A new career option for the rugby mad?

Up until now the options for rugby mad girls wishing to combine career with opportunities to play have been largely limited to the Services, and especially the army. Indeed this has been the chosen path for at least one ex-Legend, though she has been heard to complain that the army had clearly got its priorities wrong as the soldiering had an annoying tendency to get in the way of the rugby.

However the services are not for everyone and for those wishing you follow a career path which does not include trips to Camp Bastion, there is now an alternative as this weekend the England Fire Fighters' Women's team will be playing their first match against Newcastle University. The men have had a team for some years - and at least one male legend has played for them. They regularly play against police and armed services teams, and now Stuart Irwin - the Fire Service director of rugby - and responded to growing demand for a women's XV. And it should be a pretty decent team, as it will be captained by ex-England international - Helen Durman (who also played for Saracens), who now works for the Northamptonshire Fire Service.