History
Women’s Rugby was first played seriously in Great Britain in the late 1970’s. Early teams were established through the student network and included Keele University, University College of London, Imperial College, York University and St Mary’s Hospital.
Until May 1994 Women’s’ Rugby was run by the Women’s’ Rugby Football Union (WRFU), formed in 1983. The WRFU was responsible for rugby in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. When the WRFU was formed there were 12 founder teams as members in the first year. These teams included: Leicester Polytechnic, Sheffield University, UCL, University of Keele, Warwick University, Imperial College, Leeds University, Magor Maidens, York University and Loughborough University.
In 1994 the Rugby Football Union for Women (RFUW) was formed in England with each of the Home Nations governing their own countries. The RFUW currently has over 410 Clubs comprising of 170 Senior clubs, 80 student sides, 29 Under 18’s sides, 103 Under 16’s sides and 40 Schools. These clubs are slotted into regions, these being: North West, North East, Yorkshire & Humber, East Midlands, West Midlands, Eastern Counties, London & South East North, South East South, South West (North) and South West (South) There are also 16 Partnership Officers developing girls rugby in their geographical regions..
Top men’s clubs, which now have women’s teams, include: Wasps, Saracens, Worcester, Rosslyn Park, London Welsh, Waterloo, Richmond, Blackheath and Harlequins.
Structure
Member club subscriptions and grant funding through Sport England primarily fund the RFUW. England Women’s Rugby is purely funded through the National Lottery Fund administered and overseen by Sport England. Gilberts, Lucozade and Samurai sponsor the RFUW and England Women’s Rugby. The RFUW National Cup competition is sponsored by Rugby World.
Major funding was obtained from the Sports Council in 1995 and this allowed the appointment of the first paid and full time member of the RFUW. The position of National Development Officer was created in September 1996 with the aim of developing rugby at all levels, but with emphasis during the early stages of developing Youth Rugby.
Since this time further funding has allowed the RFUW to expand its operation to include a Development and Performance Directorate, which is underpinned by an administrative structure to support both paid and volunteer officers in running the game, its competitions, membership services and development and performance initiatives.
The Director of Rugby is responsible for the operation of both the Development and Performance Departments and delivering against the targets set in national plans, which include the development of grass roots, youth, coaching and officials, volunteers as well as talent identification, raising standards, player development and the national squads.
The Managing Director, who reports to the RFUW Board of Directors, oversees the operation of all departments. There are currently six elected RFUW Executive Committee Members, all of whom are volunteers and nine Regional Administrators, also volunteers, responsible for developing the game of rugby in the Regions and co-ordinating rugby on a local level.
The RFUW is an Associate of the Rugby Football Union and Women’s Rugby is recognised as part of the mainstream game by the International Rugby Board.
Competitions
The RFUW currently organises a Regional programme at three age groups, a Super Fours competition, International fixtures and three Cup Competitions – the Rugby World National Cup the North/South Cup and the Student cup. Additionally it administers twenty-two leagues featuring the top two National Premier Leagues – Premier 1 and Premier 2. The split below the National leagues divides into the National Challenge Leagues One and Two split into North, Midlands, South East and South West. There are then 12 leagues below these which are run on a regional basis.
Talent Identification & Player Development
As part of its Talent ID and player development programmes, the RFUW runs the regional programme for U16’s, U18’s and seniors and then the Performance Development Academies (PDA’s) are run during the summer months. These lead into the Super Fours competition where the best 88 players are pitted against each other in four sides playing a round robin competition over three weekends. There is also an U19’s competition run alongside the S4’s. From these games the England squads are selected. These comprise the England Elite squad which includes England and England A teams, the England Academy Squad and the U19’s. The Student squad is selected after trials during November and December. The RFUW then run a programme of training and competition for these elite and emerging players which include around 5 training, match weekends and tours.
International History
The first women’s International in Great Britain took place when Great Britain played against France in April 1986 at Richmond Athletic Ground, London. France won 14 - 8. Since then Great Britain has played Holland and Italy and taken part in the first European Cup against France, Holland and Italy. Great Britain has not played since they beat Italy in 1990. England first played against Wales on the 5th April 1987, when they won 22 – 4 at Pontypool Park, Wales. An England v Wales International has taken place every year since and on all occasions has been won by England.
The first ever Women’s Rugby World Cup was held in Cardiff, Great Britain in 1991. Twelve countries participated in the Tournament, held over a week. France, New Zealand, USA and England emerged as the semi-finalists, with USA beating England 19 - 6 in the final at Cardiff Arms Park.
The second Women’s World Cup/Championship was held in April 1994 and hosted by Scotland. England beat the USA in the Final 38 - 23, at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh.
The third World Cup (the first to be officially supported by the IRB) was held in May 1998 in Amsterdam over two weeks. England as defending champions, met the New Zealand All Blacks in the semi final and were beaten by 44 points to 11 (the smallest margin against New Zealand in the whole competition). England went on to beat Canada in the 3rd/4th play off to take third spot. New Zealand beat USA in the final to become Champions.
The 1995/1996 season saw the introduction of a Home Nations Championship between England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, which England won in its inaugural year. England have since won the Championship every year except from the 1997/98 season when Scotland won it. France joined the competition in the 1998/99 season making it the Five Nations Championship with England achieving the Grand Slam.
In 1999/2000 season Ireland dropped out of the Five Nations and were duly replaced by Spain hence retaining the Five Nations theme and England were crowned champions for this and the following year. In the 2001/02 season, Ireland rejoined the fold in preparation for the World Cup, and the competition expanded to be known as the Six Nations. In this season, England saw their crown slip as they lost a closely contested game against France who went on to win the inaugural Championship. The 2003 Women’s Six Nations Championship was won by England with France again taking revenge in 2004 to win the Grand Slam.
The inaugural Churchill Cup in 2003 saw England emerge as Champions alongside the England men’s A side with victories over Canada and the USA. A Development squad also went to South Africa in this year with victories over several provincial sides before beating a South African Presidents XV.
The fourth World Cup took place in Barcelona in May 2002. 16 Nations took part in the event and through the global development of rugby, included such countries as Japan and Samoa. England took on the Italians and successfully defeated them 63 – 9. However hosts Spain, were a difficult side to break down and a narrow victory of 13 – 5 took them through to the semi-final stages. Canada were overrun with a commanding England side who coasted to the final by 53 – 10. The Final saw England take on the mighty New Zealand Black Ferns and also saw one of the narrowest margins of victory in a World Cup Final. England lost to New Zealand by 19 – 9.
Published on: 27/05/04 |
