Evans calls time on her professional rugby career

Exeter Chiefs Women’s prop Stefania Evans has announced her decision to retire from professional rugby.

When not playing for Chiefs or her former clubs Bristol Bears, Leicester Tigers, Richmond and Warriors, the entrepreneur founded her own retail business selling women’s rugby kit. She also featured in the Amazon 2021 documentary No Woman No Try about women’s rugby and spearheaded the #ICARE campaign to encourage people to show their support for the sport.

In the past year, she has also coached the U18s girls at Exeter College and will continue in this role until Easter.

Evans said: “When I first started playing rugby, there were no professional women’s sports full stop. If you told 15-year-old me that professional women’s rugby would exist in her lifetime, she probably wouldn’t have believed you. If you told her she would be able to experience it herself firsthand, she would have laughed in your face. That’s kind of wild to think about, isn’t it? How quickly things can change. How lucky I’ve been to have a front row (ha!) seat for the infancy of professional women’s rugby.

“Playing elite rugby is probably one of the most exhilarating, challenging, insane, wonderful, heartbreaking, and exciting ways a person can spend their time; it’s not something everyone has access to either. The sheer luck of opportunity is something I’m acutely aware of, now more than ever.

“Professional sport isn’t ever a guaranteed destination, and even if you are lucky enough to arrive at it, you never know exactly how much time you get. No matter how much fun it is, it’s just not the sort of thing you can do forever. Time catches up with everyone. It’s caught up with me, and that’s okay. It happens. There’s a lot to feel, but more than anything else, I feel lucky. I’m so incredibly grateful I was able to be someone who experienced this. It’s made me feel truly alive.

“Thank you to all the women’s rugby players who paved the way before me, many of whom never got to live this life they earned and deserved. Without them, none of us would have anything.

“Thank you to everyone who played a part in getting me where I’ve been, who believed in me and gave me opportunities. I’ll never forget the gift you’ve given me and hope to pay it forward someday.”

Head coach Susie Appleby said: “Stef has been an ambassador for women’s rugby on several levels and has undoubtedly inspired young girls and women to take up the sport. We thank her for her time at Chiefs, especially with regards to her work with the college students, and we wish her all the best for the future.”