Jordan Russell's double life: teacher by day and rugby player at the weekend

You could say that Jordan Russell enjoys living a double life.

Day-to-day the 25-year-old is a geography teacher at City of Leicester College and at the weekend stars for Leicester Tigers in Premiership Women’s Rugby.

When Russell joined Leicester in 2024 Russell was training to be a teacher and now has a Year 8 form and teaches geography in the East Midlands.

The flanker, who also covers hooker, relishes the opportunity to swap her time between the classroom and the rugby pitch, and even invites students down to Mattioli Woods Welford Road to watch her play home games.

“The reason I play rugby, and why I’ve been enjoying my time at Tigers so much, is that I can be a role model to the children I teach,” Russell told Leicester Tigers.

“I speak so highly of it that these kids then come and watch games. I never ask them to watch or expect them to watch, but they often do.”

It is safe to say that Russell is enjoying life with Leicester. The 25-year-old arrived in the East Midlands at the start of last season after she started her senior career with Gloucester Hartpury.

A product of Hartpury University where she won the BUCS Women’s National League twice and was Player of the Match in the 2022 final.

After she struggled to break into a world-beating Gloucester Hartpury team Russell is now a regular feature of Fraser Goatcher’s Leicester side.

“You play your best rugby when you’re happy,” Russell said. “I’ve been in different environments now and the difference is, when you’re happy and you feel like you belong, and you feel the belief from your peers and coaches you’re at your best.

“The coaches have said to us that about nine per cent of our time is here at Tigers. Obviously, you take time sleeping and working that takes up a large portion of our time, so we spend a lot of our free time here.

“That time, you don’t want it to be for nothing. When you are here, you feel that sense of belonging. I want to be here for the girls because I want to work hard, I want to leave the Tigers shirt in a better place.

“That’s not off my own back, that’s been nurtured because of the philosophy that we have. That’s working hard, for your teammates and then sharing the responsibility. That’s shared across the park.”