The impressive girls rugby team of Richmond Upon Thames School (RUT), recently became Richmond Borough and London Regional Girls Rugby Champions. They have now progressed to the National Champion Schools Rugby League Festival Finals in July. This is a tremendous achievement from a newly formed team representing a secondary school which itself only opened in Twickenham last year!
It is indicative of strong local enthusiasm and success in female rugby. The local Harlequins Ladies Rugby team attracted the highest ever attendance for a British women's club stand-alone rugby match on the 10th March, as 4,542 supporters watched them beat Richmond FC at Harlequins own Twickenham grounds, The Stoop, to reach the Semi-Final of the Tyrells Premier 15s, the top domestic ladies rugby club competition. Indeed, five of the Harlequins Ladies were named in the England squad, the Red Roses, which just beat Ireland to end second in the 2018 Six Nations competition.
Harlequins Foundation launched a girls rugby pathway in 2016, through the programme “Switch”, to inspire U13 and U15 girls to play rugby. It was piloted in Waldegrave School and St. Richard Reynolds Catholic College, Twickenham and Grey Court, Richmond. It has now been rolled out across the Borough and runs coaching sessions for some 1000 girls in 2017, culminating in a Festival which is soon to take place on the 27th to 29th April. Harlequins has created a route from school grassroots to Harlequins Amateurs up to elite Club Rugby. Harlequins Rugby Club is in partnership with Richmond Council, amongst others, to govern the RUT School. As the recent school success shows, their initiatives and Harlequins Ladies own successes are having the desired effect of “inspiring those girls to keep playing rugby and hopefully it'll get bigger and better”(@HarlequinsWomen).
This local success and interest is illustrative of a growing appetite for women's rugby. England Women’s Rugby attracted record crowds during the 2017/8 season with attendance up 20% on average compared to the previous Six Nations campaigns. Sky Sports saw a 92% year increase for the Women's Six Nations fixtures. At the end of 2017, there were 512 women and girls rugby teams in England and 27,500 female players registered. England Rugby aims to engage 100,000 more females by 2021 by investing £10m to pursue the “wish to see all women and girls able to play at their local club, with coaching and development as good as for boys and men” states Deborah Griffin, RFU Council Women’s and Girls’ Representative on the RFU site.
It is clear that our local school and professional female rugby teams are successful ambassadors of an exciting surge in initiatives for women's rugby. Finally, Harlequins Ladies would welcome everybody to support them at their semi final against Wasps Ladies on Saturday 14th April at The Stoop. Support your local women's rugby team and create another British attendance record!
Toby Tolson, Hampton School
