Is this the first photo of a women's rugby team?

Could this be the first ever photograph of a women's rugby team?

It was sent to me back in October, having first appeared on a women's history website from South Wales called "Quiet Women's Row". Apparently the glass negatives turned up during some council redevelopment work in the 1970s, but with little information. All that is known is that the picture was probably taken in Newport.

However, the date added to the picture is almost certainly wrong - the dress of spectators seems to indicate something from the mid 1910s, some time during the First World War maybe. And if that is so we may be able to have a good guess about what the game was, because in 1916 the earliest recorded women's rugby match in Britain took place, between teams of women from Newport and Cardiff, to raise money for the war - and fascinatingly reports from the game say that the women wore caps or head protection of some sort... which is what the women above seem to be wearing.

Whether that picture was from that game, 95 years ago, we'll probably never know now - any more than we can know which team it is, or who the women were. But it is an important piece of women's rugby history, and women's sport history as well.