If Rosie Allison wasn’t a public health specialist, she could surely land herself a job in the tourism industry.

It would be a calling for which she would appear to be ideally suited because the 30-year-old has been all over the globe playing netball, the sport she loves and still plays today.

“I’ve played in New Zealand, Australia, the Cook Islands, Trinidad, Barbados, Jamaica and South Africa,” she told The Local Answer. “I lived in New Zealand for a year.”

That was just over 10 years ago and she’s also played netball in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland so it’s fair to say she’s pretty well-travelled.

And she’s still clocking up the miles today because she is captain of Hucclecote’s flagship team who play in England Netball’s Premier League 1.

That’s the highest level of club netball in the country, a level that sees Hucclecote rubbing shoulders with the likes of Oldham, Leeds Athletic and Charnwood.

Allison, a goal shooter, is a major player for Hucclecote, of course, as she has been for pretty much every team she has played.

And she has played on some of the biggest stages the sport has to offer, competing for England on many occasions in the senior European championships, world youth championships and European youth championships.

“I’ve won every European championships I’ve played in, about or eight or nine, senior or junior,” she said. “I've also competed in two world youth championships, we finished fourth both times.

“The youth championships are an under-21 competition, I was 17 when I first played in the world youth championships.”

It’s fair to say that netball is a sport that Allison took to straight away.

“I started playing when I was 11 or 12,” she said. “I had a post in my garden and I used to practice shooting all the time.”

In those days Allison lived in Brighton but her potential was soon obvious.

She was scouted by England at the age of 14 and was playing for her country’s under-21s a year later. Another year on and she had moved to Bath where her talent was nurtured and developed by England Netball.

“I’m 6ft 3in,” she said. “I have been this tall since I was 14, I was 6ft when I left primary school. I was always going to be a shooter or a defender, but I’m quite good at getting the ball in the net.”

That’s a bit of an understatement, of course, and while she’s obviously got a lot of ability, she’s always been prepared to work hard.

“It’s not just because I’m tall that I’ve had success,” she said. “I used to practice hour after hour when I was growing up. I had three brothers so going into the garden and throwing a ball at the post was my way of getting away from them!”

And as well as enjoying great success on the international stage, she has also thrived domestically because she played for Team Bath for seven seasons, winning three Super League titles.

She’s been captain of Hucclecote for the past five or six years, a club she first played for when she was 16, and a club she remains hugely enthusiastic about.

“We’ve got some great players,” she said. “Some of us have played together for a long time – Sam Cook, Lauren Hancock, Ella Powell-Davies and Shona O’Dwyer.

“We’ve also got some really good players who have come through the club’s minis and juniors, we’ve got a big squad.”

As captain, Allison is the leader on court, of course, but what sort of captain is she?

“I’m very much a leader by example,” she said. “Sam Cook is the voice when we’re playing. Sarah Adams, who used to play and is now a coach, is also a big motivator.”

And what about Allison the player, what makes a good goal shooter?

“You need to be cool, calm and collected,” she said. “You mustn’t let things affect you. Don’t get put off by anything, if you miss a chance you need a very short memory because you’ve got to keep trying to score.”

Hucclecote play their home games at Cheltenham Ladies’ College – “It’s a lovely venue,” said Allison – and while she remains hugely enthusiastic about Hucclecote, she is also hugely enthusiastic about the sport of netball itself.

“It’s a great sport, it’s still the top female sport in the country,” she said. “Everyone who watches us play is impressed by the speed and physicality of the game. The ball moves so quickly, you’ve always got to be thinking two steps ahead.

“Netball is on the rise at the moment, it’s getting a lot of exposure. England have done well in the Commonwealth Games, we won the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year’s Greatest Sporting Moment of the Year not too long ago and we’ve got the World Cup in South Africa in 2023.”

That will be another big year for the sport, of course, and Allison, who lives in Bishop’s Cleeve with fiancé Jarred Bell and Aristotle, their nine-month-old pet Cocker Spaniel, has just had a very big year of her own.

“I got engaged, we got a dog and we’ve bought our first home,” she said.

And she still finds time to play netball! Everyone at Hucclecote will be hoping that she continues to play for a long time yet.