Robyn Olivia Wilkins (born 1 April 1995) is a Welsh rugby union player who has played either

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

fly-half In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16� ...

or full-back 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

Sale Sharks Women Sale Sharks Women are a women's rugby union club based in Sale, Greater Manchester, England. They were founded in 2020 as the women's team of Premiership Rugby side Sale Sharks. They currently compete in Premiership Women's Rugby, the highest di ...

Premiership Women's Rugby Premiership Women's Rugby – officially known as Allianz Premiership Women's Rugby or The Allianz PWR – is an annual semi-professional women's rugby union club competition at the highest level of the English rugby union system, and is run b ...

. She made her debut for the Wales national squad in 2014 and has played over 70 matches for the national side. Wilkins played for

Ospreys The osprey (; ''Pandion haliaetus''), historically known as sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor, reaching more than in length and a wingspan of . It is ...

, Cardiff Blues Women and

Llandaff North RFC Llandaff North Rugby Football Club are a Welsh rugby union club based in Llandaff North, Cardiff in South Wales. The club is a member of the Welsh Rugby Union and is a feeder club for the Cardiff Blues. They presently play in the WRU Division Th ...

at Welsh regional level before moving to

Worcester Warriors Worcester Warriors are a professional rugby union club based in Worcester, England. They most recently played in Premiership Rugby, the top division of English rugby union, before being suspended by the Rugby Football Union, RFU in September 2 ...

in the English Premiership. Before taking a professional contract with the WRU she worked as a science teacher at Bassaleg Comprehensive School in

Newport Newport most commonly refers to: *Newport, Wales *Newport, Rhode Island, US Newport or New Port may also refer to: Places Asia *Newport City, Metro Manila, a Philippine district in Pasay * Newport (Vietnam), a United States Army and Army of t ...

. Alongside her professional contract with the WRU, Wilkins also works for Disability Sport Wales as a Senior Sports Officer and organises the annual Para Sport Festival based in Swansea.

Personal life and education

On 1 April 1995, Wilkins was born in

Bridgend Bridgend (; or just , meaning "the end of the bridge on the Ogmore") is a town in the Bridgend County Borough of Wales, west of Cardiff and east of Swansea. The town is named after the Old Bridge, Bridgend, medieval bridge over the River Og ...

in Wales. She is the daughter of the Welsh former one-time international rugby fly-half Gwilym Wilkins. Wilkins plays either as

, fly-half or full-back in

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 ...

. She is listed as and weighs according to her biography from the

Welsh Rugby Union The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU; ) is the governing body of rugby union in the country of Wales, recognised by the sport's international governing body, World Rugby. The WRU is responsible for the running of rugby in Wales, overseeing 320 member clu ...

(WRU) and Eurosport. Wilkins was educated at Porthcawl Comprehensive School from 2006 to 2013 and later matriculated to

Cardiff University Cardiff University () is a public research university in Cardiff, Wales. It was established in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire and became a founding college of the University of Wales in 1893. It was renamed Unive ...

to study a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree in Biomedical Science between 2013 and 2016. She taught science at Bassaleg Comprehensive School in

while continuing her rugby career. Before embarking on her teaching career, Wilkins ventured between hospitals in Birmingham and Wales selling radioactive substances to nuclear medicine department in her role working as an account manager for a medical imaging company.

Early career

She began playing rugby around the age of seven or eight while in primary school and at Pyle RFC, having observed her father participate in the sport. Wilkins at first played alongside boys but was segregated approaching adolescence as is common in team sports. Following time away from rugby between the ages of 11 and 15, she learnt

Pencoed Pencoed (also Pen-coed); ) is a town and community in the county borough of Bridgend, Wales. It straddles the M4 motorway north east of Bridgend and is situated on the Ewenny River. At the 2011 census it had a population of around 9,166. Etymo ...

had a rugby team and played in its Under 18s side at schools before moving to the Ospreys Under 18s squad. Wilkins learnt Wales had a women's rugby union team when she was around 15 or 16. She played as part of the Girls Under 18 Dragons "A" winning team in the 2013 UK Student Games at Abbeydale Sports Ground in Sheffield.

International career

In 2014, Wilkins was called up to the

, making her international debut against

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

in the first match of the

2014 Women's Six Nations Championship The 2014 Women's Six Nations Championship, also known as the 2014 RBS Women's Six Nations due to the tournament's sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the 13th series of the Women's Six Nations Championship, an annual women's rugby uni ...

, scoring two penalties. A gain of weight and decrease in fitness as a result of low confidence and motivation affected her performance throughout 2015 but an increase in training reversed all that the following year due to help she received from the WRU's conditioning and strength coach. Wilkins has played for the Wales national team 71 times since her debut in 2014, reaching the 50 cap milestone against

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

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 ...

. She played 33 Women's Six Nations matches, scoring two tries and 77 points. Wilkins competed for Wales at the

2014 Women's Rugby World Cup The 2014 Women's Rugby World Cup was the seventh edition of the Women's Rugby World Cup, and the sixth held in Europe. The World Cup Final took place on 17 August. All of the pool games for the World Cup took place at the Centre National du ...

, the

2017 Women's Rugby World Cup The 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup was the eighth edition of the Women's Rugby World Cup and was held in Ireland in August 2017. New Zealand became the 2017 champions by beating England 41–32 in the final on 26 August. Matches were held in Du ...

and the

2021 Rugby World Cup The 2021 Rugby World Cup was the ninth staging of the Rugby World Cup (women), women's Rugby World Cup, as organised by World Rugby. It was held from 8 October to 12 November 2022 in Auckland and Whangārei, New Zealand. It was originally sche ...

. She has also played for the Wales women's national rugby sevens team. Wilkins was selected in

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

squad for the

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. She was named in the Welsh side for the

2025 Six Nations Championship The 2025 Men's Six Nations Championship (known as the Guinness Men's Six Nations for sponsorship reasons and branded as M6N) was a rugby union competition that took place from late January to mid-March 2025, featuring the men's national teams of E ...

on 4 March 2025.

Club career

At the club level, she has played for

, Cardiff Blues Women and

. Wilkins signed for

Worcester Warriors Women Worcester Warriors Women, formerly known as Worcester Valkyries, are a women's rugby union club in Worcester, Worcestershire, England. They were founded in 1993, as Worcester Ladies, and play in the Premier 15s. They were originally created as t ...

Premier 15s Premiership Women's Rugby – officially known as Allianz Premiership Women's Rugby or The Allianz PWR – is an annual semi-professional women's rugby union club competition at the highest level of the English rugby union system, and is run ...

in August 2020 having impressed lead coach Sian Moore. Leaving Worcester in 2021, she has since played for Gloucester-Hartpury and then for Exeter Chiefs women, who she signed with ahead of the 2022-23 Premier 15s season. Wilkins was in the Exeter squad that reached the Premiership final with in 2022. In summer 2024, it was announced that Wilkins had signed for northern club

Sale Sharks Sale Sharks are a professional rugby union club from Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom. Its team play in Premiership Rugby, and have been in England's top division of rugby union continuously since 1995. Originally founded in 1861 as ...

. Whilst teaching at Bassaleg Comprehensive School, Wilkins was a member of Wales' Sisters in Arms programme and helped students at the School build a team in the Urdd WRU sevens competition. Wilkins previously worked for Cardiff Blues' ''Unstoppables'' women's campaign.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkins, Robyn 1995 births Living people Rugby union players from Bridgend Alumni of Cardiff University 21st-century Welsh sportswomen Welsh rugby sevens players Welsh female rugby union players Wales women's international rugby union players Rugby union centres Rugby union fly-halves Rugby union fullbacks Welsh schoolteachers Wales international women's rugby sevens players Exeter Chiefs Women players Gloucester-Hartpury Women players People educated at Porthcawl Comprehensive School