Wales international and Bristol Bears player Elinor Snowsill has told how comfortable she felt coming out as gay within rugby.

The 31 year-old, who told her parents when she was 23, said the environment in the game allows everyone to be who they are.

She told Rugby World Cup: “In rugby you can just be who you want to be. You can just be you and you don’t get judged.

“I think the fact that in rugby you have such different body types playing in one team, you have such different personalities and skill sets and you have such a variety of different people that it creates an environment where everyone’s accepting of everything.”

She also added she was originally not going to come out but decided to in order to normalise it.

“I wasn’t going to do it originally because I thought I didn’t need to.

“But then I remembered I still know of people who can’t come out because their family’s not accepting of it. Or who have been kicked out of their houses because of it.  

“And I think because of those issues it’s still really important if we get the opportunity to talk about it that we talk about it, and normalise it.”