Tess Feury (born March 15, 1996) is an American

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 ...

player. She competed for the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

at the

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

and

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 ...

s. She has played for the

Leicester Tigers Leicester Tigers (officially Leicester Football Club) are a professional rugby union club based in Leicester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1880 and since 1892 plays its home ...

in the

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 ...

competition, and will play for the New York Exiles in the inaugural season of the

Women's Elite Rugby Women's Elite Rugby (WER) is an annual semi-professional sports, semi-professional women's rugby union club competition at the top level of the United States rugby union system. It is contested by six clubs, owned by the league and operated by ...

competition.

Early life and family

Feury was raised in

Denville, New Jersey Denville Township is a township in Morris County, in the northern portion of the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a commuter town of New York City in the New York metropolitan area, located west of Manhattan. As of the 2020 United States ce ...

by Tom and KJ Feury. She grew up playing rugby; her father, Tom, was introduced to the sport in college. He started an flag rugby team, the Denville Dawgs, to allow his sons and daughter to play rugby. She has two brothers who played rugby at Pennsylvania State University and

Middlebury College Middlebury College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont, United States. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists, Middlebury w ...

, and her mother also served as the president of Rugby New Jersey for several years. Feury attended Villa Walsh Academy, where she played varsity soccer and ran

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

, and graduated in 2014. Feury attended The Pennsylvania State University. In 2018, Feury graduated from

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsyl ...

with a bachelor's in nursing. Feury has worked as a Pediatric Intensive Care Nurse at

Morristown Medical Center Morristown Medical Center (MMC) is a 735 bed non-profit, tertiary, research and academic medical center located in Morristown, New Jersey, serving northern New Jersey and the New York metropolitan area. The hospital is the flagship facility of ...

Rugby career

Youth, collegiate, and club level

While in high school, Feury played

rugby sevens Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. R ...

for the New Jersey Blaze, which won the high school girls championship in 2013, for the Atlantis rugby team, and for the Morris Rugby girl's high school team. She was selected for the

USA Rugby USA Rugby (formally the United States of America Rugby Football Union, Ltd.) is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States. Its role is to achieve and maintain “high levels of quality in all aspects of rugby ...

High School All-American team in sevens and fifteens rugby in 2013, 2014, and 2015, and trained with the United States national women's sevens team in

Chula Vista, California Chula Vista ( ; , ) is a city in San Diego County, California, United States. It is the second-most populous city in the San Diego metropolitan area, the Largest cities in Southern California, seventh-most populous city in Southern California ...

. Feury captained and played scrum-half for the 4th-place finishing United States Girls team at the

2014 Summer Youth Olympics The 2014 Summer Youth Olympics (), officially known as the II Summer Youth Olympic Games , and commonly known as Nanjing 2014 ( zh, c=南京2014, p=Nánjīng Èr Líng yī sì), were the second Youth Olympic Games, Summer Youth Olympic Games, an ...

Nanjing, China Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

. She was named the High School Rugby Player of the Year in 2014. From 2014 to 2018, Feury played fullback and outside center for the Pennsylvania State University women's rugby team. The team won three national championships during that time, and Feury was a four-time Collegiate All-American. She was named the Big 10 Rugby Freshman of the Year in 2015, as well as the Most Valuable Player of the championship game in 2015. Feury has also played with the New York Rugby Club in the Women's Premier League.

U.S. National Team

She made her debut for the

in 2016 against

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

at the

Women's Super Series The Women's Super Series, previously known as the Women's Super 3s, is a women's domestic cricket tournament organised by Cricket Ireland. The tournament began in 2015 as a combined 50-over and Twenty20 tournament, with three teams taking part: ...

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. She was selected for the

Eagles Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus ''Aquila ( ...

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 ...

squad. From 2016 to 2018, she was named to the USA Rugby Club Sevens National Championships All-Tournament Team. In 2022, she was named in the

squad for the

Pacific Four Series The Pacific Four Series is an international rugby union competition that is sanctioned by World Rugby. It is contested between four women's national teams — Australia women's national rugby union team, Australia, Canada women's national rugby u ...

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 selected in the Eagles squad for the

. Feury was named in the

traveling squad for the

2023 Pacific Four Series The 2023 Pacific Four Series was the third edition of the Pacific Four Series, an international women's rugby union tournament that served as one of the principal qualification routes for the top two tiers of WXV. The tournament was hosted by Sp ...

. She was in the United States side that faced

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

on 26 April 2025.

Professional leagues

She signed with the

for the

2023–24 Premiership Women's Rugby The 2023–24 Premiership Women's Rugby is the seventh season of Premiership Women's Rugby, the top-flight domestic women's rugby union club competition in England. Sponsored by Allianz for the fourth consecutive season, it is the first season ...

season. Feury will play with the New York Exiles in the

2025 Women's Elite Rugby season The 2025 Women's Elite Rugby season will be the first season of the Women's Elite Rugby (WER) league based in the United States. The regular season runs from March 22 to June 14, with each of the six teams competing in 10 games each. Teams ...

References

External links

Eagles Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Feury, Tess 1996 births Living people United States women's international rugby union players American female rugby union players Rugby sevens players at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics 21st-century American sportswomen Rugby union fullbacks Penn State Nittany Lions athletes American women nurses Sportspeople from Denville Township, New Jersey Darlington Mowden Park Sharks players American expatriate rugby union players in England Leicester Tigers Women players Rugby union players from New Jersey Women's Elite Rugby players