​From RGS to the Stoop: Edie makes Harlequins debut

​From RGS to the Stoop: Edie makes Harlequins debut

FORMER Ripon Grammar School pupil Edie Cooper has taken another major step in her rugby career after making her first-team debut for Harlequins Women.

Edie, who left RGS in summer 2025, came off the bench for Harlequins in their JAECOO PWR Next Gen Cup quarter-final against Gloucester-Hartpury at The Stoop.

The match provided an opportunity for the Premiership Women’s Rugby club to give emerging players a taste of first-team rugby, with Harlequins naming a youthful squad containing 14 current and former University of Surrey students.

For Edie, now studying Criminology at the University of Surrey, it was her first appearance in a Harlequins shirt.

Her involvement comes through the partnership between Surrey Women’s Rugby and Harlequins Women. In her first year at Surrey, Edie helped the university side enjoy a hugely successful season, winning the Premier South league and earning promotion to BUCS Super – the highest level of university rugby.

The pathway link between the two clubs has now opened the door to senior professional rugby for the former RGS player.

Edie’s journey began at the age of seven with Ripon RUFC. While at RGS she represented Yorkshire at U16 level and later earned selection for Yorkshire’s Centre of Excellence squad after being chosen from around 150 of the county’s top U18 players.

The Centre of Excellence forms part of the England Rugby development pathway and gave Edie the opportunity to work with elite coaches and come under the watch of England scouts.

At the time, Edie said her ambition was to play for England professionally.

Her latest achievement represents another significant milestone on that journey - from playing rugby in Ripon to pulling on the Harlequins shirt at The Stoop.

Speaking about her move into university rugby and the Harlequins pathway, Edie said: “In my first year with Surrey Women’s Rugby team, we smashed our Premier South league and have now been promoted into BUCS Super, which is the highest league in university rugby."

The former RGS pupil is continuing to combine her studies with a rapidly developing rugby career, with her Harlequins debut marking the latest chapter in an ambition that began on the rugby fields of Yorkshire.