Olivia Ortiz

Scrum-half Olivia Ortiz joined Sale Sharks Women ahead of the 2024/25 season but picked up a serious elbow injury in her first appearance for the club in September 2024. 

She battled back in just three and a half months to play a key role in Rachel Taylor’s team during the PWR season. 

Olivia took up rugby for the first time when she was 17 during her senior year of high school when a girls rugby programme was first started.  

Prior to taking up the sport, she was a national-level horse rider, spending three years on the equestrian team and four years with the National Barrel Horse Association in high school.  

She was also an NBHA state champion, a 4H state champion and an equestrian team state champion. 

Olivia climbed through the USA Rugby age-grade program, joining the USA U20s in 2017 and 2018 as well as becoming a Collegiate All-American in 2018. As a staple of Davenport University’s rugby team, Ortiz led her team as captain. 

Olivia earned her first USA cap against England in June 2019 during the opening round of the Women’s Rugby Super Series in Chula Vista, California. 

She was named in both the 2021 and 2025 Rugby World Cup squads.