Bethan Dainton (born 12 April 1989) is a Welsh

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

player who plays as for

Leeds Rhinos The Leeds Rhinos are a professional rugby league club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The club play their home games at Headingley Rugby Stadium, AMT Headingley Rugby Stadium and compete in the Super League, the top tier of British rugby lea ...

. She formerly played

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

as back row for the

Wales women's national rugby union team The Wales women's national rugby union team first played in 1987. Wales plays in the Women's Rugby World Cup and the Women's Six Nations Championship. Their current head coach, as of January 2025, is Sean Lynn. History As far back as the ni ...

and Harlequins Women in the Allianz's Premier 15s. She made her debut for the Wales national squad in 2016, and represented them at the

2021 Women's Six Nations Championship The 2021 Women's Six Nations Championship was the 20th series of the Women's Six Nations Championship, an annual women's rugby union competition featuring England women's national rugby union team, England, France women's national rugby union te ...

Club career

Dainton has a long-established sporting career, having represented Wales in athletics and cross country in both Union and league codes. However, she did not begin playing rugby until 2015, when she was invited to play for the Dragon's sevens team by Wales player Gemma Rowland. Dainton then played for

Bristol Bears Bristol Bears (officially Bristol Rugby Club or Bristol Rugby) are a professional rugby union club based in Bristol, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded as Bristol Football Club in 18 ...

before signing with her current club, Harlequins Women in the Premier 15s .

International career

After joining the Dragon's sevens team in 2015, Dainton represented Wales in both legs of the

Rugby Europe Championship The Rugby Europe International Championships is the European Championship for tier 2 and tier 3 rugby union nations. The tournament is the latest formation of a competition with history going back to 1932. At that time, France had been expelled ...

in Russia and France, where she helped Wales secure a place in the Women's

Sevens World Series The SVNS, known as the HSBC SVNS for sponsorship reasons, is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB Wor ...

Qualifiers in Dublin, Ireland. In January 2016, she was named in Wales' 28-woman squad for the

2016 Women's Six Nations Championship The 2016 Women's Six Nations Championship, also known as the 2016 RBS Women's Six Nations due to the tournament's sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the 15th series of the Women's Six Nations Championship, an annual women's rugby union ...

, and won her first cap in the opening game against Ireland. A serious foot injury sustained on international sevens duty kept her out of action for nearly all of the 2017/18 season, and after a lengthy period of rehab she switched from wing to back row. Dainton then returned to the international scene as she was called up for the 2021 Women's Six Nations Championship. in Wales' opening game against France in the

Dainton has won eight caps in her rugby career to date. She has won international caps in both the backs and the forwards.

Personal life

Bombardier Dainton is enlisted in the British Army, serving with the 74th Battery of the 39th Regiment Royal Artillery. Over the winter of 2010–11, she was posted to

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

, where her squadron provided precision artillery support to 16 Air Assault Brigade in

Helmand Province Helmand (Pashto language, Pashto/Dari language, Dari: ; ), also known as Hillmand, in ancient times, as Hermand and Hethumand, is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, in the south of the country. It is the largest province by area, covering ...

. Dainton was one of 71 soldiers to be awarded their Operational Service Medals for Afghanistan at a ceremony in Newcastle in March 2011.

References

External links

Profile
at the Wales Rugby Union website
Profile
at the Leeds Rhinos website {{DEFAULTSORT:Dainton, Bethan 1989 births Living people 21st-century Welsh sportswomen Barbarian F.C. Women players Bristol Bears Women players British Army personnel of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) Dual-code rugby internationals Footballers who switched code Harlequins Women rugby players Leeds Rhinos Women players Royal Artillery soldiers Rugby league players from Caerphilly Rugby league second-rows Rugby union flankers Rugby union players from Caerphilly Rugby union wings Sportspeople from Caerphilly Wales women's international rugby union players Wales women's national rugby league team captains Wales women's national rugby league team players Wasps Women rugby players Welsh female rugby league players Welsh female rugby union players