daytime training sessions now, so I have to be in for 11.30am, and it takes me an hour to get there. Then we have evening training too, so I don’t get back home until 10pm, when I take my horse out. If I have cows my dad will feed them before I get back.”

It’s long hours and a lot of responsibility, but it’s the life that Pip has always known. “Sometimes I think life would be so much easier if I lived in Gloucester and didn’t have all these animals to look after, but I don’t take it for granted – I know if I didn’t have it, I would definitely miss it.

“Rugby is definitely my priority – it always has been ever since I started, really – and the nice thing about farming is that, after I’ve stopped playing rugby, it will always be there for me.”  

Story by James Price

Pictures by Danté Kim

This extract was taken from issue 21 of Rugby.
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