Women's rugby union

Women's rugby union is a sport identical to the men's game - same rules, same sized pitch, same equipment. However its history is significantly different. Social pressures - along with the broader game's self image - resulted in a largely hidden history until comparatively recently.

The first 100 years of Women's rugby union 1891-1990

The secretive nature of the early years of women’s rugby union ensures that we do not really know where it began. The first coverage the game receives comes from 1891 when team of female rugby players wanting to tour around New Zealand had their tour to be cancelled due to a public outcry. There are also early reports of women’s rugby union being played in France (1903) and England (1913) but in both cases the game was largely behind close doors so no documentation survives.

However, the game did occasionally raise its head in public, such as at Cardiff Arms Park on Dec 16, 1917, when Cardiff Ladies beat Newport 6-0 in a wartime charity match. [http://archive.penarthtimes.co.uk/2006/1/23/4269.html Maria Eley] played full-back for Cardiff and went on to become probably the oldest women's rugby player before she died in Cardiff in 2007 at the age of 106. Interestingly, reports suggest that the Cardiff team all wore protective headgear, which predates their male counterparts by some decades.

Maria remained a keen player until she married her husband, Hector, and concentrated on bringing up eight children. She attributed her longevity to a love of rugby and an aversion to cigarettes and alcohol. Away from rugby and family duties she chaired the senior citizens club at her native Cogan for 24 years and was still calling bingo until she was 101.

Film of a women playing a form of rugby union in France in 1928 has [http://letchworthgirls.blogspot.com/2008/03/womens-rugby-in-1928.html recently been discovered] , though it is unclear whether this was the full game of rugby union or a semi-contact version called "barette". However, in 1930 a women's league playing the full game was formed in Australia, in the New South Wales areas of Tamworth and Armidale, which ran until halted by World War Two. During the war Maori women took up the game play rugby union in New Zealand, while after the war in 1956 The "Belles of St Mary’s" - an Australian women's rugby league team - played games in New South Wales. But even as late as the 1960s Women's rugby was banned in Samoa.

The 1960s was the decade in which the game finally began to put down roots, initially in the universities of Western Europe. In 1962 the first recorded UK women's rugby union team appears at Edinburgh University, in 1963 female students participate in matches against male students in London, and in 1965 university sides are being formed in France.

As these students left university an adult game began to evolve. Initially (1966) this tended to be confined to charity matches between male and female teams (especially at Worthing RFC, England), but on 1st May 1968 the first fully documented and recorded women's club match in France took place at Toulouse Fémina Sports in front of [http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_%C3%A0_XV_f%C3%A9minin "thousands of spectators"] , an event that lead on to the formation of the first national association for women's rugby union formed - the "Association Francaise de Rugby Feminin" (AFRF) at Toulouse, in 1970 - the first national giverning body for women's rugby.

The game developed in a similar way elsewhere. 1970 sees the first reports of women's rugby union in Canada, and by 1972 four universities in the USA are playing the game: University of Colorado, Colorado State, the University of Illinois and the University of Missouri.

By 1975 university students at Wageningen in the Netherlands are playing, and in the same year clubs appear in Spain (Arquitectura in Madrid and Osas in Barcelona). Clubs form in 1978 in Canada and Netherlands, and in Italy (Milan) a year later.

By 1980 there are club championships in USA and Sweden, and provincial championships in New Zealand. The game starts in Japan in 1981 and finally on 13th June 1982 the first women's international - Netherlands 0, France 4 takes place at Utrecht (see Women's international rugby union for more details on the international game] .

In the UK 1983 sees the Women’s Rugby Football Union (WRFU) formed to govern the game across the British Isles. Founder member clubs are: Leicester Polytechnic, Sheffield University, University College London, University of Keele, Warwick University, Imperial College, Leeds University, Magor Maidens, York University and Loughborough University, and National League and Cup competitions follow in 1986 - two years after The LNRF (Lega Nazionale Rugby Feminile) formed in Italy

The game begins to be organised on a more formal basis elsewhere, including:
*1984 The LNRF (Lega Nazionale Rugby Feminile) formed in Italy
*1986 First UK National League and Cup competitions established
*1987 Canadian women's rugby board established
*1988 Japanese Women’s Rugby Football Union formed
*1989 Soviet women's rugby union organized in the USSR
*1989 ARFR is formally integrated into the Federation Francaise de Rugby (FFR), and
*1990 First Irish club teams formed
*1990 The USA become the ‘Eagles’ and play officially for USA Rugby for the first time

1990 also saw the first international tournament - "RugbyFest" held in Christchurch, New Zealand. As well as a variety of club sides, including teams from Japan (but not the Japanese national team), were four "national" teams - USA, New Zealand, USSR, and the Netherlands - who played a round-robin tournament. The winner was New Zealand, who then played - and beat - a combined "World XV".

A world game in the making - 1990-1998

"Rugbyfest" pointed the way to the next big leap forward - the first women's rugby world cup, which took place in Wales the following year. Timed to coincide with the second men's world cup being held in England it did not meet with official approval from the IRB, a decision which threatened the competition and was a factor in the New Zealand RFU not supporting their entry. However, this did not stop the New Zealanders taking part - nor Wales, USA, England, France, Canada, Sweden, USSR, Japan, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands.

The competition was run on a shoestring. Russian players sold souvenirs before and during matches to raise funds to cover their expenses, while four England administrators re-mortgaged their houses to cover the expenses of attending the competition. But after fifteen matches the first world champions were crowned - the USA, who beat England in the final. Despite the lack of support from the men's game, and very little media coverage, the competition had been a success... and the women's game continued to grow:

*1991 Netherlands Rugby Union take control of the women’s game
*1991 Women’s rugby revived in Australia by Wal Fitzgerald in Newcastle, New South Wales
*1992 Irish women split from the WRFU to form their own Irish Women’s Rugby Football Union
*1992 The New Zealand women are taken under the umbrella of the NZRFU
*1993 Scottish women split from the WRFU to be governed by their own Union (the Scottish Women’s Rugby Union).
*1993 Australian Women’s Rugby Union formed
*1994 The WRFU disband. The Rugby Football Union for Women (RFUW) is formed in England, while the Welsh Women’s Rugby Union affiliates with the Welsh Rugby Union.

A second world cup was awarded to the Netherlands - but constant prevarication by the IRB about whether they would (or would not) give the tournament official status caused huge problems for the hosts. Without IRB support there was a fear that many unions would not send teams which would threaten the tournament (and even the Dutch union's) viability. In fact the IRB went so far as to threaten sanctions against any unions did take part - thus ensuring that New Zealand, Sweden and Germany withdrew. Faced with this the risk of major losses was as too great and the Dutch withdrew both as hosts and participants with barely weeks to go.

It was Scotland who stepped in to save the event with only 90 days to organise it. The second world cup was in the end a purely northern hemisphere affair with 11 remaining teams (consisting of the four home nations, France, USA, Japan, Sweden, Russia, Canada and Kazakhstan) joined by a Scottish Students XV. The final was a repeat of 1991, but with this time England overcoming the USA 38-23, the final being played at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh. Despite everything, the tournament had been a success and the game continued to grow:

*1995 Irish WRFU officially recognised by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU)
*1996 First Home Nations competition held between England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Won by England.
*1997 First Hong Kong Sevens tournament for women
*1998 New Zealand drop the nickname ‘Gal Blacks’ to become the "Black Ferns" - the female version of the "silver fern" used by the male team.
*1998 The 1998 version of the Women's Rugby World Cup is the first to be fully sanctioned by the International Rugby Board.

Acceptance and growth: 1998-

Widespread acceptance of the game leads to women's versions of other major rugby union tournaments (the women's Five Nations begins in 1999), and [http://www.rfu.com/microsites/museum/pdfs/museum_newspaper.pdf growing numbers of headlines] . In 2000 the Irish WRFU affiliate fully with the IRFU - but there are still set-backs. In 2002 the Australian RFU drops support for women's team's entry to world cup. The decision seen as a factor in IOC rejection of rugby as an Olympic sport and is reversed two years later.

But this is unusual. Women's teams are now being accepted on the main stage. In 2002 Scotland play their first women’s match at Murrayfield and in 2003 England stage the first women’s international at Twickenham.

In 2006 the RFU devoted the rugby museum's main annual exhibition to the history of women's rugby - "Women's Rugby - A Work in Progress" [http://www.rfu.com/microsites/museum/index.cfm?fuseaction=whatson.exhibitiondetail&storyid=133777] , and the same year sees Women's Rugby World Cup broadcast live on the Internet.

The game remains an amateur, minority sport - but a fast growing one played in over 80 countries worldwide. Cost and player numbers mean that in many of these nations sevens tends to dominate, but 15-a-side championships have now been established in all regions.

*1999 Irish WRFU affiliate fully with the IRFU
*2000 South African women affiliate with South African Rugby Football Union.
*2002 Australian RFU drops support for women's team's entry to world cup. Decision seen as a factor in IOC rejection of rugby as an Olympic sport. Reversed two years later.
*2004 Wales restrict national team selections to players from Welsh teams. Slump in performance significant factor in rejection of entry for 2006 world cup. Decision reversed in time for 2006 Six Nations.
*2005 Canada controversially selected as hosts for 2006 World cup - despite major bid from England. Believed that selection was part of an IRB policy to host tournaments outside of Europe.
*2005 Ugandan women form Uganda Women's Rugby Association (UWRA) and affiliate to the Uganda Rugby Union (URU).
*2006 Major exhibition on history of women's rugby - "Women's Rugby - A Work in Progress" [http://www.rfu.com/microsites/museum/index.cfm?fuseaction=whatson.exhibitiondetail&storyid=133777] held at Twickenham
*2006 The inaugural Conferderation of African Rugby (CAR) women's 7's. Uganda are the hosts and lose to South Africa in the final.
*2007 Donna Kennedy becomes Scotland's most-capped player and the World's most-capped female player with 100 caps. Her last game a narrow defeat to France.
*2007 Welsh Women's RFU merges with the Welsh RFU.
*2007 For the first time in the Six Nations era (2000–present), the Women's Six Nations Championship features teams from the same nations as the men's version, as Spain are replaced by Italy.
*2007 Third Caribbean Championship in the Cayman Islands are cancelled less than 48 hours before they are due to start due to Hurricane Dean
*2009 A Women's competition will be included as part of the World Cup Sevens in Dubai. It will include 16 nations and will run alongside the men's event.

ee also

*Canada Cup
*Caribbean Women’s Rugby Championship
*FIRA Women's European Championship
*Women's international rugby
*Pacific Tri-Nations
*Women's Six Nations Championship
*Women's Rugby World Cup

ources

Compared with the men's game the sources of information for women's rugby union are few and far between. The main sources for this article include:

*An [http://www.rfu.com/microsites/museum/index.cfm?fuseaction=whatson.exhibitiondetail&storyid=13377 exhibition on the history of women's rugby union] , organised by the [http://www.rfu.com/microsites/museum/ Museum of Rugby] at Twickenham in 2006.
*The [http://www.angelfire.com/pa3/esurugby/rugbyhistory.html Timeline of Women's rugby]
*The [http://www.rugbyrelics.com/Museum/exhibitions/NR125/14.htm World Rugby Museum] .

External links

* [http://www.rugbydata.com/wir Rugbydata] now includes all of results above for which a score is known making it the only rugby results website to record women's results on an equal basis to men's. Allows the user to investigate any aspect of any individual team's results.
* [http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp01/MQ31236.pdf The rise and popularity of women's rugby in Canada, by John A O'Hanley (1998)]