Lleucu George on her entry into rugby and family's dairy farm

If you pester Gloucester-Hartpury's Lleucu George long enough she might finally give in and become a professional rugby player.

The 24-year-old started out her career playing for a boys team at Pembrokeshire club Crymych RFC, after being badgered by her school mates to join them on the pitch.

She eventually took their advice and joined the 'formidable' grassroots team, which included fellow Gloucester player and Italian international Stephen Varney.

Cut to 17-years-later and George is now the starting fly half for Gloucester-Hartpury and has 22 Wales caps to her name, all thanks to a nudge in the right direction from her friends.

"I was just seven years old when I started playing in primary school," she said.

"I was friends with most of the boys and they just kept on begging me to come play with them so I thought I would give it a go.

"From there I went to a touch rugby session at Crymych and honestly had no interest to play the game but then once we started playing contact I got stuck in and the rest is history.

"I played with the boys team until I was 12 and then had to integrate into a girls side but I'm still friends all the boys I played with and catch up with them when I can.

"We've all gone off in our separate ways now but I did play with Stephen Varney, who now plays for Gloucester and Italy so it's good to see two of us get through.

"I think we won the Pembrokeshire title two or three times, so we were quite formidable team together."

When she wasn't nurturing her rugby ambitions as a youngster, George revealled that she had a very important job to do at home: feed the cows.

The Pembrokeshire native grew up on a diary farm and spent her childhood looking after the calves in the early hours of the morning before school.

The skills might not translate directly into a rugby set up but it's a piece of her she's immensely grateful to have when she is winning Six Nations games one weekend and herding cattle the next.

"I actually love it and I still try to help as much as I can now when I go back home," she said.

"Every morning and every night my main job was to feed the calves, to feed the little ones and give them milk.

"It was quite a nice time really growing up on a farm and I'm really lucky to have grown up there."

George has seen an unprecedented level of success at Gloucester-Hartpury since joining in 2019.

The 2023 Premier 15s winners currently sit undefeated after a roaring couple of months with just four games left in the regular season, and the fly half revealed that she's excited to get back into the domestic circuit after a disappointing Guinness Women's Six Nations campaign.

"We've come back in this week and get straight back at it this weekend so we're really concentrating on trying to integrate back in as fast as we can," she said.

"All the international girls have been away and it will have been pretty successful playing for their own countries.

"Hopefully we can bring back a lot of confidence and go into the rest of the season trying to pick up with where we left off."

George won Player of the Match in last year's final as Gloucester-Hartpury beat Exeter Chiefs 34-19 and has continued to be a mainstay in the starting squad this season.

And having already sealed their spot to the knockout stages, George revealled that she's hopeful her side will be able to repeat their showpiece effort in June.

"Obviously, winning that semi-final is the first thing we're looking at but when we get to the final, anything can happen," she said.

"The aspiration is to of course to win again and by doing that want to try and inspire as many people as possible to pick up a rugby ball or come and watch our games."

Tickets are now on sale for the Allianz Premiership Women's Rugby Final on 22 June at Sandy Park - kick off 3pm. Click here to buy a ticket and be part of an unmissable day of women's rugby.