Rising Star Alix Stephenson

Rugby has always been a huge part of my family and was the main reason I initially took up the sport. My Dad, Uncles, and Grandads all played at various levels, both in rugby league and union, with my Dad and Uncle playing at Keighley Cougars.

I started playing from the age of 8 at Queensbury Juniors and went through various positions. I captained the team for most of the years I was there. I stayed with the team right through to U16s and had my Dad as my coach for some of those years, something that was special to me as he is someone I look up to.

It was when I was playing Wibsey U16s that I was spotted by a talent scout that had turned up to see a Wibsey player and put my name forward to Andrew Henderson at the Sheffield Eagles. I was given a place on their Under 16s scholarship where I played full back. Sadly, the Sheffield Eagles decided to disband the scholarship & academy teams just after I had moved up and I was left without a professional club to play for. I took the big decision to move to a junior club as I had made a lot of friends from Sheffield who played for Oulton Raiders who were a 1st division team. I played for the U17s as a fullback and half back.

Whilst I was at Oulton I was allowed to dual register and play open age with Queensbury ARFLC. At the time, my Dad was playing his last season for the team so we played together on a number of occasions, something we had both dreamed of doing.

With my junior career coming to an end, I really wanted to take my rugby career further. My Mum found out about a website Shaun Lunt had set up called HQ9. It was like a shop window for players to be looked at by talent scouts without them having to come to games. I had some footage of games I played in so I registered on the site. Shortly after registering, I was sent out to Division 1 and Championship teams that ran an academy and where the offer to train with Bradford Bulls came from when John Bastion saw the footage. I have to say a big thank you to Liam Ryder for sending out the footage and Shaun Lunt for getting me to put this in place.

I was put on a 3 month trial at Bradford Bulls and after ten days was called back into the office to be told that they wanted to offer me a two year contact, taking  me through to the U19s, with the aim of getting a contract after this. It was and is a brilliant set up at Bulls and the coaches and team were great. I played as full back in the U19s and was kicker for the majority of my two years there.

After finishing my two years with the Bulls, I was offered a professional contract to play as a reserves player, with the aim of getting into the 1st team, which on the 26th April 2019 against Featherstone Rovers I made my debut playing on the wing; a huge career highlight of mine, along with the U19s beating Leeds Rhinos U19s but hopefully many more games to come.

Throughout my time playing rugby, spanning over 12 years, I am asked what motivates me to turn up to training, work hard, not play week in week out and still want to do it… and the truth is I love the game, as I said before it is in my blood, but having team mates around you and the bond you make is part of what rugby is all about, both on and off the pitch.

Whilst I am a professional rugby player, I am only part time so the rest of the time I work as an apprentice joiner for Abraham & Carlisle. It is hard with the early morning starts and going straight to rugby training after work but it is what I want to do with my life. The ultimate rugby dream would be to firstly make 1st team appearances weekly. I would then like to go on to play regular super league rugby, hopefully with my current club Bradford Bulls. The ultimate dream is to eventually make it in the NRL. I visited Australia with my family back in 2017 for the Rugby League World Cup and decided I really want to move out there and play rugby.