Billy Twelvetrees

Twelvetrees grew up in Wisborough Green, West Sussex. He is the son of Kevin Twelvetrees, a tree surgeon, and Beverley Twelvetrees. He attended Wisborough Green Primary School and later The Weald Secondary School in Billingshurst. He is the youngest of four brothers who were all encouraged to play rugby by their mother, Beverley, with his older brothers Jonathan and twins Matthew and Joseph providing suitable competition.

Growing up, Twelvetrees was active in a range of sports including football and cricket. During his youth he spent his summer weekends playing for Wisborough Green Cricket Club where he was proficient with the bat: "Billy’s still got the biggest hit for Wisborough Green Cricket Club. From the most distant wicket he cleared the pavilion with a six."

Twelvetrees spent his youth at a succession of Sussex rugby clubs, including a spell at Haywards Heath in the same side as Joe Marler but it was a family friend (a part-owner of Leicester Lions) who would provide Twelvetrees with his first foray into professional rugby. While Twelvetrees was with the Lions, a coach there put him in touch with the-then Leicester Tigers academy manager, Andy Key, and after playing summer Sevens by way of a trial, he was taken on.

As a junior, Twelvetrees played for Pulborough, Horsham and Haywards Heath. He joined the Leicester Tigers academy from Leicester Lions in 2007, and moved to Bedford Blues for the 2008–09 season. After an outstanding season for Bedford, in which he scored 18 tries, 16 conversions and 13 penalties, he re-signed for Tigers in 2009.

He made his first appearance for Leicester in the Heineken Cup on 11 October, filling in for Dan Hipkiss, who was ruled out just prior to kick-off. Despite making his debut with just 10-minutes' notice, he won Man of the Match, scoring a try in a 14-point haul. Unfortunately, he was injured in his next match and ruled out for a large part of the season. He went on to make just six appearances in 2009–10, scoring four tries.

In the opening games of the 2010–11 season, Leicester lost Toby Flood, Jeremy Staunton and George Ford to injury and Twelvetrees was again thrust into the starting line-up, this time at fly-half.

On 28 January 2012, Twelvetrees signed a two-year deal to move from Leicester Tigers to play for Gloucester Rugby. However, on 27 September 2013, Twelvetrees signed a two-year contract extension to stay with Gloucester until the end of the 2015-16 season. On 15 August 2014, Twelvetrees was named new club captain for Gloucester for the 2014-15 season.

He was called up for the second string national side, England Saxons, in 2011.

A year later after leaving Leicester for Gloucester Twelvetrees was handed his first full international cap by Stuart Lancaster for England's Calcutta Cup clash with Scotland at Twickenham, scoring a try on his debut. On 12 June 2013, following an impressive performance against Argentina, Twelvetrees was called up to the British and Irish Lions Tour of Australia due to concerns about possible injuries sustained by the fly halves and centres prior to the tests.

Try	Opposing team	Location	Venue	Competition	Date	Result	Score
1	Scotland	London, England	Twickenham	2013 Six Nations	000000002013-02-02-00002 February 2013	Win	38 – 18
†	Barbarian F.C.	London, England	Twickenham	Summer International	000000002013-05-26-000026 May 2013	Win	40 – 12
2	Argentina	Salta, Argentina	Estadio Padre Ernesto Martearena	Summer International	000000002013-06-08-00008 June 2013	Win	32 - 3
3	Argentina	London, England	Twickenham	Autumn International	000000002013-11-09-00009 November 2013	Win	31 – 12

† Full international cap not awarded for Barbarians Test match