Army rugby player balances rugby and veterinary duties ahead of Twickenham showdown
Army Rugby player Captain Sally Bellhouse has played an important role in the women's Army and UKAF set up for a number of years, and is primed to line up for the women in red in their clash with the Royal Navy at Twickenham.
A former player in the England Women's Under 20 squad, where she played alongside the likes of England and Royal Air Force star Amy Cokayne, Capt Bellhouse also plays an important role away from the rugby pitch as a Veterinary Officer in the 1st Military Working Dog Regiment.
Her aspirations of becoming a veterinarian began long before she even knew a career in the Army was a possibility.
"I don't even know when I decided I wanted to be a vet, I just always remember wanting to be a vet," she explained.
"I had no idea that the Army had vets and when we had a career's talk at school, the local recruiting team came down and they said, 'by the way, we have doctors, nurses and vets' and I thought that was really cool.
"I wandered down to the careers office a couple of weeks later and that was that.
"They said that you can try for a sixth form scholarship and, before I knew it, I graduated vet school and was off to Sandhurst, and here I am," she said.
Like many, a career in the Army also presented an opportunity for Capt Bellhouse to continue playing the sport that she was hooked on from a young and tender age.
"So, I've played rugby since I was seven years old, so going on for my twentieth season now give or take," she said.
"I started because my brother was desperate to play as soon as he was able to, because my dad had played professional rugby league and high-level [rugby] union.
"So, he was desperate to get into it and it was really cold watching him on the side of the pitch, so it was tag rugby, it looked fun, and I joined in, and that was me gone with my dad coaching and my brother playing alongside me."
It was the start of a journey that began at Vale of Lune Rugby Club and all the way up to the England Under 20s squad, and she played for the junior red roses in their inaugural clash against the Army women alongside future RAF stars Amy Cokayne and Lucy Nye, and it was there where she knew that she wanted to play in the red shirt for the Army.
"I played in the first fixture of Army v England Under 20s as a 17-year-old playing for England Under 20s, and I remember being sat in an anteroom in Sandhurst having a pre-match talk and thinking 'this is the team that hopefully one day I want to play for'.
"They had no idea who I was, basically, fan-girling quietly in the background and, for the next three years, I played in the Red Roses against the Army and then literally immediately the year afterwards, I was an OTC (Officer's Training Corps) by this point at university, and they flew me down from Edinburgh to Heathrow to put on the red shirt and run out on the opposite side.
"So, I've pretty much been in every single Army v England Under 20s fixture on one side or another," she said.
The rugby-hardened vet will win her fourteenth Army cap when she faces the Royal Navy at Twickenham, a fixture that is filled with tradition she admits is unique compared to other fixtures.
She said: "It is what the services surrounding it brings to it, because if you boil it down it's just a game of rugby between two teams.
"And the thing that makes it different from every other game of rugby is that you have the history of the Navy, the history of the Army and the history of the match, and then everyone who comes to support it, whether they're young, old, in service, civilian, veteran, it doesn't matter.
"The atmosphere that they all generate means that it's probably one of the most special occasions I have ever had the honour of running out against."
One of just a small group of vets in the Army, Capt Bellhouse will be putting her veterinary duties to one side as she walks out for the Army against the Navy at Twickenham as the red shirts attempt to retain their dominance in one of the fiercest rivalries in Rugby Union.
The Army v Navy fixture will be broadcast live on Forces News YouTube channel and on RugbyPass TV on Saturday 4 May.
Find out more about how to watch here.
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