Dan Hipkiss
| Height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight | 14 st 6 lb (202 lb; 92 kg) (92 Kg) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| School | Hartismere High School Uppingham School | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Daniel Hipkiss (born 4 June 1982 in Ipswich) is a professional Rugby Union player who currently plays at Centre for Leicester Tigers. Hipkiss has represented England at U16, U17, U18, U21 and England A. His full England debut came versus Wales at Twickenham on 4 August 2007.
He went to school at Uppingham School, where he was captain of the firsts. He was in Farleigh house.
Having overcome a career-threatening injury to his left knee in November 1999, Hipkiss made his first start for the Tigers' U21s against Leeds on November 9, 2001, scoring a try on his debut. He was called into the first team squad for summer training in 2002. He quickly became a regular member of the successful Tigers 2002/03 U21 team and was one of five Leicester players called up for the 2003 IRB U21 World Cup. He was chosen for the England Sevens squad in 2004, and captained a Leicester side in the 2006 Middlesex Sevens at Twickenham.
Hipkiss's main strength is his power, specifically an ability to stay on his feet and not let the ball be ripped in the tackle, thus allowing his forwards to form a maul around him and drive him up field.
Hipkiss made his full England international debut on 4 August 2007 against Wales, which England won by a record 62-5 margin in a World Cup warm up match at Twickenham.
He has been selected for England's World Cup squad and is writing a column for his local newspaper, The Diss Express.
Upon returning from the World Cup Hipkiss played for Leicester Tigers for the remainder of the season. Somewhat surprisingly Hipkiss was left out of the England Squad for the RBS 6 Nations, as Mike Tindall was preferred to him.
In 2008 Hipkiss's form varied, some games he would be the key man and in other games he would be ineffective. However on May 20 he was rewarded with a place in the England Touring Squad to New Zealand. Hipkiss was originally left out of the squad, Martin Johnson's first squad. A serious injury to Danny Cipriani meant that he would miss the tour to New Zealand and Hipkiss replaced him in the squad. This came a few days after Hipkiss had one of his most impressive games of the season against London Wasps in the Guinness Premiership.
Unfortunately for Dan he was injured in the Guinness Premiership final, with a fractured cheekbone. As a result of this injury Hipkiss misses the tour to New Zealand, only a few weeks after being called up as a replacement for Danny Cipriani. Despite this, he was recalled to the England Elite Squad 2008/2009 squad.