Hello Readers,
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| Red Roses VS Canada Nov 17 Photo credit: Lauren Reads |
This post is an expansion on a post I did for Women's History Week. Anyone who knows me personally or has seen my social
feeds knows I love rugby. I don’t want to sound all feministy right away but I
prefer watching The Red Roses games because they are a lot quicker, cleaner and
all-around better game experience. I know some of the big rugby clubs have
female teams but I will mainly be focusing on The Red Roses. The men messed up
their chance at coming second sorry guys (true story) then The Roses played and Won The Six Nations 80 - 0 but also Grand Slammed! Send her Victorious!
The men still have a slight advantage in the game than
the women and that is that a majority of women rugby players still have a day
job. In September last year the RFU announced that it would introduce women’s full-time
contracts in 2019 underlining its commitment to the growth of women’s
rugby.
The England women's national rugby union team first
played in 1982. In 1994 the Rugby Football Union for Women (RFUW) was formed in
England with each of the Home Nations governing their own countries. Many of
the top men’s clubs have had women’s teams including Wasps, Saracens,
Worcester, London Irish and Harlequins.
Since the 1990s, rugby for women has grown significantly
as more rugby union tournaments were being held and women’s rugby was given
more publicity and centre stage although 7s tend to be more popular.
In 2003 England staged the first women’s international at
Twickenham. While 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", and the Women's Rugby World Cup was broadcast live on the
internet.
If I am wrong please feel free to correct me but I don’t
think it was till the men’s 2015 rugby world cup being held in England that I
noticed The Red Rose getting any recognition. I noticed the Hashtags
#WatchThemGrow and #SendHerVictorious start appearing on adverts and social
media platforms. Since the 2017 Women's
World Cup, the Red Roses have won 14 of their 15 Tests matches.
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| Red Roses VS USA Nov 18 Photo Credit: Lauren Reads |
The growth of women participating in
rugby gained popularity in both developed and emerging nations, being the
fastest growing sport in the world according to the RFU. However, the cost and player numbers mean
that, in some nations, sevens tend to dominate, but 15-a-side is starting to be
established in all regions.
I think it may have been last year when the Barbarians
officially launched a female team last year which is a brilliant step in the
right direction. Being called up to be a Barbarian is such a great honour let
alone been called up as a female player. The Barbarians are a group of players who are chosen to form an elite team and membership is by invitation only.
Red Roses in numbers
World Cup
2 wins
Six Nations Championship
14 wins
13 Grand Slam
19 Triple Crowns
European Championship
5 wins
L x
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