Panther Women’s Rugby recruits versatile rugger and kicker Charlotte Branchflower

The UPEI Women’s Rugby team has recruited Charlotte Branchflower to play for the Panthers in 2021–2022. Branchflower is a talented 17-year-old fly-half from Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Assistant coach James Voye says Branchflower will be an essential piece to the Panthers’ roster as the team looks compete with the elite talent in the AUS, such as the Acadia Axewomen and the St. Francis Xavier X-Women. 

“Charlotte is a committed high-performance athlete from the Nova Scotia Keltics Academy and Ignite program,” said Voye. “She’s an intelligent player who has good vision, field sense, and a high rugby IQ.”

Branchflower is a relative newcomer to the sport, having grown up on the soccer pitch as a high-level soccer player.

“An old teammate and I first discovered rugby when we watched it during the 2016 Summer Olympics,” said Branchflower, who moved to Halifax from Connecticut in 2016. “We both thought it would be a cool sport to play.”

She didn’t get her chance to play until two years later, when a pair of Rugby Nova Scotia players visited her junior high school gym class.

“They taught us a bit about rugby, which convinced our school to enter a team for a one-day flag rugby tournament hosted by Rugby NS,” said Branchflower. That tournament sealed the deal for Branchflower. She was hooked.

From Halifax West High School to the Nova Scotia Keltics, Branchflower quickly made a name for herself. In 2019, she represented the Keltics provincial team at the under-16 Eastern Canadian Rugby Championships as the starting fly-half. She would have done the same in 2020 had it not been for COVID-19.

“She’s an extremely mature young woman who is very academically and athletically driven, and we wanted her,” Voye said. “She has the potential to make an immediate impact for us. It’s extremely important to recruit versatile players.”

Go Panthers Go!