Letchworth Girls' Rugby

New Zealand begin their Search for a Sevens team

2012-01-31T19:56:00.002Z

Its a method of selection that (if this article is right) sounds closer to a prime-time reality TV than rugby, but New Zealand have begun their search for a 2016 Olympic Star.

80 hopefuls began today, who will be whittled down to 30. Then another cut a bit more before public trial game, after which they'll get the final squad. I think. When it is put like this you really do expect Graham Norton and Andrew Lloyd Webber to be involved...

In fact the guy in charge is one Sean Horan, who is a gifted coach, but could maybe learn to leave off on the patronising just a bit - "What I learnt most from the last week was that the female athletes take things on board very quickly and they are very intelligent when it comes to playing the game".

Perhaps its just reads worse than he meant...

France v England to be broadcast - live!

2012-01-31T18:31:00.004Z

Fantastic (and unexpected) news. Sky Sports will be linking up with France4 to show the France v England game LIVE!

As reported earlier, the game - which should be the decider for the Six Nations - will be the first game ever shown live on a national French TV channel, a step forward that looked like depriving UK viewers with access to the game. But now the game will be available on Sky Sports 2 (red button) on Saturday Match 11th, kick-off 12.45 (UK time).

Three of England's five Six Nations game will now be available to watch at home. As well as the above, England v Wales at Twickenham Stadium on February 25th will be on the BBC Red Button and the BBC Sport website, and England’s final Six Nations clash against Ireland on March 17th will be streamed live through www.rfu.com/englandwomenlive.

Have your say on women's sport

2012-01-30T14:40:00.001Z

Women's sports magazine Sportsister have launched a "Have Your Say" page for readers to comment on anything to do with women's sport. They are "giving you the chance to use Sportsister as a platform to air your views. It can be a global matter, a nationwide problem or simply something that’s personal to you – but it must be about women’s sport and it has to be relevant to our readers."

To make you views known, click here.

Why I play rugby...

2012-01-28T21:18:00.001Z

This is rather good. Two young Indian women describe their passion for rugby. The second speaker actually plays for the Indian national team (ie. their sevens team - India have not played a 15s test yet).

How to promote a women's rugby international

2012-01-26T23:21:00.000Z

France will begin their Six Nations against Italy in the small town of Riom in central France, and to celebrate the selection of their town as international hosts the people and local council will tomorrow starts TWO WEEKS of celebrations leading up to the game. There will be live music concerts in the town square, exhibitions in the local museums and libraries, debates on women's sport featuring major "sports personalities", visits by sportswomen to schools to promote all women's sport (not just rugby), rugby tournaments, a fashion show, dinners, more music...

Its amazing.

I wonder what the local council for Esher have planned for the England international they are staging?

And in local news...

2012-01-25T17:13:00.001Z

Congratulations to Sydney Gregson for being selected again for the U18 divisional squad (see Herts Blog for full set of names).

No great surprise, because she is brilliant, but I think it is still worth saying as getting into the Divisional team - especially for London & South East - is always pretty impressive. And - although she now wears a different club shirt - once a Legend, always a Legend!

And while on the subject of successful former Legends, its worth recording - for those who did not know - that apparently ex-Legend Jess Robinson is now captain of Loughborough University, even though she is only in her second year. I suspect many people may have know it already, but I didn't - and I think that its an achievement worth recording. Well done Jess!

IRB announce World Cup qualification process

2012-01-24T23:52:00.003Z

The IRB have revealed how the 12 teams that will play in the 2014 Women's Rugby World Cup in Paris will be selected. The actual announcement is on ScrumQueens but - cutting through the verbiage - it looks something like this....

Automatic qualifiers:
1. New Zealand (holders)
2. England (2010 runners-up)
3. Australia (2010 third place)
4. France (host)
5. USA (2010 5th)
6. Canada (2010 6th)

Other qualifiers:
This is a bit of guesswork as the press release is not exactly clear in places...
7. Asian 15s champions 2013
8. African qualifier (Winner of South Africa vs. 2013 Elgon Cup winner (Kenya or Uganda))
9. Six Nations team
10. Six Nations team

These two Six Nations teams will be the best two teams from the 2012 and 2013 Six Nations combined - apart from England and France.

11. Euro/Oceania qualification winner
12. Euro/Oceania qualification runner-up

The remaining two Six Nations teams will play-off in a qualifier in 2013 alongside probably other European nations and one team from Oceania. Exactly how THAT will work is not covered - but a best guess is that this will consist of two pools. Seedings will be based on the results of the 2012 European Cup Pool B. The eight teams will probably be...

Six Nations team
Six Nations team
Spain
Netherlands
Russia
Sweden
Finland
Pacific team (probably Samoa, but method of selection to be announced

The great step forward is the inclusion of Kenya and Uganda in the process - but there is still no chance for the Caribbean teams to take part in the process, or anyone from South America. Its a small step forward, but the IRB could have included everyone. In practice, compared to four years ago one more team is included...

Europe - 2010: 12 nations took part, in 2014 11 will
Africa - 2010: 1 nation took part, in 2014 3 will
N America- 2010 and 2014: 2 nations
Asia - 2010 and 2014: identical qualification process
Oceania/Pacific - 2010 and 2014: 3 nations
Caribbean - 2010 and 2014: 0 nations
S & C America: - 2010 and 2014: 0 nations

Women's Six nations on TV... latest news so far (UPDATE)

2012-01-24T20:07:00.000Z

Unfortunately there seems likely to be little improvement on TV coverage of the Six Nations this year. From what has been announced so far (plus educated guesses)...

England
Both of England's games will be available to watch live:
v Wales (25th February) will be shown on the BBC. Which BBC channel (or whether just on the Red Button) yet to be confirmed.
v Ireland (17th March) will be shown on RFU.com - the same system used for the New Zealand tests. See ScrumQueens for more details.

Wales
Other than the above, unknown although BBC Wales' Scrum V has shown some highlights in the past.

Scotland
Bad news is that Scottish Rugby TV - which has shown highlights of some women's internationals in the past - has now closed down. Its pretty unlikely therefore that any home Scotland games will be covered by anyone.

Ireland
Highlights of home games will be shown, probably on RTE's rugby programme "Against the Head" (not easily available in the UK without clever - and frankly illegal - fiddling with Sky boxes).

France
France v England will be shown live in France on France4 - a major advance as this will be the first time any women's international will have been shown live on a national French channel. The downside is that this means it will probably not be available in the UK. Highlights from the other French games may appear on FFR.com, and it is possible that regional TV stations may also offer some coverage which may be available on the web. Bit of a lottery though.

Italy
In all probability nothing will be available from any Italian home games.

Second Women's IRB Sevens to be announced

2012-01-24T17:28:00.003Z

The second official IRB Women's Sevens will take place in Hong Kong between 23rd and 25th March.

There does not seem to have been any official announcement - yet - but Netherlands today announced that they have been invited to take part, which implies some changes to the structure of the tournament - probably to 12 teams - which is not a problem as the women's Hong Kong Sevens normally 12 or more teams.

Netherlands also announced that they have been invited to play in the London Sevens which is "almost sorted". We also know that Canada and France are intending to be there, so another 12 or more team event is presumably planned.

When the official announcement will be made is not yet known - at a guess they want to announce both events together - but clearly the IRB are making sure that all of the teams they want are ready to go when they do the big reveal.

If it is a 12 team event then ten of the teams are fairly obvious - Canada, England, Australia, Spain, Brazil, China, USA, South Africa, France, Netherlands. Quite who the others might be is more of a guess, but logically they would be "local" teams like Japan or maybe Fiji in Hong Kong, and maybe Wales and Scotland in London?

Salam Rugby - the film trailer

2012-01-23T22:27:00.000Z

I have no idea where or if the full film can be found (see article below), but this trailer was produced. If anyone knows a source for the full picture then let everyone know as clearly it is a must-see picture!

Women's rugby banned in Iran

2012-01-23T07:51:00.002Z

The appearance of Iran's women's teams at several international sevens tournaments in recent years has been the cause of much comment, not only because of their kit (the IRB bent the rules close to breaking to allow them to play in full body coverings), but because of the way it challenged the portrayal of their country overseas. If women's rugby was accepted even in Iran, how could anyone elsewhere complain about it being "inappropriate".

Well, it seems that internal politics with in Iran has now caught up with these brave women. This article, published in Canada over the weekend, says that all women's sport involving any form of physical contact has been banned - even skiiing (which presumably only involves contact with the ground).

The article also details what the players in Iran have had to put up with since women started playing around 2005 - not allowed to use sports grounds that men have used, coaches banned because they are male, not allowed to practice outside if there was the slightest chance that men might see them, and so on.

USA reach the semi-finals in Las Vegas

2012-01-20T19:17:00.002Z

It may be a few weeks yet before the first big women's sevens kicks off (three to be exact), but it looks like the USA have made sure they get a place in the semi-finals this year after missing out in 2011. They'll probably play Netherlands.

The draw for the tournament finds the USA pitted against France (5th in Europe), Canada's development team (the Maple Leafs), and Japan (who have no sevens pedigree at all).

Meanwhile, in Pool B we find Canada (world no. 1), Brazil (S American no. 1), Netherlands (Europe No. 3), and USA's development team.

Admittedly it is the USA's own tournament, so they can pick it how they like, but even so its not subtle and its actually rather hard to see how they could have come up with a "better" draw. On the other hand some big USA wins on day one should get them some good local coverage, which is in the end pretty important.

Also interesting to note that there is a real chance that Canada could play Canada in the other semi-final, being as the Maple Leafs beat France in Dubai.

More on the "London Sevens"

2012-01-19T17:42:00.002Z

Apparently the "London Sevens" is still unconfirmed. It is not an issue about a lack of teams - clearly several leading teams have already put the week aside in the diaries so keen are they to take part - but more an issue of the IRB recognising it.

RFUW certainly want it to take place, alongside the men's IRB London Sevens, as a second IRB-recognised event (after Dubai last year) - but everyone is waiting for the internal wheels at the IRB to grind their way forward (slowed as they are by the usual combination of funding and politics).

The only snag is clearly that time is running out... and teams may start to commit to alternatives (like Amsterdam) instead.

U20 Euro Championship - not this year

2012-01-16T22:46:00.001Z

More news on the proposed U20 four nations, mentioned below.

RFUW have confirmed that they did propose the tournament, and did offer to run it, but Wales and Scotland later withdrew. England will still play host to France for the same week, playing two internationals, but the exciting new initiative that was the "U20 Four Nations" will not take place - this year at least.

With Wales and Scotland also withdrawing from the senior European XVs championship you have to wonder again what the heck is going on. Though both nations have U20 teams I am not sure that either now have any fixtures planned for 2012, while Scotland's newly-formed A team also seems to have a pretty thin season ahead.

While cost is always an issue, surely a tournament in the UK over the Bank Holiday week could not have been a better or more cost effective means to develop the next generation of international players, especially for Wales who have no programme of matches at all outside the Six Nations.

Perhaps they want to concentrate on preparations for the Women's Sevens World Cup qualifiers, which would be reasonable if it were not for the fact that, frankly, neither stands much chance of qualifying. In the meanwhile Scotland, at least, desperately need to improve their performances at XVs otherwise they will be watching the 2014 World Cup from the sidelines.

Nothing but praise should go to RFUW in taking the initiative to propose and organise the event - a shame that the other home nations are unable to be so far sighted.

London Women's Sevens?

2012-01-14T15:41:00.000Z

Another event that there has been no official publicity for, but which seems to have sneaked into the calendars of at least two national teams, is a London International Women's Sevens - apparently to be played on the weekend of the 12th-13th May.

At first glance some of us thought that this was a misunderstanding and that maybe they meant the Amsterdam Sevens - but that is now the following week.

All that is known is that both Canada and France are definitely intending to take part - so its not just some hyped-up club event. With the World's Number One coming it's going to be pretty serious.

Its probable that England will be there too (though you can never be sure about such things) and you'd also assume that the likes of Wales and Scotland would also want to take an opportunity to warm up before their World Cup qualifier in June (but again, who knows?). Sweden have also used UK sevens to get ready for European tournaments in the past, so their participation would not be unexpected.

But at this stage who can say. Secrecy remains. Hopefully we will all be told more some time before 12th May.

U20 Four-Nations Championship

2012-01-14T13:48:00.001Z

There does not seem to have been any announcement about this, but buried away on the French RFU's website is this:

FRANCE FEMININES -20 ANS
11/03/2012 : France – Angleterre à Paris (A confirmer)
02-08/04/12 : Festival des 4 nations (en Angleterre)

So there will be a week-long U20 tournament involving England, France plus (presumably) Wales and Scotland in April... somewhere in England (though very probably inside, or very near to, the M25)

This would be first ever women's European age-group tournament, and also the first time England have ever hosted any women's European rugby Championship (which is what, in effect, it is) of any sort.

Hopefully more information will emerge soon.

RFUW respond on Italian ground switch

2012-01-11T13:56:00.001Z

RFUW have responded to the post below, which highlighted complaints being circulated in Italy about England's demand that the upcoming Six Nations game be moved from its original venue at Udine:

"The RFUW had no problem with the game being held in Udine – the problem was actually getting flights to that area of Italy and we made this very clear to the Italian union when we requested the change of venue.

Our travel agent company worked hard to secure flights to Venice but due to the Venice Festival, which is the same weekend, it was impossible. Our travel agent has also looked at flights to Verona, Bologna, Milan, Salzburg, Zagreb with no success due to it being half term, the ski season and Saturday being a change over day. The only flights available going out to Venice was on Thursday 9 th February but we were unable to leave that early due to our players being ‘amateur’ and their work commitments. We just can’t take them out of work three days earlier than the actual test match. Our policy to minimise disruption to players working lives is generally to leave the day before a test match and depart the next day, meaning our players are only away for three days.

You’re right there is a rule about venues being no more than 50 miles from an international airport – Venice is 95 miles away – this is actually a Six Nations rule not an IRB rule, but this is not the reason we requested the change, but as I said because of the lack of availability of flights."

England demonstrate art of losing friends and alienating people

2012-01-09T22:26:00.001Z

The generosity and enthusiasm of Italian rugby clubs who play host to women's internationals is fast becoming legendary. Ireland's trip to Rovigo last year was typical - the Irish team being given the complete red card treatment throughout their visit, with a big enthusiastic crowd making the game a huge and memorable occasion.

This year is is England's turn to visit Italy, and the citizens of Udine in Venice region were over the moon to be given the chance to host the game. All sorts of preparations were being put in place to welcome the English team.

Were.

Because England are not coming. You see, Udine is 90km, or about 57 miles (as the crow flies) from Venice airport. And England have pointed out an IRB rule that internationals cannot take place more than 50 miles from an airport.

If you have not heard of this rule then this will be no surprise because, as an Italian RFU spokesman put it, this is "a clause that is almost never required." However "England team was adamant and demanded the move". As a result the game will now take place at Parabiago, near Milan - about 30km from the airport.

To compensate the rugby fans of Udine, the Italian RFU will now move a men's U20 game to the ground, along with games against French or Welsh women's teams next year. Apparently they are okay to travel the extra 7 miles or so.

No doubt England's management will claim that this has saved their players being crammed in a coach for an unnecessary period. However, the total journey time to Udine down the fast, modern Autostrada would have been just over an hour. Instead they will now have to drive across the middle of Milan -journey time (if the roads are clear) at least 50 minutes. I really hope those extra 10-20 minutes saved - if any time is saved (this is Milan after all!) - are worth the upset caused.

It is sometimes said that the law is an ass, but occasionally this metaphor applies to those who insist on its application.

Okay, this one is a bit weird...

2012-01-06T19:48:00.003Z

... a (US) comic novel that seems to be centred around girls' rugby.

Seriously.

A new page is published every two or three days, but the action starts in the middle of a girls' rugby match. Moreover an inter-school rugby match.

The hero seems to be a wing, and how much of the story will concern rugby is anyone's guess as this seems to be a "prequel" to a series of comic novels about female wrestlers...

Anyway, for the time enjoy!

2012 - a year of women's rugby anniversaries

2012-01-01T00:01:00.000Z

Women's international rugby celebrates several important milestones in 2012. Well, maybe "celebrate" is a bit strong as chances are that several will go by unnoticed.

So - in an attempt to give at least some recognition to a game that has a great past as well as a promising future here are some dates that might deserve be recognised by someone. Somewhere. Especially the ones underlined!

30 years ago...

13th June - First ever women's rugby international (Netherlands v France, in Utrecht)

25 years ago...

Canada's women's rugby board formed

5th April - England and Wales' first test match (again each other, in Pontypool)

14th November - Canada and USA's first test match (against each other, in Victoria, BC)

21 years ago...

4th April - First World Cup (Wales)

20 years ago...

Irish women's rugby union formed

New Zealand women join the NZRU

15 years ago...

First women's international sevens (Hong Kong)

10 years ago...

11th May - Largest women's rugby world cup (Barcelona).

5 years ago...

Wales women join the WRFU

Women's Six Nations recognised by Six Nations Committee (Italy replaces Spain)

European Championship mystery

2011-12-30T12:01:00.001Z

2012 should be the year of the Women's European Rugby Championship. It happens once every four years, in between the World Cups, and normally features the top eight national teams in the A tournament, and all of the rest in a B tournament.

In 2000 10 teams took part, in 2004 this rose to 12, and in 2008 13. But in 2012 only eight teams will be in the championship (see here for fixture information)

The A event, in Italy, will include only four teams - England, France, Italy and Spain - and the B competition will only include Finland, Netherlands, Russia and Sweden. This also means that - for the first time - Scotland, Wales and Ireland do not seem to have entered the European Championship.

Quite why is anyone's guess - but it seems very odd. It is certainly not a positive development step by these Unions (especially Ireland who do not even have the excuse of preparing for the Sevens World Cup).

Women's rugby awards

2011-12-29T16:15:00.001Z

At this stage regrettably the game does not generate the funding or publicity to justify an award evening with lots of evening dresses and suits at some swanky London venues (or even Salford). Maybe next year. Until then the ScrumQueens Awards for 2011 are well worth a look and - if at all possible - a few comments and debate.

A surprising amount of work and long, agonised debate went into these - especially the young player and 7s awards - while the make up of the related 2011 Team of the Year, also published today, was equally fraught with long discussions into the early hours.

Anyway, take a look - and leave your comments on the ScrumQueens facebook page.

Wikipedia threatens coverage of women's rugby - your help needed

2011-12-26T21:09:00.002Z

The famous internet encyclopaedia "Wikipedia" is threatening to remove an article on a women's national rugby team because it is "not notable" and because the editors have doubts that women play the game.

The article under threat concerns the Laos women's team, but the level of proof being demanded would threaten coverage of almost every other women's national team in the encyclopaedia. Oddly there are no objections to the page on the Laos men's team, even though this has considerably LESS information than the women's page contains, nor any objections to any pages on western teams - so the editors would seem to be not only openly sexist, but racist as well!

Please could all readers find a few minutes to go to this page, click on "edit" and leave a comment (if you already have a Wikipedia log in first).

Wanted: Black Fern sevens players. No previous rugby experience necessary

2011-12-17T15:34:00.001Z

Anyone else think this advert is just slightly odd?

New Zealand are - finally - forming a women's sevens team (talk about leaving things late!)... but, despite being World Champions at XVs, clearly have no faith at all in their existing young players (or coaches) but are instead trying to attract anyone from any sport.

The Dutch tried a similar idea last year - but that was in a country where rugby is barely known, so trying to attract new talent was understandable. This is a different thing entirely.

It is obviously a reasonable idea to seek to expand a sports player base - and it is true that several leading international players are converts from other sports - but you cannot help but wonder what sort of kick in the teeth this must feel to those currently involved in grass roots rugby in New Zealand, be they teenage players or coaches.

Strange way to go about things....

Great try compilation from Dubai

2011-12-07T19:29:00.001Z

Okay - its Spain's tries, not England;s, but as clearly every game was videoed presumably any of the competing nations could do likewise. Anyway, that aside there are some brilliant tries here.

The sheer acceleration of Julia Pla (from about 4:35) is amazing, and the rather undignified penalty given away by Brazil from 3:10 is pretty amusing! But there is much more. Enjoy.

And if you do enjoy that, the full recording of Canada v Spain is well worth watching.

If anyone knows of any other similar compilations, let me know!

So, you want to be a professional rugby player...

2011-12-07T10:10:00.001Z

A day in the life of the professional Dutch women's rugby sevens team...

Its clearly not all trips to Dubai and Las Vegas - in fact it sounds like its mainly days rolling around in the Amsterdam mud.

And its 2-3 degree colder in Holland than here this time of year!

Now, doesn't a nice warm office somewhere seem so much more attractive...

"La, La, La! Can't hear you!" BBC response to Sports Personality complaints

2011-12-06T17:56:00.001Z

If you were annoyed by last week's side-lining of women's sport by the BBC, and angry at he way they tried to palm all the blame off onto a voting system that they created themselves, be prepared to get even angrier when you read the shameful response of their Director of Sport.

A few highlights (or should it be lowlights)...

"We stand by the current voting process". Yes, they are going to have a review - because they have been forced to - but nothing will change.
"Having considered a wide range of alternative mechanisms, we remain convinced that the current system is fair, independent and robust." Review? What review?
Nuts and Zoo are included because they "have a readership profile which reaches younger audiences" Yes - an audience of exclusively men! "
Zoo and Nuts "helps contribute to a balanced panel which is representative of all the BBC's audiences."And in what possible way is an audience of just men "representative of the BBC's audiences?? And really do we want awards decided by readers of soft porn?
Sports editors "chosen because of their expertise in the area, their coverage of a wide range of sports throughout the year and the extent of their readership." But does the writer not realise that they are part of the problem? Anyone who has tried to find coverage of the Black Ferns tour in our press - in the very week of this controversy - will know exactly how much "expertise" these dinosaurs have.
"We do not include specialist sporting publications given their potential inherent bias to one particular sport nor do we canvas the views of non-sporting publications." So forget it ScrumQueens. Or SportSister. Or any journal or magazine read by women of any age.

I challenge anyone to come up with a better example of "we know best - go away and do not dare to question us again".

Appalling.

Eighteen England stars now on Twitter

2011-12-06T13:34:00.001Z

So there is no excuse for not being able to follow what is happening in the England camp. See the column on the left for all the names and links.

Legend in the desert

2011-12-06T13:15:00.001Z

One former legend had a few days away from the growing cold of winter when she became the first ex-Letchworth Girl to play in the Dubai Sevens.

Jess played for (I think correct me if I am wrong) "RSA Ex-Pat Old Girls" (a team of English students, with some familiar names like India Harvey, while other familiar faces - like Poppy Cleall - also played for other teams) in the third tier Women's Open, and reached the Plate Final (a familiar outcome for a legend in a sevens tournament).

Apparently playing and training in 35 degrees made the return to Loughborough's balmy -5 all the more bracing.

Somerset "county champions"

2011-12-06T11:53:00.001Z

Its a shade strange to award a "county championship" based on just three rounds of games, but Somerset lead the RFUWs table at the end of this season's senior county programme.

Yorkshire, North Mids and Kent might dispute this - North Mids suffering from cancellations as they only played two games. Each are, however, clearly their own divisional winners - maybe if RFUW could organise a play-off weekend to settle all arguments?

Hertfordshire lost narrowly to Kent - but were otherwise unbeaten. The final weekend's results were:

Lancashire 0, Yorkshire 6
Northumberland 46, Cumbria 12
Warwickshire 0, NLD 32
East Mids 0, Leicestershire 49
North Mids 5, Staffordshire 15
Middlesex 21, Surrey 26
Eastern Counties 0, Hertfordshire 20
Sussex 0, Kent 65
Somerset 52, Gloucestershire 12
Berkshire 5, Cornwall 6
Walkovers for Cheshire, Hampshire, and Dorset & Wilts over Durham, Essex and Devon respectively

Which results in the following official results table:

Club	P	W	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	LB	Pts
Somerset Ladies	3	3	0	138	15	123	2	0	15
Kent Ladies	3	3	0	118	31	87	2	0	14
Yorkshire Ladies	3	3	0	53	28	25	1	0	13
North Midlands Ladies	2	2	0	101	7	94	2	0	10
Surrey Ladies	3	2	1	85	43	42	1	1	10
Northumberland Ladies	3	2	1	83	42	41	2	0	10
Notts,Lincs & Derby Ladies	3	2	1	74	46	28	2	0	10
Staffordshire Ladies	2	2	0	55	27	28	1	0	9
Hertfordshire Ladies	3	2	1	54	30	24	0	1	9
Cornwall Ladies	3	2	1	11	38	-27	0	0	8
Middlesex Ladies	3	1	2	109	36	73	1	2	7
Lancashire Ladies	3	1	2	55	22	33	1	2	7
Devon Ladies	2	1	1	50	30	20	1	1	6
Essex Ladies	1	1	0	25	3	22	1	0	5
Cheshire Ladies	2	1	1	34	30	4	0	1	5
Gloucestershire Ladies	2	1	1	37	67	-30	0	0	4
Eastern Counties Ladies	3	1	2	13	50	-37	0	0	4
East Midland Ladies	1	0	1	10	25	-15	0	1	1
Berkshire Ladies	2	0	2	8	56	-48	0	1	1
Leicestershire Ladies	2	0	2	17	67	-50	0	1	1
Durham Ladies	1	0	1	3	27	-24	0	0	0
Dorset & Wilts Ladies	2	0	2	0	36	-36	0	0	0
Hampshire Ladies	2	0	2	19	82	-63	0	0	0
Cumbria Ladies	2	0	2	12	91	-79	0	0	0
Warwickshire Ladies	2	0	2	0	85	-85	0	0	0
Sussex Ladies	2	0	2	0	148	-148	0	0	0

Third Test photo diary

2011-12-04T19:21:00.001Z

The Black Ferns have again published a "photo diary", this time covering yesterday's third test. Again - well worth a look.

The RFU are also promising to post their highlights package shortly. Watch this space!

IRB Dubai Sevens: almost right, but...

2011-12-03T18:23:00.001Z

The "experiment" of the IRB's women's challenge sevens seems, going by all reaction so far, to have been a great success and hopefully from here we can go on to a proper women's series (though the barrier to that is likely to be finding a home for the fourth leg, London and Edinburgh not showing much interest).

If we do go on from here then the main improvements would seem to be...

Get the seeding right. Giving Canada a seeding below USA - while true to the World Cup positions in 2009 - seemed otherwise a strange idea by the IRB. The result was a serious imbalance in the pools that was obvious from the moment they were announced, with Spain (who, it should be remembered, lead Canada 14-0 past halfway in their game) losing out. The Spanish would certainly have been a match for the USA.

The best 8 teams in the world? Well, obviously these were not the best eight teams. Even leaving aside New Zealand's refusal to join in the fun, the fact is that China, and particularly Brazil, were heavily outclassed and its possible to come up with half-a-dozen teams that could, perhaps, have equipped themselves better.

However there is, of course, a very good argument for including them in the tournament (in order to represent parts of the world where the game is growing and developing), but if geography is to be allowed to trump ability then why does Asia and South America get a leg up by not - say - the Caribbean or Pacific? Why should China get a free ride into the tournament but not Samoa, or Fiji (either would be stronger than China)? And why Brazil and not, say, Trinidad?

In short, the qualification criteria for any series next season need to be clear and open. It does not do the game, or IRB, any good if decisions of this importance are taken behind closed doors with no explanation.

That aside, an announcement about a series for next year cannot be long coming. Its certainly long overdue.

Honours even as international year ends

2011-12-03T17:20:00.001Z

So, 8-8 in Esher between New Zealand and England. Highlights should be on the RFU website probably some time tomorrow. Match report up on ScrumQueens now.

While all that was going on, England's sevens team's brave run came to an end in the final against Canada. After a great start, Canada gradually took control and dominated the second half, winning 26-7 and proving that they are by far the world's best women's sevens team,

Even their development side beat France, but could not complete a double, losing to the Netherlands in the Women's Invitational - the first ever Dutch tournament win.

And so a year ends that has seen 95 nations field official women's international rugby teams, at either 7s or 15s - plus a few other countries that have fielded club teams by no national team. Because the media largely ignore it we often forget how big women's rugby is - no other team sport, apart from football, even comes close. This year also saw 54 test matches and over 400 7s internationals - by far the busiest year ever, so the game is also expanding pretty quickly as well.

Unique women's international rugby double-bill

2011-12-03T11:50:00.001Z

Following England's sensational win over World Champions Australia in the Dubai 7s this morning, we could have a double bill of women's international rugby today.

At 2pm England kick-off the third test against New Zealand - again free live webfeed from http://www.rfu.com/englandwomenlive which hopefully will work properly this time.

Then, at around 3.20pm England's sevens team is due to play their final against Canada - which should be shown on Sky Sports 1. They have the media rights, and showed the semi. No guarantees... but someone should have a word with them if they fail to show the game.

This does mean that you may have to watch two games on two screens at the same time!

In the meanwhile you can view a recording of the 80 minutes from Tuesday - again go to http://www.rfu.com/englandwomenlive
Also a big shout-out of congratulations to Canada, who have reached TWO finals - their reserve, development squad beat France to reach the Women's Invitational final, where they will play the Netherlands.

Dubai round-up, Day 1

2011-12-02T17:37:00.001Z

The first day of the first official IRB sevens has finished, largely predictably, but with some surprises.

The first surprise seems to be that felt by the Australian captain (right). Clearly no-one had told her that she would be forced to wear this natty little ensemble instead of the hallowed Green and Gold. She is not happy, is she?

What colour would you call it? Gang-green maybe? Slightly nausea inducing anyway. England's rep, on the other hand, will have already known that she would have to dress like Tommy the Tiger and had already chosen the tactic of hiding in the background instead of standing holding the cup (which, as No. 2 seeds, she should have done).

Anyway, crimes against fashion and good taste aside, the rugby has been competitive. As expected, Pool A was a ding-dong affair with Spain coming so close against Australian, and then throwing away a 14-0 lead to Canada before losing 19-14 from the final play of the game, before Canada beating Australia 14-7 (Australia's only points coming near the end). Any of these three games (with the possible exception of the final one) could have gone either way, which - if anything - shows how badly the IRB got the seeding wrong here. All three teams swept past Brazil with embarrassing ease.

England won Pool B - which is not a huge surprise, though the size of their win over the only serious challengers - USA - was remarkable (31-0), especially after England had only beaten South Africa by three points. Michaela Staniford was the hero, fresh from the Black Fern tests, she scored in every game.

The result is this is that USA will play Canada in one semi-final tomorrow, and England will play Australia - not, I am tempted to say, the semis that the organisers will have wanted, but games full of tension and history Australia will love to get some revenge for the WRWC semi-final defeat - and will probably be favourites to do just that - not least because they already have the experience of playing all their games in the main stadium, while England have bee plying their trade outside, a situation that seems very unfair by tells us where the TV power lies (Sky have the rights to this tournament in the UK and ignored the women's tournament completely).

Elsewhere, Netherlands and France moved pretty easily towards their inevitable final meeting in the Women's Invitational - a game which should see the Dutch record their first major tournament win.

Meanwhile, somewhere a bit warmer...

2011-12-02T10:03:00.001Z

The Dubai Sevens have begun with the historic first IRB sanctioned women's sevens (World Cup excepted) (see earlier post for details). All seems to be going as expected so far, Spain ran Australia close but - it seems - lost out to dodgy refereeing decisions (according to the Canadians who were watching!), and Canada thumped Brazil. England have also won their opening game against China 26-15, and USA beat South Africa 22-10 - again as expected.

The opening two rounds of Pool A games are on the main pitch, so plenty of information on them - but England's pool is hidden away on Pitch 2 so the information coming out of there is a bit slow (like an hour behind!) - though we hear that apparently Michaela Staniford scored a hat-trick in the opening game.

Also on the back pitches Netherlands, France and Kenya are playing in another tournament. In fact there are five women's sevens tournaments going on, including what is in effect an Arabian Gulf "championship", and an U18 tournament for local girls.

Highlights from the second test

2011-11-30T23:25:00.001Z

England v New Zealand, last night. For some strange reason this is only available for three days... so enjoy!

Amazing photo from last night's test

2011-11-30T22:49:00.001Z

Is this one of the best rugby photos ever? It crackles with tension and movement and strength and... well, everything. Its brilliant.

It shows England's Alexandra Matthews (who is still only 18! If she was male she's be a household name and on her way to her first £million!) up against Amanda Murphy. She's clearly just stepped off her right foot - is she going to carry to her left, or dodge right again? Has Murphy got that covered? A moment frozen in time...

A few more from the same photographer - Rob Munro - can be found here. Meanwhile the Black Ferns have another photo diary, this time of the Second Test.

England go 2-0!

2011-11-29T20:53:00.001Z

Full report from ScrumQueens - up online within a minute of the whistle!

Great win by the younger end of the England squad - 21-7. Whitewash looks on for the weekend!

Second test - LIVE

2011-11-29T18:29:00.001Z

Quick reminder that the Second Test starts in 30 minutes - and will be streamed LIVE from http://www.rfu.com/englandwomenlive. FREE!

If you miss it, recordings will be available later on the same page.

BBC fails to recognise women's sport. Again.

2011-11-28T20:18:00.001Z

The BBC have just announced their shortlist for Sports Personality of the Year... and they are all male.

Okay, we hardly expected any women rugby players, but in a year when there were a fair few British female world champions, not to mention a European win in golf's Solheim Cup (the female Ryder Cup) to have no women at all in the list is nothing short of a disgrace.

In times past the award was entirely in the hands of a public vote - but now a shortlist is produced by votes from Sports Editors of newspapers and magazines... including (and I kid you not here) soft porn "lads mags" such as Zoo and Nuts! No women's journals were invited to vote.

Complaints to the BBC - click here.

Black future? A Kiwi girls' rugby coach writes...

2011-11-27T10:34:00.001Z

This is well worth a wider audience. Its a message sent to me from a girls' and women's coach in New Zealand (and as he also published it on a discussion board it already in the public domain). On the plus side it does suggest that England will lift the next World Cup, but that is about the only positive...

John I think England will win the series comfortably. The BFs have managed despite everything being against them in terms of resources, playing opportunities etc etc to keep above England but the great generation of BFs which generated a world dominance have retired and this a green squad. They haven`t even had recent match play (The first game for three months at any level for most players) so the odds were even more stacked against them. To be honest, I`m suprised they only lost 0-10. I would`ve expected England to be way more dominant than that scoreline in the first game. Anyway, if they lose the series 0-3 it might finally make the NZRFU get serious about the women`s programme.

Again, it`s an absolute joke that the 2014 WRWC is back in Europe and the NZRFU should hang their head in shame. The NZFA just hosted the womens U17 football World Cup last year and got many crowds of 10,000 plus including almost 20,000 for the Kiwi girls games at North Harbour Stadium. To put that into perspective, that`s more than the biggest crowd the Japan RFU or Italian RFUs got to the Junior RWCs. It`s also far more than the record for any BF test in NZ when not part of an ABs curtainraiser. Now if the NZFA can get those numbers for U17 womens football why the hell can`t the NZRFU put on a WRWC that beats the hell out of that?

Worse, the hard work of the NZFA is really paying dividends. NZ might have won the RWC and there might be a glow about rugby in NZ at the moment but it`s women`s football which is forging ahead in NZ, not rugby. The womens senior and age group teams have competed at the last few football WCs and have had some pretty big media attention. Many of the big high schools in NZ now have 2 or 3 girls soccer teams. Whereas girls rugby, now having been played in many high schools for 10 years or more is still struggling to put one team on the field every year with some schools playing some years and disappearing others which is a completely unsatisfactory situation. It should be at the stage where big schools have a junior team or B team as well a first XV. But it aint. There STILL isn`t even a national 7s or XVs girls high school champs in NZ! And to top things off during the RWC when Jacques Rogge attended the NZOC`s 100th anniversary with 7s exhibition games, the NZRFU told the media they were looking at crossover athletes because they didn`t believe there was enough talent within rugby`s own ranks. I just about had an apopletic fit!! Talk about dismissing all the hard work that coaches and administrators of womens rugby like myself have put in the last 15-20 years and dismissing any idea that they had to actually build girls rugby and create dreams of Olympic gold for high school girls in NZ. Sorry, you`re not good enough. We`re going to take a bunch of netballers or triathletes cos we think they`ve got more potential.

The BFs may have some match play v England for three years but the reality of womens rugby in NZ under the current NZRFU administration is nothing less than dismal. It shames and pains me to say this, but go England. I hope you give the BFs a towelling (Sorry to the BF players - I`m not against you. I just want you and womens rugby to get a better deal in NZ) It will be the best thing to happen for womens rugby in NZ for a decade.

First test, from a Black Fern perspective

2011-11-27T10:18:00.001Z

The Black Ferns Facebook page have just published this remarkable photo diary of yesterday's game - from the team hotel, to the ground, the changing rooms, and match.

Lots to look out for - including evidence of a "learn the words of the haka" lesson.

One down, two to go...

2011-11-26T19:31:00.001Z

10-0 to England!

More detailed reports will appear shortly, but a few impressions...

Emily Scarratt had a blinder - player of the match, deservedly, best game I have seen her play, for England anyway. Reminded me, though, of the time she came up against Letchworth and Nim Parnell in the National 10s... Boom - over the touchline, end of game! Made up for it when we saw her again in the Herts 7s, though!

Natasha Hunt also excellent at scrum-half - should be no.1 in that position - love the speed of pass. Maggie peerless as usual (what would England do without her?). Still worried a bit about Katy McLean, though - great drop, but her kicking is so inconsistent... can't be long before Sarah Hunter takes over?

More England Twitterers

2011-11-25T19:01:00.001Z

Further to the list of England players you can follow on Twitter that appeared on here a couple of weeks ago, a few more names, including a fairly big one!

Maggie Alphonsi
Sophie Hemming (Prop)
Marlie Packer (Flanker)
Fiona Pocock (Wing)

Lies, damned lies, and... (part 23. Approximately)

2011-11-25T17:12:00.001Z

Interesting news article about the IRB's new plan for women's rugby (a copy of the plan would be nice), but in the meanwhile....

IRB Chairman Bernard Lapasset said: “These are exciting times for Rugby around the world. We have witnessed an 18% growth in participation across the sport since Rugby World Cup 2007"

How on earth does he know? Given the very loose link between many countries player registration data and reality (most especially England's hilarious claims) how can he possibly make such a statement? And with such laser-like accuracy? Not "about 20%", not "more than 15%" - exactly 18% (unless maybe someone said it was about a sixth?).

But also, given the fact that England's wildly inflated totals not only make up a sizeable proportion of the world's alleged rugby player totals, but have apparently been falling (see various panicked initiatives over the past five years or more, many reported on here), how on earth can player numbers be going up this much, if at all?

Wouldn't it be great if someone at the IRB (and RFU) could stop inventing statistics...

England v Black Ferns: Round 1 tomorrow

2011-11-25T16:24:00.001Z

A reminder that (after the Barbarians/Australia warm-up act) the weekend's big game is on tomorrow at 5pm. The first test is only on Sky, but the next two will be free to all.

Lots of preview articles on Scrumqueens... so no need to add anything here. Should be very close - but I favour England, if for no other reason than they have fewer new faces than the Ferns.

Will be fascinating to see how the coaches manage their squads over three games in a week.

County rugby: Junior festivals

2011-11-23T21:02:00.001Z

Last weekend saw the first ever official RFUW county festivals for junior teams - though, before RFUW became involved, they had been going on for some years in this part of the country at least, and with plenty of Hertfordshire success!

In London and the South East, as mentioned a couple of days ago, Hertfordshire success continued in the U18s with Simon Shutler bowing out as county coach with yet another county title (we think he never lost a festival as a county coach, either in his U15 days, or with the U18s - he certainly cannot ever remember losing!). The U15s lost their final to Kent (see report), but even so another festival with both of the county's team reaching a final.

Can anyone remember a county festival in the past 6-7 years where Hertfordshire's team failed to at least finish as runners-up? I must confess that I can't - which, for a county with not the most magnificent of sporting traditions, isn't bad. I wonder - have our girls' rugby teams, over the past few years, been the most successful teams that the county had ever produced in any sport?

Anyway - full results from the L&SE tournament are on the Herts blog. So lets look at how things went elsewhere.

North Division
First, congratulations to Lancashire - the only county to do the "double" and win both U15 and U18 titles at their Divisional festival. With Cumbria, Cheshire and Durham having to combine to create a geographically unlikely team, the Red Rose county only had three opponents, but even so it was an impressive performance. Their U15s lifted their title without conceding a single point (but scoring 94!), while the U18s had some scares but still came through unbeaten.

The scores...

U15 Results
Yorkshire 0 Lancashire 34
Northumberland 21 Cumbria/Cheshire/ Durham 0
Yorkshire 33 Northumberland 5
Lancashire 20 Cumbria/Cheshire/ Durham 0
Yorkshire 27 Cumbria/Cheshire/ Durham 0
Lancashire 40 Northumberland 0

U18 Results
Yorkshire 0 Lancashire 7
Northumberland 0 Cumbria/Cheshire/ Durham 0
Yorkshire 20 Northumberland 5
Lancashire 19 Cumbria/Cheshire/ Durham 7
Yorkshire 0 Cumbria/Cheshire/ Durham 5
Lancashire 5 Northumberland 7

South West Division
The biggest festival was in the South West, where seven teams competed for the U15 crown, and six for the U18. The U15s had a long day - a single round-robin pool, meaning six matches for each team. Cornwall came through this marathon as the only unbeaten team, though Berkshire held them to a draw (but then lost to Devon, but still finished runners-up).

Unfortunately Cornwall were unable to do the double as they did not enter a U18 team at all, so the six remaining teams played off in the same format as London & South East used. However, the far South West triumphed again with Devon taking this title, easily seeing off Dorset & Wilts in the final. Somerset, on the other hand, completed a disappointing day with two wooden spoons.

The scores:
U15 results:
Berkshire 21 Somerset 0
Devon 12 Oxon 0
Berkshire 19 Gloucestershire 5
Cornwall 12 Oxon 7
Berkshire 17 Oxon 5
Berkshire 0 Devon 10
Oxon 28 Somerset 0
Berkshire 5 Dorset &Wilts 0
Gloucestershire 0 Oxon 19
Berkshire 5 Cornwall 5
Gloucestershire 7 Devon 5
Dorset & Wilts 12 Gloucestershire 0
Cornwall 27 Dorset & Wilts 0
Devon 12 Somerset 0
Devon 10 Dorset & Wilts 7
Cornwall 10 Somerset 0
Cornwall 10 Gloucestershire 0
Gloucestershire 0 Somerset 0
Devon 0 Cornwall 5
Somerset 0 Dorset & Wilts 24
Dorset & Wilts 7 Oxon 5

U18 results:
Pool A:
Berkshire 5 Devon 19
Gloucestershire 5 Devon 10
Berkshire 5 Gloucestershire 5

Pool B:
Dorset & Wilts 27 Somerset 0
Dorset & Wilts 15 Ox & Bucks 12
Somerset 0 Ox & Bucks 12

Play-offs:
5th/6th: Somerset 5 Berkshire 15
3rd/4th: Ox/Bucks 15 Gloucestershire 19
1st/2nd: Devon 21 Dorset & Wilts 0

Midlands Division
And finally the Midlands. Four U15s and five U18s competed for these titles, with North Midlands (home of Worcester) missing out on a double by two points - the margin of defeat for their U18s against Staffordshire & Warwickshire who went on to take the U18 title. However, the North Midlands U15s had few problems in their event, which saw some very high scoring for short festival matches.

The results:
U15 results:
NLD 5 Leicestershire 29
North Midlands 24 East Midlands 10
NLD 5 North Midlands 34
Leicestershire 10 East Midlands 0
NLD 5 East Midlands 12
Leicestershire 0 North Midlands 38

U18 results:
NLD 5 Leicestershire 0
North Midlands 5 Staffs/Warks 7
East Midlands 0 Staffs/Warks 14
NLD 10 North Midlands 17
East Midlands 0 NLD 22
Leicestershire 0 North Midlands 12
Staffs/Warks 7 NLD 5
Leicestershire 5 East Midlands 0
North Midlands 22 East Midlands 0
Staffs/Warks 19 Leicestershire 0

Well done Herts!

2011-11-20T22:37:00.001Z

Congratulations to Herts U18s, winners of the first official London & SE Divisional county championship, with an impressive performance today, winning every game and not conceding a single try.

Herts U15s also reached their final, but lost 10-7 to Kent.

This is all the more impressive when you consider that Herts has players from six different clubs, with six different coaches and playing patterns, all of which has to be brought together. I am not sure that many other counties select from as many teams.

All goes to show that Herts remains one of the leading counties for girls' rugby. Long may it continue, and let's also hope that the on-field success will now be followed by lots of Herts names being selected for the Divisional squads in the New Year.

Go Greens!

Herts juniors favourites for county finals

2011-11-17T23:00:00.001Z

Despite a somewhat mixed set of performances this season, a very kind draw means that both Herts U15s and U18s are favourites to reach the finals at this weekend's London and South East divisional festival, to be played at Beckenham on Sunday.

The leadings county teams in the Division - in terms of results - have been Surrey and Sussex in the U18s, and Sussex and Kent in the U15s, all of which have 100% records. But Surrey, Sussex and Kent have been drawn together in Pool A for both the U15 and U18 competitions - true Groups of Death where it is impossible to guess who might come out on top!

Hertfordshire, on the other hand, are in Pool B where they will play Hampshire (who have so far lost all of their games at U15) and Essex (who have won only one of four). At U18 Essex have a good record, with a win and a draw, but Hampshire have yet to win a game.

Click here for fixture details

All three Black Fern games to be broadcast/webcast LIVE!

2011-11-17T18:04:00.001Z

Great news from the RFUW - all three of England's games against the Black Ferns will be available watch live.

The opening test on 26th November will still be on Sky (via the Red Button - which is a bit annoying as that makes recording it, or watching it online, impossible), kick off 5pm
The second test, on 29th November (at Esher) will available on www.rfu.com/englandwomenlive, kick-off 7pm
The third test, on December 3rd, will also be available on www.rfu.com/englandwomenlive, kick-off 3pm

The streaming page will be available from 28th November, and will be accessible free to viewers overseas as well as in the UK. A full recording on the page of the second and third tests will also be available for three days after each game, and edited highlights will also www.rfu.com.

This is not the first time that England women's internationals have been streamed, five or six years ago some home games were covered by independent, commercial webcasters, but viewers had to pay a subscription fee to watch the live games. This will be the first time that the RFU/RFUW have streamed their own games - and the first time the games have been made available free. Most international games in North America and the Caribbean, as well as occasional games in France and eastern Europe, have been successfully webcast for some years.

England will also be playing against Wales at Twickenham in the Six Nations, which means that there is a very good chance that this game will also be broadcast on the BBC.

England Sevens avoid Group of Death

2011-11-15T21:08:00.001Z

The day after England announced their very young and inexperienced sevens squad for Dubai (2-3 December) - the result of a clash with the Black Ferns tour, rather than adventurous thinking on the part of the English selectors - the draw for the tournament seems to have been leaked by the Spanish RFU. Though as yet unconfirmed by the IRB, the draw does make sense as it seems to be largely based on the result of the 2009 World Cup - with one important alteration.

If the IRB had kept strictly to the 2009 rankings, Pool A in Dubai would have brought together Australia (winners in 2009), England (5th), Canada (6th), and Brazil (10th) while Pool B would have been USA (3rd=), South Africa (3rd=), Spain (7th), and China (9th).

However, the unbalanced nature of these groups seems to have resulted in a bit of tinkering that moves England from Pool A to Pool B, at the expense of Spain. It has to be said that recent form suggests that Canada and the USA should also have swapped groups, but perhaps IRB's knowledge of the relative form of non-European teams is limited.

The result is that the weaker Pool B should see England's young team win a semi-final place - though whether they will go any further is questionable. Pool A, on the other hand, gives have no room for mistakes for any team with the deciding factor perhaps being the order in which the games are played - whoever plays Brazil last will benefit from knowing what they have to do to make the last four.

The (unconfirmed) pools, as announced by the Spanish RFU, are:

Pool A: Australia, Canada, Spain, Brazil
Pool B: England, USA, South Africa, China

Rugby failing to sell holiday destinations

2011-11-13T15:11:00.001Z

The Caribbean... . Sun, sand, sea - a holiday paradise. That is the image we have of these islands, isn't it?

Well, anyone following the current North American & Caribbean Sevens in Barbados may be getting a different impression. This (right) is what the pitch looks like near the start of Day 2 - Day 1 ended early with driving, torrential rain and corner flags bent all but horizontal by the wind.

This deluge comes fresh on the back of the recent rain-swept men's World Cup that did so much to encourage potential visitors to ensure that they packed an umbrella, if not a wetsuit, for any antipodean holiday, while England's tour to the south of France earlier this month appeared to take place in a previously unrecorded Mediterranean monsoon season.

Once upon a time it was said that, to make it rain, all you need do was attempt to play cricket, now it seems that in order to end any drought all you need do is organise an international rugby tournament. Anyone venturing to Dubai next month should ensure that pack waterproofs. And flippers.

Eight changes as England call up big guns for Ferns

2011-11-08T13:43:00.002Z

Eight of women's rugby's biggest names are back in the England squad for the series against the Black Fern.

The squad announced today includes 18 players from the party that went to France, but replaces Rosemarie Crowley, Rose Jay, Ceri Large, Sarah McKenna, Harriet Millar-Mills, Isobel Noel-Smith, Tamara Taylor and Lydia Thompson with Maggie Alphonsi, Rachael Burford, Becky Essex, Sophie Hemming, Katy McLean, Claire Purdy, Tamara Taylor, and Nollie Waterman.

However, two new caps from the French tour are retained - Hannah Gallagher and Alex Matthews.

This is clearly a squad that means business. Every player has played at least one test match - following the last Six Nations England have had both the Nations Cup and the French tour to experiment with new players, positions and tactics - five tests and one uncapped international, so there is no need to try anything new. The result is a pretty awesome team.

The challenge, of course, will be to keep the team on top form over a challenging three games in just over a week - but again England's preparation for that could hardly have been better, with four test in a fortnight in Canada and now two in four days in France.

The full squad is:

Margaret Alphonsi (Saracens)
Rachael Burford (Richmond)
Rowena Burnfield (Richmond)
Rochelle Clark (Worcester)
Rebecca Essex(Richmond)
Victoria Fleetwood (Lichfield)
Hannah Gallagher (Saracens)
Sophie Hemming (Bristol)
Natasha Hunt (Lichfield)
Sarah Hunter (Lichfield)
Laura Keates (Worcester)
La Toya Mason (Wasps)
Alexandra Matthews (Richmond)
Katy McLean (Darlington Mowden Park Sharks)
Katherine Merchant (Worcester)
Kimberley Oliver (Bristol)
Marlie Packer (Bristol)
Claire Purdy(Wasps)
Alice Richardson (Richmond)
Georgina Roberts (Darlington Mowden Park Sharks)
Emily Scarratt (Lichfield)
Michaela Staniford (Wasps)
Amy Turner (Richmond)
Tamara Taylor(Darlington Mowden Park Sharks)
Danielle Waterman (Worcester)
Kay Wilson (Richmond)

The dates for the three tests are:

Nov 26th England v New Zealand, Twickenham Stadium, KO 5pm, live on Sky Sports
Nov 29th England v New Zealand, Esher RFC, KO 7pm
Dec 3rd England v New Zealand, Esher RFC, 2pm

Tickets for the game at Twickenham on November 26th are available from Ticketmaster.co.uk and group booking are available from the RFU by calling 0871 22 22 017, option 6. Prices range from £65 to £35. Junior tickets cost just £15.

Tickets for the international tests at Esher RFC on November 29th and December 3rd will be available on the gate and cost £10 for adults and £5 for juniors. They can also be purchased in advance at www.esherrugby.com

Counties - looking ahead

2011-11-08T09:17:00.000Z

After last weekend's results (see below) the senior county teams have one more round of games to look forward to on 4th December:

Lancashire v Yorkshire; Cheshire v Durham; Northumberland v Cumbria; Warwickshire v NLD; East Mids v Leciestershire; North Mids v Staffordshire; Middlesex v Surrey; Eastern Counties v Hertfordshire; Sussex v Kent; Hampshire v Essex; Dorset & Wilts v Devon; Somerset v Gloucestershire; Berkshire v Cornwall

The juniors, on the other hand, have divisional festivals on 20th November. Hertfordshire will, of course, be in the London and South East divisions tournament at Beckenham and the current form of their opponents looks like this:

London & SE U18s
1. Surrey (2 wins from 2 games, points difference +78)
2. Sussex (2 wins and 1 draw from 3, +39)
3. Essex (1 win and 1 draw from 3, +2)
4. Kent (1 from 2, -4)
5. Hertfordshire (1 from 2, -14)
6. Hampshire (0 from 2, -50)
7. Middlesex (0 from 4, -91)
8. Eastern Counties (have not played)

London & SE U15s
1. Sussex (4 from 4, +186)
2. Kent (2 from 2, +48)
3. Hertfordshire (1 from 2, +1)
4. Surrey (1 from 2, -16)
5. Middlesex (1 from 4, -90)
6. Essex (1 from 4, -103)
7. Hampshire (0 from 2, -33)
8. Eastern Counties (have not played)

Elsewhere one result (Leicestershire U18s v East Midlands) has not been published, so the Midlands table is not quite complete. However, that aside :

Midlands U18s

1. NLD (3 from 3, +54)

2. Staffs/Warwicks (3 from 4, +64)

3. North Mids (1 from 2, +38)

4. East Mids (0 from 3, -70)

5. Leicestershire (0 from 2, -86)

North U18s

1. Northumberland (2 from 2, +15)

2. Lancashire (1 from 2, +5)

3. Yorkshire (1 from 2, 0)

4. Cumbria/Durham (0 from 2, -20)

5. Cheshire (have not played)

South West U18s
1. Dorset & Wilts (2 from 2, +112)

2. Berkshire (3 from 3, +79)

3. Gloucestershire (3 from 4, +22)

4. Devon (2 from 3, +51)

5. Oxford/Bucks (0 from 4, -72)

6. Somerset (0 from 2, -80)

7. Cornwall (0 from 2, -102)

Midlands U15s
1. East Mids  (2 from 2, +51)
2. North Mids ( 2 from 2, +18)
3. Leicestershire (0 from 2, -24)
4. NLD (0 from 2, -48)
5. Staffs/Warwicks (have not played)

North U15s
1. Lancashire  (2 from 2, +119)
2. Northumberland  (2 from 2, +53)
3. Yorkshire (0 from 2, -68)
4. Cumbria/Durham (0 from 2, -104)
5. Cheshire (have not played)

South West U15s
1. Devon (4 from 4, +109)
2. Berkshire (2 from 2, +91)
3. Dorset & Wilts (1 from 2 (+1 draw), + 58)
4. Oxford/Bucks  (3 from 4, + 51)
5. Cornwall (0 from 2 (+1 draw), -12)
6. Gloucestershire (0 from 4, -71)
7. Somerset (0 from 2, -145)

County results: round 2

2011-11-07T23:57:00.001Z

Adult county results are now on Rugby Roundup, but not (it seems) juniors - so...

Seniors

After two games, only seven of the 26 counties remain unbeaten with North Midlands and Somerset the stand-out teams. North Mids followed a 53-0 win over Warwickshire in round one with a 48-7 win at Leicestershire last weekend, while Somerset beat Berkshire 50-3 this weekend having beaten Dorset & Wilts 36-0 in round one. However, the biggest win was Middlesex's 83-0 demolition of Sussex, despite having lost to Eastern Counties in their opening game. Overall the major plus is that every county has now managed to get a team on the field.

Hertfordshire recovered from their narrow first round defeat to Kent with an impressive 22-15 win over Surrey.

Results:

Lancashire 45-0 Cumbria
Durham 0-27 Northumberland
Yorkshire 20-18 Cheshire
Warwickshire 44-20 East Mids
Leciestershire 7-48 North Mids
NLD 17-36 Staffordshire
Essex 25-3 Eastern Counties
Middlesex 83-0 Sussex
Hertfordshire 22-15 Surrey
Hampshire 19-38 Kent
Cornwall beat Dorset & Wilts (walk-over)
Gloucestershire 25-17 Devon
Somerset 50-3 Berkshire

U18s

Only five U18 counties are unbeaten - Dorset & Wilts, Berkshire, Surrey, NLD and Northumberland. The first three teams seem very strong - Dorset brushed aside Cornwall 64-5 having beaten Somerset 53-0 in round one; Berkshire have yet to concede a point in their three games to date; and Surrey sent Hertfodshire U18s to possibly its biggest ever defeat (certainly at home), winning by 40-5 - but not that much of a surprise given Surrey's 43-0 win against Hampshire in round one. Cheshire and Eastern Counties have yet to get onto the field. A more detailed form guide can be found here.

Results:

Cumbria / Durham 10-22 Northumberland
Yorkshire 22-19 Lancashire
NLD 22-12 North Mids
Leicestershire 0-38 Staffs / Warwick
East Mids 0-36 Staffs / Warwick
Middlesex 7 -22 Sussex
Middlesex 12-47 Essex
Sussex 12-7 Essex
Hertfordshire 5- 40 Surrey
Hampshire 10-17 Kent
Cornwall 5-64 Dorset & Wilts
Gloucester 14-0 Devon
Gloucester 19-14 Oxford / Bucks
Devon 29-7 Oxford / Bucks
Somerset 0-27 Berkshire

U15s

Things are rather more polarised in the U15s with eight out of 23 counties with 100% records. - but Sussex stand out with four wins from four games, scoring 186 points and conceding none. Lancashire, Devon and Berkshire have also scored over 100 points. Hertfordshire came back from defeat in round one with and impressive 45-15 win over Surrey last weekend. Cheshire, Eastern Counties and Staffs/Warwicks have not managed to field any U15 teams so far. A more detailed form guide can be found here.

Results:

Cumbria / Durham 21-50 Northumberland
Yorkshire 7-51 Lancashire
NLD lost to North Mids (walk-over)
Leciestershire 12-15 East Mids
Middlesex 0-43 Sussex
Middlesex 5-12 Essex
Sussex 67-0 Essex
Hertfordshire 45-15 Surrey
Hampshire 0-19 Kent
Cornwall 17-17 Dorset & Wilts
Gloucester 0-38 Devon
Gloucester 12-24 Oxford / Bucks
Devon 26-5 Oxford / Bucks
Somerset 0-87 Berkshire

Watch this - top level women's international sevens!

2011-11-07T11:27:00.002Z

From last week's Elche Sevens, Spain v Netherlands. No sound - which slightly spoils the atmosphere - but great play from both teams. Most of Spain's other games are also available.

(Spain won by 12-10 - the final Spanish try is converted off-camera).

Autumn internationals... part 1

2011-11-06T21:39:00.001Z

And so ends the first part of this autumn's women's internationals... now its time to take a breath before New Zealand arrive. However, before it all gets lost and forgotten in the inevitable fuss and hoopla that will accompany the arrival of the Black Ferns, its worthwhile looking back on the past couple of weeks.

Losing both games on their French tour is not what England would have expected, but it was refreshing to see the management take a risk and leave some big names at home so that the stars of the future could have a taste of the game at the highest level. Having winning as an absolute priority, and always picking the absolute best team available for every game, is all well and good but flirts with disaster as often the entire squad plays, ages, and retires together.

Now England have five new players with international experience who could be in the team for 2018, never mind 2014, which is a huge positive. Hopefully England will continue to allow these five, and other up-and-coming players, to develop their careers over the next year. The only fear might be that we may get a repeat of what seemed to happen after the Sevens squad failed to win its first warm-up tournament in the spring - the panicked jettisoning of the policy of the long build-up to 2013 and the drafting in of established players to ensure that England won every game thereafter. RFUW need to hold their nerve - after all its not the results this season that matter, its the ones in 2014.

And puncturing complacency is not a bad thing - as is seeing England's biggest European rivals turn a corner. Its six or seven years now since the Six Nations was last truly competitive, but the next tournament could be one of the best for some time. France, buoyed up maybe by the success of their men's team, found a consistency and self-belief that was remarkable. Not only did they win all three internationals, in the space of just eight days, but they also took part in a highly competitive Elche Sevens tournament in Spain at the same time (raising the question of why England were not there - after all, their men's team were).

A significant factor in French success was rediscovering players who could kick. The return of Aureile Bailon to the team - absent throughout last season - and the discovery of the remarkable Jessy Trémoulière gave extra strength to any already exciting backline. Trémoulière is, of course, yet another international goal kicker who has converted to the game from another code - when will Unions see that girls need to include kicking in their game from the earliest years? In particular, if English girls do not kick a ball before the age of 13, where will our future international full-backs and fly-halves come from?

The week was about more than England and France, however. Scotland started their season with something that they have seen little of for some years - a win, and a convincing one too, in Amsterdam, by 33-10. Admittedly the Dutch are rather concentrating on Sevens at present, and their best players were all at Elche where they finished runners-up to to the hosts. It was just the result that Spain needed - and had to achieve as they prepare for the IRB Sevens in Dubai (if nothing else it justified their selection).

Perhaps the only country that finished the week with negatives would be Italy. A team that has performed so well in recent Six Nations was beaten with embarrassing ease by a young French team, a result that follows on from their disappointing European Trophy performance. They may struggle to repeat their recent performances in the next Six Nations.

But until then we have the Black Ferns tour, Dubai Sevens - plus international sevens and fifteens tournaments across the globe from the Caribbean to Indo-China. The world's second biggest women's team sport rarely stops these days!

England downed... by French kicking!

2011-11-05T16:15:00.001Z

England have just lost the test match in France by 16-15, despite outscoring their hosts by two tries to one. Three French penalties and a converted try were enough to sneak past England - who had lead for almost the entire game.

Given the nature of the teams (many of England's leading players were rested for this short tour) it does not mean a sudden change in world rankings, but maybe the real significance is that first line above. France scored three penalties and a conversion in conditions that were pretty awful (heavy rain - again).

Considering that eight months ago or so France's penalty takers would not have reliably kicked the skin of a rice pudding this is a remarkable turn round - especially if you recall that their kicking display in the midweek game was also pretty good.

No news yet as to who it was who kicked England to defeat, but this does suggest that the Six Nations could actually be quite competitive this year - which would be no bad thing.

It is interesting to learn that the golden French boot belonged to Aureile Bailon, who is not exactly new to the French team as this was he 28th cap. However she missed all of last season, but now seems to be back with a bang, not to say a boot. With Jessy Trémoulière (who impressed everyone on Wednesday) also in the team, France are building a challenging team.

Follow England from the inside

2011-11-04T20:55:00.001Z

Either because of a change of policy at RFUW, or maybe because they have not noticed yet, the social media has at last made an impact on the England team.

Its not quite the blog or tour diary, like the Americans and Canadians have managed in recent years, but some of England's players have begun to embrace Twitter. So for the first time you can follow the ups and downs of being part of the team from the inside, including occasional unguarded unofficial photos, like this flattering image of Michaela Staniford after Wednesday's uncapped friendly against France.

England players and officials tweeting at the moment include:

Amy Turner (hooker and for scrum-half)
Sarah Hunter (captain and No. 8)
Alice Richardson (fly/centre)
Claire Allen (centre)
Kim Oliver (fly/centre)
La Toya Mason (scrum-half)
Natasha Hunt (scrum-half)
Claire Purdy (prop)
Isabelle Noel-Smith (Flanker)

Janice Anastasi (vice-chair of RFUW)

The great trans-European hitchhike

2011-11-02T12:13:00.002Z

Okay, for once this is not a directly rugby posting, but normal service will be resumed shortly on that score. However it is sort of relevant as it is the tale of an ex-Legend, and does involve a carload of Australian rugby players.

Suffice to say Nichola (ex-second row, currently based in Utrecht) and a friend recently hitchhiked from the Netherlands to San Sebastian in Spain, mainly to do some surfing. Her adventures are currently appearing on this blog and apparently they'd like comments. Enjoy.

(And if there are any has any other Legendary Tales of Ex-Legends, let me know).

Rugbygirl - New Zealand's latest website

2011-10-30T17:59:00.000Z

Rugbygirl is a new website set up to "grow and develop women's rugby in New Zeakand". Aiming to "bring you the latest womens rugby news from around the world so you can keep up to the minute with what's going on" it obviously has a significant New Zealand bias at present and is the second Kiwi site to launch since the World Cup (the other being Women's Rugby NZ).

Both help to fill the southern hemisphere news gap. There are still a few obvious gaps - most we still need dedicated sites from Australia and maybe South Africa - but we are getting there. The other major independent news sites are:

YSC Rugby covers USA and, to an extent, Canada
DFO and Promotion du rugby feminin cover France
ScrumQueens covers UK and Ireland in detail, plus much of the rest of the world

Independence is important as sites run by Unions will obviously never criticise the Union itself, or the IRB, or any official body - so at best you get a very upbeat impression of everything. Reading nothing but official press releases is like living on a diet of marshmallows - okay for a short while. but it gets a bit difficult to digest and you desperately hanker for something savoury and meaty.

Interestingly Rugbygirl is being run by an "incorporated non-profit society" (a charity?) and aims to attract funding to be spent on the game. Good luck with that, guys - I am not aware that any women's rugby websites make any measurable amounts of money at the moment, and hopefully the aim to attract funding will not interfere with your editorial independence.

Schoolgirl answer to French kicking woes?

2011-10-30T09:28:00.001Z

French women's rugby posters...

Love 'em or hate 'em, they are always original, artistic, very French and just a bit different to anything Twickenham would ever produce - and the one promoting Wednesday's uncapped international in Marseilles just what we have come to expect.

I wait with baited breath to see what they will come up with for the Women's Rugby World Cup in 2014.

Anyway, France disposed of a strong Italian team with almost disrespectful ease, and may have unearthed someone who can kick in the form of Jessy Trémoulière - a late addition to the squad - who plays for Elite 2 side Romangnat, and may have attracted attention when she single-handedly defeated Bayonne a couple of weeks ago with three penalties, a try and a conversion.

What is more, Jessy (who only turned 19 at the end last month) is rising through the ranks at a rate that can only be described as meteoric - she started playing the game two years ago, having previously had a promising football career. After taking part in a "fun come-and-try-it" session at school, her ability was spotted by her local club, Bonnefort. Attracted by a game that offered so much more (not least contact) Jessy was quickly hooked. Barely 6 months later she was winning the "Young Sports Hopes of Auvergne" award and talking about how her greatest ambition was to play for local Elite side Romangnat... no thought then that she might be pulling on an international jersey! Her only previous international experience prior to yesterday was warming the bench when France U20s played England in February.

Jessy - who has also been picked for the national 7s squad - played the first 60 minutes against Italy, slotting two conversions in five attempts, which may not be a fantastic kicking percentage, but particularly given her experience it is significantly better than more senior French players achieved last year, Whether it will be enough for her to hold her place we shall see - but chances are she will have a run out on Wednesday.

Europe's route to Moscow (and details about the 2012 European Sevens series) released

2011-10-29T21:14:00.004+01:00

While not officially confirmed, details about how Europe will decide which of its five nations will go to Moscow have now reached me from two different sources so its a reasonable assumption that they are correct.

2012 will be a huge - and potentially confusing! - year for women's sevens in Europe.

To begin with, the top 12 - England, Spain, Netherlands, Russia, France, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Moldova, Ukraine and Switzerland - will play play two tournaments - rather than just one - (on weekends of 16th-17th June and 30th June-1st July) to decide the European Champions.

Meanwhile the rest of Europe will be starting on the road to the Sevens World Cup. Around 24 teams will take part in two tournaments to be played over the weekend of 9th/10th June. Where these tournaments will be is not yet known (as bids are being invited to host the events - and come to that two legs of the European Series as well), but sources in the Finnish RFU suggest that Wales will be taking part and will be competing with Finland, Czech Republic, Belgium, Norway, Malta, Poland, Israel, Georgia, Serbia, Luxembourg and one other team in one of these tournaments. No news about Scotland or Ireland.

The finalists from each of these tournaments will join the Top 12 at the second leg of their series, so - as well as deciding the European Championship - the tournament will also decide who goes to Moscow. Basically - although the European title will be decided over both legs - Europe's qualifiers for Moscow will be decided based only on the second leg.

Bizarrely this means that the European Champions could fail to qualify for Moscow if - say - they won the first leg, and then only finished 6th in the second!

Meanwhile the continent's eight leading XVs teams will also be having their European Championship, while the rest (or, at least, Finland, Sweden, Netherlands and Russia) will be competing in a a pre-qualifier in Sweden for the 2014 Womens' Rugby World Cup. Quite how this will work remains even more confusing than the Sevens at this stage... though England (and France) have no worries as they have already qualified.

...And more good news, this time from Africa

2011-10-29T20:32:00.002+01:00

Very nearly counted out before they could get onto the field, Uganda's women's seven team - know as the Lady Cranes (all the women's teams in African seemed to be named after animals...) - are now through to the continental qualifier next year.

Uganda's women are the only team from their country to ever qualify for a world cup finals in any sport, but with their Union in financial meltdown getting to Moscow in 2013 seemed dead until an international fundraising appeal raised the money to send them to Botswana.

And they have repaid the faith of their supporters had with a 100% record in their qualifying group today - beating Kenya 17-5, Botswana 17-7 and Madagascar 17-0 - to reach the semi-finals. With the top four going through, this was enough - more than enough - to put the Lady Cranes one step away of repeating their success of 2009.

There is still this weekend's tournament to finish off, and tomorrow they will play Zimbabwe in the semi-finals, while South Africa take on Kenya. These four teams will join Senegal, Burkina Faso, Tunisia and Morocco in Morocco next September competing for (probably) two African places at the Sevens World Cup.

A Baltic good news story

2011-10-29T19:18:00.000+01:00

One possible downside that Olympic rugby raised was the possibility that 7s would take over as the major form of the game, especially in women's rugby. The policy of the IRB when it comes to qualification for the Women's Rugby World Cup has hardly helped - what with free passes to the finals for USA, Canada and South Africa at the expense of any other nations who wanted to at least compete for a place in the finals.

It is reassuring therefore to see how much playing full 15-a-side rugby remains the ambition of so many players in smaller rugby nations around the world. Botswana - host for this weekend's southern African 7s - aim to form a 15-a-side national team next year, and last weekend all the clubs in Latvia got together to play their country's first ever women's 15s fixture, again with the aim of forming a national team to compete for with other Baltic nations like Lithuania and Finland.

A glance at the pictures appearing in an article in the local press suggests that they have a long way to go when it comes to, well, pretty much everything - in fact they look exactly like teams playing their first 15s match -but you have to admire their commitment, ambition (and range of ages!). Given just a bit of support by the IRB or FIRA and we could well have a new test playing nation in a few years time. As it is one team seems to already have gained a sponsorship deal with the Leeds Building Society, which is a neat achievement for a club side based some 1,500 miles and five countries away...

Largest ever round of autumn internationals starts today

2011-10-29T12:56:00.002+01:00

The RFU may think that there are no autumn internationals this year, but they could not be more wrong.Never have we seen so much international activity at this time of year, especially in Europe.

This afternoon France kick the season off with a game against Italy in Nice (6.30pm BST). Italy will be at close to full strength - just a couple of new caps in the front row - while France have a number of interesting young players in their squad.

The French squad then move down the coast a bit to Provence where they have two games against England, who have also picked a young, very experimental, team. RFUW are even insisting that the first game - on Wednesday in Marseilles - is not a full international, so we can expect players like the former Welwyn pairing of Hannah Gallagher and Geri Thomas to have a chance to prove themselves here. The second game next Saturday in Aix-le-Provence - will be a full test match, with everyone in the England team aiming for a place in the squad that will play New Zealand at the end of November.

The day after the France/England test, on Sunday 6th, Scotland travel to Amsterdam to take on the Netherlands in game that really could go either way - the Six Nations weakest side against a nation with the world's only professional women rugby players. Its an important game for both nations. Scotland need to pull out of a nose-dive that has seen them win just one of their last 15 internationals (against Sweden in the World Cup), while for Netherlands the target will be next spring's European Trophy, and a place in Europe's qualifier for the 2014 World Cup.

And its not just XVs rugby - this is a huge weekend for the rugby nations east and southern Africa, who gather in Botswana to sort out who four teams will play in the continent's Sevens World Cup qualifier next September. Its an event that the players from the likes of Botswana, Uganda, Kenya and South Africa (among others) will have been preparing for for years, not least because for everyone other than the South Africans this is the only World Cup they have any chance to qualify for (at the moment there is every indication that South Africa will again be given a free pass to the XVs Women's Rugby World Cup without having to worry about having to prove themselves on the field).

News of girls' rugby at Letchworth

2011-10-24T18:10:00.001+01:00

"Pottsy" has been in touch to remind me (and everyone) that girls rugby is alive and well at the club. Not quite the heights of a few years ago yet - very much a rebuilding stage in the club's history - but this does mean its also an ideal time for new players to come along and try out the best team sport there is.

Training is on Thursday evenings at 6pm, and 11 o'clock on Sundays (unless there are fixtures). No previous experience required.

Pottsy himself can be reached by email here. Girls of all ages are welcome.

Forward pass! Or not...?

2011-10-18T22:47:00.002+01:00

Fascinating short film here from the IRB about the forward pass.

Bit of an obvious rule, really? Well no - as the video shows, if a player is running and passes back then their forward momentum can often mean that the ball actually moves forward (in relation to the field). So does that mean its a forward pass? No!

Anyway - check it out.

Saluting Stéphanie Madaule

2011-10-18T21:34:00.001+01:00

Who?

Well, because I am writing on French domestic rugby each week (or so) for ScrumQueens I have had to do a fair bit of research on the game over there - its partly the reason why there has been a number of French stories on here in recent months.

Women's rugby has been a part of the French sporting scene for longer than pretty much anywhere else - their national championship is 40 years old this season which makes it at least 10 years older than any other national championship (the first British league - and at that time it was a UK-wide competition - did no start until 1986) - and the enthusiasm for the game at club level is remarkable. Live local radio commentary on club games is not unusual, most home international are on TV, and the crowds at home internationals - and major club games - are routinely higher than anything seen over here. They have significantly more registered players than we do in England (though this probably says more about the the mess that is the women's registration process in England than anything else).

Indeed quite why, with all this, the French struggle to compete on the field against England is a bit of a mystery with any answer possibly saying more about attitudes among key people and the general lack of imagination within the French rugby union (FFR) than anything else.

One thing that the French do really well is promote their games - even at club level. Take a look at this example from last weekend, promoting Lille's home game against Bobigny (won my Lille, I am delighted to say as I am becoming a bit of a fan). When did any English club at any level, including the Premiership, ever routinely produce posters advertising their home games, never mind do anything of this quality? Posters advertising England games are rare enough!

Which takes me back to Stéphanie who has set up an advertising agency to advertise and promote women's rugby and women's rugby teams.

I came across her website last week and am increasingly amazed by what she is doing. Not only does she manage to publish national league results on her site some hours before the FFR can manage it (okay, that is a trick that some of us have managed in England too!), but she has launched a range of clothing, carried out photo-shoots at a range of clubs, published some great interviews with players at all levels, and is now moving into the broadcast media as well, getting onto radio and TV promoting the game. How does she find the time? And energy? And. presumably, make money while doing it?

Wouldn't it be amazing if we could have someone like Stéphanie over here? Better still, can RFUW arrange to hire/kidnap her, change her allegiance to England, and install her at Twickenham?

County results: round 1

2011-10-18T20:18:00.000+01:00

For unknown reasons county results will not be appearing on Rugby Roundup this year (they are now there, apparently - I was misinformed. Apologies). However, I have been sent the results of last week's first round games (below). County rugby across the board is now being taken a more seriously than in the past as it is the first step on the way to possible national selection.

So it is disappointing to see walk-overs. In the seniors Durham (home of a premiership club??) and Sussex were unable to raise teams, while Staffs and Warwickshire cannot enter a U15 side (and have to combine for the U18s), and Cheshire with no junior county teams at all. What happens to girls from these areas, I wonder?

Herts had a mixed weekend - the U18s (with Sydney!) being unbeatable (again - when did they last lose?), while the seniors and U15s were less fortunate.

Meanwhile Sasha was playing back with Eastern Counties seniors and scored a dramatic try - see comments!

Seniors:

Cumbria v Durham w/o to Cumbria
Cheshire 16 Lancashire 10
Northumberland 10 Yorkshire 27
North Mids 53 Warwickshire 0
Staffordshire 19 Leciestershire 10
East Mids 10 NLD 25
Eastern Counties 10 Middlesex 5
Surrey 44 Hampshire 0
Sussex v Essex - w/o to Essex
Kent 15 Hertfordshire 12
Devon 33 Cornwall 5
Berkshire 12 Gloucestershire 17
Dorset & Wilts 0 Somerset 36

U18s:

Lancashire 12 Cumbria /Durham 20
Northumberland 22 Yorkshire 19
North Mids 48 Leciestershire 0
East Mids 19 NLD 38
East Mids 5 Staffs / Warwick 20
NLD 25 Staffs / Warwick 0
(Trianguar - won by NLD)
Surrey 43 Hampshire 0
Sussex 10 Essex 10
Sussex 39 Middlesex 5
Essex 17 Middlesex 10
(Triangular - won by Sussex)
Kent 13 Hertfordshire 24
Devon 43 Cornwall 0
Berkshire 7 Gloucestershire 0
Berkshire 45 Oxford / Bucks 0
Gloucestershire v Oxford / Bucks - w/o to Gloucestershire
(Triangular - won by Gloucestershire)
Dorset & Wilts 53 Somerset 0

U15s:

Lancashire 85 Cumbria /Durham 5
Northumberland 36 Yorkshire 12
North Mids 40 Leciestershire 22
East Mids 53 NLD 5
Surrey 29 Hampshire 15
Sussex 31 Essex 0
Sussex 45 Middlesex 0
Essex 10 Middlesex 15
(Triangular - won by Sussex)
Kent 32 Hertfordshire 3
Devon 29 Cornwall 17
Berkshire 14 Gloucestershire 10
Berkshire 0 Oxfordshire 33
Gloucestershire 5 Oxfordshire 32
(Triangular - won by Oxfordshire)
Dorset & Wilts 63 Somerset 5

U13s "Transition Rugby": At last the rules and training resource!

2011-10-17T14:43:00.000+01:00

I mean, the season has only been going six weeks...

All of the video and notes are available from RFUW on CD, but can also be watched (but annoyingly not downloaded - because the speed of the server is awful!) from here.

A number of significant changes have been made to the rules, as circulated at the end of last season - all of which seem to be improvements on the draft rules and may even indicate that someone has been listening. The major differences are....

The minimum recommended coaching qualification is now - thank heaven! - Level 1. The ludicrous - and frankly dangerous - idea that the game could be coached by someone with only a tag qualification has been quietly dropped.
All penalties that would normally result in scrums will now result in (uncontested) 3-player scrums (not free passes, as first proposed)
When the ball goes into touch the game restarts with a free pass (not a scrum as originally proposed).

As a result the game now looks like rugby union, instead of rugby league!

Much is made of the rather complex tackle rule - like about half of the rules video! Essentially once a player is "gripped" or grabbed below the shoulder the referee calls "tackle". The tackled player can then drive forward, or pass. If they cannot go forward they have to pass (or "make the ball available"), and if they go to ground then you effectively have a ruck. Rucks are restricted to one player per team (not including the tackled player or the tackler).

If they do not go to ground then you have a maul, though the rules do not call it that (it is still the "tackle"), and again one extra player can join this from each team - so a maul will be a maximum of two players per side - and the defending side cannot try to steal the ball. As a result big, strong girls are going to love this - forget all this passing stuff. What with all the encouragement to tackle above the waist, all you need is a couple of big, "future props" working together and you should be all but unbeatable!

Other matters to note is that the game is for 6-7 players per side, and is on a half-sized pitch going (according to the video) from the 10m line to the try line. This is clearly an error as there are some obvious safety implications here - with the posts being on one touchline - so I'd run games from the 5m line to the 10m line, as in the old U14 game.

That is about it - the full rules are here. There are some significant improvements and - taken as a whole - this is far better and safer game than originally implied. Once you get beyond the introductory rules video, there are some really good drills and teaching ideas here - including some emphasis on proper tackling technique and evasive and ball skills. As a means of introducing players to the game it is has real potential.

However, kicking is still banned, which is mad partly because girls coming up from the minis will be kicking, but mainly because kicking is the great weakness of the girls (and women's) game. To ban any kicking at all until U15 rugby (now from school year 9) is plain stupid. Where on earth are the goal kickers of the future to come from?

But one big problem remains. This is an openly and avowedly introductory game and will be a significant step back for girls moving up from minis.The requirement that girls who already play rugby must also go through this makes no sense at all. Not only do you risk these players being bored, but a couple of good ex-minis in a training group or game - girls who can hit and tackle properly - has the potential to destroy the introduction that it is supposed to be.

Would it not be more sensible to offer two routes into U15 rugby? A direct path into the game for those moving up from the minis, and "Transition Rugby" for those starting to play at secondary school age. That is - after all - what we have had this season. As RFUW have clearly listened already, why can they not listen just a little bit more?

Club relaunch, French style

2011-10-16T21:14:00.001+01:00

You have to admire the sense of humour of the French team from Herm, on the border with Spain, who call themselves the "Pachys" - hence Pachys D'Herm (ie. Pachyderm).

You also have to admire them a bit because, after being formed in 1989, following a charity game involving the wives and girlfriends of players from Herm's men's team, the "Pachys" recorded five French championship wins and uncovered 32 French internationals before a sudden collapse in player numbers saw them unable to complete their season in 2008-9.

Now they are back. Well, nearly - they are just one division away from the "Top 10" and - as part of the final push - have hired a publicity company that specialises in women's rugby (Promotion du Rugby Feminin) to mastermind a campaign to attract new players and support.

The results are interesting, from the website, the official video to some striking posters and other publicity photos. There is even a very watchable "making of" video.

Its all pretty impressive - and hopefully will help return one of France's oldest clubs back to the top,

Age regulations (Part 2) - what makes an adult?

2011-10-16T11:32:00.000+01:00

And so it continues...There is clearly something seriously wrong with the drafting of RFUW regulations on age bands because misunderstandings continue. Recently I highlighted continuing problems about what makes an U18, caused by RFUW continuing to use their own badly worded definition instead of the RFU's rather clearer one. Now I hear that the definition of what makes an adult - or more to the point when you can start playing adult rugby - is still not properly understood.

I don't have a copy of the latest Yearbook, but I have to say this is odd because I thought this one really had been cleared up, not least because Hayley played adult rugby under these regulations some years ago with no real problems. And the regulation is (shock, horror!) a really good, sensible one.

Essentially it is very simple. Anyone can play adult rugby from the day they turn 18. This means that, in their final U18 season, any girl can also play adult rugby from the date of their 18th birthday - whilst also retaining their U18 status.

There are a few minor exceptions - for example you cannot play representative rugby in both age groups (you have to choose), and you cannot play two games in the same weekend (so if you turn out in an adult game in Saturday you cannot play a U18 game on Sunday). But that is about it.

You can play your U18 and adult rugby at different clubs. Being selected for an adult representative team (county, say) does not prevent you playing U18 rugby at club, or division. You genuinely do get the best of both worlds.

The idea behind this is also great. It is so that girls get to taste and try out the adult game, maybe guesting for a couple of adult teams, while still keeping a firm home base in the U18 game. Obviously girls born in September get more opportunity to use this rule than those with birthdays in later in the season, but you have to draw the line somewhere.

Quite why this is misunderstood - or even not known about at all (even by officials in CBs) - beats me. Maybe RFUW need to issue some clarification about all this - say at the start of each season?

England back at Esher again for Black Ferns games

2011-10-10T12:11:00.002+01:00

England have confirmed the dates and venues for the visit of New Zealand in November... but have again wasted an opportunity to spread the game to a wider audience.

It is great that the first game in the series - at Twickenham on November 26^th will be screened live on Sky Sports, following the men's Barbarians v Australia fixture (a game that is tactlessly (and inaccurately) being marketed by the RFU as the "only international this Autumn" - not least because Barbarians games are not test matches, whereas the women's game they are choosing to ignore is).

However, the other two tests will both be at - Esher RFC (again) on November 29^th and December 3^rdand will not be televised by anyone, and presumably not webcast either as neither RFU nor RFUW seem to have arrived in the 21st century yet. The best we might hope for is some highlights. I wouldn't hold your breath on that, however

This is unlike, say, the USA, Canada or even the Cayman Islands, all of whose unions almost routinely webcast their internationals. Doesn't Twickenham find it just slightly embarrassing that tiny little Unions in some of the remotest parts of the world can manage this new technology thing just fine, but England - richest union in the world, with 2.5 million players (allegedly) - can't? What exactly is the problem?

Its not as if Esher is in the middle of no-where - and indeed that is the other problem. The RFUW have not exactly pushed the boundaries and used this tour to spread the game, have they? Esher is less than 10 miles from Twickenham and firmly within the M25. So anyone in South West London gets to see all three internationals on their doorstep, while the rest of the country (for the second and third tests) will have to put up with a match report and photograph on ScrumQueens.

When England travel to New Zealand in 18 months time or so, will all their games be in Wellington? No - I would be amazed if they were all on the same island.

England are also going to France for a couple of games next month... and are they both their games in Paris? No! In fact, in a move akin to the RFUW playing the Black Fern games in Newcastle or Manchester, the French "Autumn tests" will be played in the south of France with an "uncapped friendly" in Marseilles on 2nd November and a "full on" test in Aix-en-Provence on the 5th.

France will also be playing Italy the previous week (29th October) in Nice...well over 100 miles away from Marsailles in south-east France. In addition, France's three home Six Nations games will be played in Calais, Clermont Ferrand (central France), and Pau (south west). Add in their international venues in the past couple of years and most Frenchwomen will have had at least one international nearby (within 50-100 miles at worst) in the past 2-3 years.

Time was when England were almost as adventurous - they made it all the way to Leeds in 1997! - but the last time England travelled further north than St Albans was when they found their way to the remote outpost of civilisation that is Northampton in 2001.

When last questioned on this policy a few years ago, RFUW claimed it was not their fault and blamed international regulations about airports and hotels. So for those of you in Newcastle and Manchester who thought you had airports and hotels you'd better check they are really there. And if they are then clearly they are not remotely as good as those to be found in Clermont Ferrand and Pau.

One other confirmed Autumn International will be Scotland's visit to Netherlands on 6th November, probably in Amsterdam. Considering recent Scottish form it could be a very close game indeed... Wales and Ireland have no games currently announced.

Catching up with our "pro"

2011-10-08T22:06:00.000+01:00

Just a quick update about the ex-Legend who is now as near as dammit to being a "professional" rugby player - Rosie Randfield.

In theory Rosie is in the army, but her actual soldiering seems to be pretty minimal these days as she tours the country (and the odd neighbouring country) playing both 15s and 7s rugby union.

And when there is no rugby union to be had, Rosie switches code to play league - most recently last weekend when she turned out for the Combined Services against England Students. The only report I could find is a Navy report so no-one who is not in the Navy gets a mention, but going by the pictures Randy had a pretty good game, with her team winning 28-18.

Festivals? What festivals?

2011-10-08T11:31:00.003+01:00

Remember the youth calendar for this year? If not its actually online.

You will recall the (very welcome) new development this season was the appearance of a number of festivals across the season, all to be organised by the Divisions with competitions for various levels of club - developed, developing, etc.

The first festivals are but weeks away (4th December) which raises the question.... where are they? As anyone who has ever organised a festival will say, you need at least a couple of months of lead in to make any such event a success - especially if its a new event - just let everyone know its on, get entries, organise ground, volunteers (BTW on the subject of volunteers, please go here - the RFU are carrying out an important survey), etc. etc. - but not only do I not hear any news of any such events, I am told that for some clubs in this area the 4th December has already been changed to a league weekend.

In fact the only festivals anyone has confirmed with me are the "traditional" end of season tournaments - Herts 7s on 29th April, Worthing 10s on 6th May, and the National 7s on 12th May (though there is also a possible Worcester tournament, annoying likely to clash with Herts 7s). Beyond that... nothing.

Unless anyone knows different?

More on the rise of girls' rugby league

2011-10-06T16:24:00.000+01:00

Just to show that girls' rugby league is not just growing in the North East, here is the story of spectacular growth in the North West.

And this only a day after reading something I never thought I'd see. Worcester Girls' - Worcester Girls' (who some of us think of as the biggest, best, most successful, most well run girls'club on the planet) - have had to cancel this weekend's U18 home game because they do not have enough players.

Worcester do not have enough players. Let us pause to take the implications of that in...

Scary, isn't it? I mean, for the future of junior rugby union?

In the meanwhile, back to the North West and the obvious question. While The North may indeed be - for Twickenham at least - "a land far, far away of which they know little", clearly the inhabitants of this land are doing something right. Maybe someone should be, perhaps, finding out about it and learning from this success?

Changes to Autumn international fixtures

2011-10-03T22:01:00.002+01:00

While the New Zealand games remain on track (with the November 26th fixture at Twickenham to be shown live in Sky), there are some subtle changes to information about the other games, as first released by the French rugby union back in July (but still not an official peep from the RFUW, where the information remains a state secret).

Essentially both of the England v France autumn tests will now be in France - Marseille, November 2nd and Aix-en-Provence, 5th. In addition, France will play Italy in Nice on October 29th.

England's U20 game with France will now be in Périgord-Agenais on 10th March 2012- and France will also play Wales (as will, presumably, England), which means we could have an (unofficial) U20 Three Nations - if someone wants to award points.

Mêlée spontanée - les mains loin!

2011-10-03T20:47:00.004+01:00

Pity the poor French rugby referee who - thanks to the demands of the French language police - will now, presumably, have to shout out the above tongue twister (eight syllables) instead of the rather more direct "ruck - hands away" (three) that we are used to.

This is one little gem to be found in the French government's response to the World Cup - Ballon ovale… Prêts pour la mêlée ? - a guide to the "correct" French words to be used when talking or writing about rugby.

Other interesting French words for English rugby terminology include raffut for
"hand-off" - an odd choice for a word that normally means "racket" (as in the sense of a loud noise or argument - hullabaloo would be another equivalent). Indeed you wonder how much the French government's language experts know about the game as they kindly give us French translations for "goal average", "sparring partner" and "time-out" but nothing at all for "maul", "scrum/scrummage", or "bottle" (in the sense of the verb describing what New Zealand men's rugby teams normally do).

Even so - much here to impress a teacher or examiner for anyone who is doing GCSE French!

Want to break a rugby world record?

2011-10-01T15:47:00.000+01:00

Now here is an opportunity for any well organised rugby club, or school, or any other large-ish group wanting a bit of publicity and maybe a chance to raise some sponsorship money.

A great way to achieve these aims is to set a World Record. Trouble is that this is normally quite hard, if not dangerous, requiring skill, talent, ability, training etc. etc. But maybe not always.

There is a record for the World's Largest Rugby Scrum. You may have thought that this was limited to eight players per side, but no - Leamington Spa RFC set a new record last month (with the help of the BBC) with a scrum including 361 "players", beating the around 200 that had attempted the same thing in Ashbourne (Ireland) a few days before, and the 68 New Zealanders who set the first record.

Actually, the word "players" is stretching things a bit as, apart maybe from the two front rows that make contact with each other, everyone else seems to be parents, grandparents, children, and anyone else capable of bending down and leaning on someone in front of them (in fact not even leaning - just vaguely touching seems to count).

Really - that is it. It sounds taxing - dangerous even - but watch the video (above) and you will see is that all you need are enough bodies, a modicum of organisation, and someone from Guinness World Records with a counter to check that the scrum "obeys the laws of the game" (personally I cannot find anything in the laws that remotely allows this, but what the heck - publicity is publicity), even though you sort of suspect that she really has no idea. I mean you'd think the very minimum qualification would be to be a rugby referee? Never mind - a record is a record.

So there you go. Simple. Forget four minute miles, 24 hour rugby matches, or power-lifting. Indeed forget any training at all. All you need is you and your club mates, family and friends, a rugby ball, a field, and within a couple of hours you too could all be Guinness World Record holders.

Most of Europe left at starting gate for 2014?

2011-09-30T20:37:00.002+01:00

Articles appearing on Swedish and Finnish official Facebook pages this week suggest that, in Europe at least, the 2014 Women's Rugby World Cup will be as much of a closed shop as the 2010 tournament.

Although 2010 was a great success this hid the disturbing fact that, of the near 100 nations that play women's rugby (and the over 50 who have played 15-a-side internationals) only just over 20 were able to compete for one of the 12 places in the tournament. No-one from South America was invited at all, South Africa, USA and Canada were selected to represent their regions without any other teams being given a chance to compete, only Samoa from the Pacific Nations had a chance to play for a place (in a one-off game with Australia) and in Europe only 12 of the continents 36 nations were given an opportunity to compete.

With so much longer to prepare this time the hope was that perhaps more countries would be given a chance to make 2014 a truly worldwide competition. But reading between the lines this will not be the case, at least not in Europe. It seems that, while the top eight European nations will be playing for the European Championship next Spring, the next four will be playing on a "European Cup" tournament in Sweden that will - effectively - decide the 5th-8th place seedings for Europe's qualification tournament in 2013.

It does all get a bit complicated, but based on these titbits of information we can probably deduce the following:

England and France will automatically qualify for 2014, as runners-up and hosts
Either the top two teams from the 2013 Six Nations (or maybe the top two teams from the 2012 European Championship) (other than England and France) will also automatically qualify.
The remaining four teams from the European Championship will be ranked 1-4 in European Qualifier, with the European Cup teams ranked 5-8.
The top two teams from the European Qualifier will also go through.

The only outstanding question is who exactly will be playing in next springs two tournaments. The European Championship should include the Six Nations plus the top two ranked teams outside the 6N - which should be Spain and Netherlands. But Finland say that the Netherlands will be in Sweden, along with the hosts, Russia and Finland... so who will the eighth European Championship team be? The next best team in Germany - but the Germans are well behind any of these four nations. Maybe they are hosting the European Championship?

Anyway, what this does mean (if it is correct) is that Belgium (who took part in the qualifier in 2009), Switzerland (who made such a successful 15s debut earlier this month), and all of the Balkans and eastern Europe (Russia excepted) are already "out" of 2014 without so much as kicking a ball. Okay, none of these excluded teams would have been likely to have won one of Europe's six WRWC places (assuming Europe does get six again), but that is hardly the point. If the IRB really does want 15-a-side rugby to be anything other than an obscure niche version of the game it needs to at least give these developing nations a chance - but it isn't.

It will be no surprise if Switzerland's first test match is also turns out to be their last, or if Belgium stop playing and instead concentrate on sevens. After all - and in stark contrast to all of the above - it was also revealed that every European nations will have a chance to qualify for the 2013 Women's Sevens World Cup. The 24 bottom ranked sevens teams (including Wales and - if they take up the offer - Scotland and Ireland) will compete for four places at next summer's European Qualifier, which will also include the top 12 European nations (including England). The top 12 teams will also play in a Women's European Sevens Series (played over at least two tournaments, maybe three) instead of one "Top 12" competition, as has been the case in past years.

So its great news for the continent's sevens players as every nation will have a chance to have a go, rather less good for women who play 15s - unless they live in one of the "lucky" 12 countries.

At this stage there is no word from anywhere else in the world about how the remaining non-European places in Paris will be decided, though Australia and New Zealand will get two. That leaves four places for Africa, the Pacific, Asia, North America, South America and the Caribbean. How will they be decided - in an IRB boardroom, or on a rugby pitch?

County trials - a mixed story nationwide... and a growing threat

2011-09-28T22:22:00.004+01:00

Last weekend's Herts county trials went pretty well by the sounds of it - and congratulations for ex-legends like like Ellah, Jade and Sydney for winning their places in the U18 squad.

Unfortunately the news from some other parts of the country is less good.

Cheshire have apparently abandoned county rugby for girls altogether - which presumably bars any girls in the county from possible divisional selection as well - unless they make themselves available for neighbouring countries. And Northumberland - a county that used to be a hotbed of the game - can just about get a U15 squad together, while at U18 they can get a team out only if pretty much every player in the county shows up - but "boyfriends, parents, apathy and injuries often get in the way".

What is killing girls rugby union in the north? Well, curiously it is not because girls have problems with contact and therefore need to be carefully introduced to the game through some untrialled, ill-thought-out, watered-down U13 game. No - the problem is something first identified on this blog just under three years ago.

Rugby League. Whatever you may have to say or think about this unsubtle, watered down version of the game it is not only threatening Union in the north, its beginning to beat it hands down. In the north east six new junior RL teams were formed this year, as well as a girls' performance programme, with two U14s squads - one from Tyne & Wear and the other from County Durham, all linked to a senior ladies team at Peterlee which is taking union players.

At the same time "the union side of rugby in Durham has collapsed at U15 with Darlington MP (women's premier league team hosting the current England captain) unable to field an U15's team, while a new Northumberland rugby league team - Whitley Bay Barbarians - is in direct competition with the struggling union team at Whitley Bay Rockcliff".

Why is League doing to well? The earlier post covered much of it - a unified sport with money and a clear focus from the top to support the women's game - but the fact is that both tag and the U13 game move much more naturally into League than they do Union. All the things that make Union unique - the game for everyone, the importance of forwards, rucks, mauls, line-outs, proper scrums - are absent from both tag and U13 rugby as they are from League. Look at the basic tactics for tag - this is League, isn't it? And as for U13 rugby - effectively no proper rucks, no real mauls, and when the ball crosses the touchline U13 rugby even restarts with an uncontested scrum - just like rugby league, and certainly not union! Throw in the need for fewer players, more flexible age bands - I am pretty sure that girls can play adult league at 16 - and a game that is based in the north (as opposed to one that barely recognises the existence of a world outside the M25) and its a winning formula that in some parts of England is, well, winning.

Avoiding poaching - the French solution

2011-09-26T09:07:00.001+01:00

The problem of bigger, more successful, clubs poaching players is clearly not just an English problem - the French have suffered from it too, but have come up with an interesting solution. It probably would not work in junior rugby (well, not without a bit of tweaking) but for the adult game it seems pretty effective.

All registered players in France (they call them "licensed", but it amounts to the same thing) have a "colour". Women who have been playing for less than four years are "orange", players who have been playing for longer - and have also been at the same club for more than four years - are "white", but any player who has moved clubs within the last four years is "white-yellow".

There are then strict limits on the number of "white-yellow" and "orange" players a team can field in any league game.

A maximum of 7 "white-yellow" in a squad of 22 (6 in a squad of 21, 5 in 20, 4 in 19 - you cannot play with a squad smaller than 19).
A maximum of 11 "orange" players in a squad

These limits are carefully policed - last year the champions USA Perpignan were caught, had a win and points taken away, and were also fined €200.

Its an interesting idea as it means that large, successful clubs like Perpignan cannot sign up every promising player in their region - thus effectively killing off rival clubs - but instead have to base their game around players who have been at the club for four years or more. To an extent it ensures that talent is spread around as a player wanting to move will steer away from a club with a lot of recent signings. In essence you cannot "buy" success.

It can make things difficult for clubs newly promoted to higher divisions, especially if they have relatively small squads, or where a significant number of players retire together (a problem faced by RC Chilly last year), but all in all it seems to work. After Perpignan were caught early last season, no other club suffered similar fines.

It would be interesting to speculate how a similar system might work in England, at junior or senior level. At the very least it would encourage clubs to register their players in the first place - and keep the registrations up-to-date!

Hubris [ˈhjuːbrɪs] (n) - see Chinese women's rugby

2011-09-25T11:29:00.001+01:00

A couple of weeks ago China Daily - the main official news source in China - published a long piece about their women's rugby sevens team. One of the IRB's hand-picked eight teams for Dubai, China are probably the team the rest of the world knows least about - so this article, written shortly after their win in the Shanghai Sevens, was an interesting insight into the Asian champions and their leading player, Fan Wenjuan. It also showed how seriously China is taking women's sevens - an article of this length would not appear about a sport where the country had no serious ambitions.

The style of article was, however, full of self-congratulations. "Catch us if you can" the headline shouted. "The Chinese women are miles ahead of their regional rivals" it went on to say "and have the potential to make some serious waves in Rio de Janeiro".

However, this article - appearing as it did after only a four-team invitational tournament - rather overlooked China's performance in the last major tournament, the Asia Games, where they lost in the final to Kazakhstan. It was also a bit of a hostage to fortune - and, in their very first tournament, the "regional rivals" have bitten back.

The Asia-Pacific Sevens bring together some of the best teams in the two regions. Champions Kazakhstan were absent, as were Pacific Games champions Fiji, but the eight team that did line up on Friday included Pacific Games finalists Samoa, China, Hong Kong and last year's runner-up, Papua New Guinea.

China won their group but - for a team "miles ahead" of their rivals - less convincingly than might have been expected, only superior skills with the boot giving them wins against Tonga and Papua. However, fairly comfortable wins over Singapore and Hong Kong saw them through to the final - against Papua this morning. And the news came through an hour or so ago that they had lost - 24-10, so not even that close.

What do we conclude from this? First - be careful what you write about how wonderful your team is as it can come back to haunt you very quickly! But more seriously, it seems to show a growing strength in Pacific women's rugby (at least at sevens) - which is significant as its a region totally ignored by the IRB in its women's sevens policy so far. Papua and Samoa did very well this weekend and showed that they are a match for Asia's "best" - but there is one team that neither side was a match for last month and that team was Fiji. Four weeks ago Fiji's women beat Papua 26-0 and Samoa 43-7 - what would they do to China? Or anyone else if they were able to go to Dubai?

Make a career in rugby

2011-09-23T16:27:00.001+01:00

You do not have to be Dutch to make rugby your profession - a great many women are making rugby their career, as this excellent article hidden away on the BBC's business pages (thanks, Simon!) reveals.

Nearly two-thirds of the staff working behind the scenes running the current men's world cup in New Zealand are women, including Therese Walsh, who - as Chief Operating Officer - is in charge of the financial, IT, HR, administrative and commercial areas of the tournament. Its her job to make the tournament a financial success!

And its not just in New Zealand. There are women in senior positions at the heart of things at the IRB too, and at the RFU where the Chief Commercial Officer is Sophie Goldschmidt (above right).

Its a fairly recent change - the game's senior manager were pretty much all male until 20 or so years ago - but things have changed very quickly, especially as the game has become more of a business. Once the game needed to make money, it seems that managers whose only qualification was to have played the game were replaced.

"At every level women bring a different perspective and a different way of looking at issues," says Brent Anderson, former general manager of the All Blacks rugby team and New Zealand Rugby Union.

"Women bring a diversity of thought and ideas that can and should make people in rugby stop and think."And although it can be hard at the start for businesswomen to get into the rugby world, adds Mr Anderson, it is up to the sport community to realise the value that diversity of thought actually brings.

"Those fresh ideas are likely to lead to good decisions, which will be beneficial for the game."

Okay, okay - I am not going to stop!

2011-09-23T10:37:00.000+01:00

Gosh - that was a heck of a response!

Thanks everyone - I am really flattered. I know people read this, but that so many people see this as an important source is gratifying (for me at least. Others may have another view).

I really have no intention of stopping this so long as you are reading it, and so long as there is stuff to write about - and, all things considered, it seems unlikely we will run out of that! What I was really just clarifying is that the Letchworth connection with this blog is now really just the title.

So please keep sending stuff in - rumours, suggestions, complaints, confusions, and maybe even the odd good news story as well! - and this will carry on in the (accidental) role of being that annoying fly that keeps buzzing round in the corner of the room that you cannot quite get rid of...

Defining U18

2011-09-22T10:33:00.001+01:00

What is an Under 18? When, exactly, is the cut-off point? Simple enough question, you'd think.

Or maybe not. A few years ago this problem was raised in Hertfordshire when we discovered that one of the girls in the county team had a birthday on 1st September. The problem was that RFUW rules say that you have to be "Under 18 on 1st September" to qualify for junior rugby, and if you birthday is the 1st then clearly you are not under 18.

However, this was a nonsense. Such girls will still be in school, and if they were boys they would be U18s as the RFU have a much clearer definition - ie. you must be under 18 at midnight on the 31st August/1st September. At the time we appealed, and the girl concerned was allowed to play as a junior.

Consider my surprise to learn that this example of bad rule writing is still in the RFUW's books - and girls are still being caught out by it. A parent in the south east contacted me only recently to ask for advice about it as their daughter fell into this trap. Fortunately it now seems that, although the RFUW rule remains in place, officials in Twickenham are in practice applying the RFU's rule instead and - after much confusion and general grief (again) - the girl concerned can now line up with her team-mates again.

While it is good that RFUW are behving sensibly over this, it rather begs the question - why not just change the rule? Why do RFUW still have different rules from the RFU over simple matters like age definitions (especially when the RFUW rule is demonstrably bad)? One game, surely - especially now the merger has sort-of happened? I mean, if we have to slavishly follow RFU policy when they get things wrong - things like banning junior players from kicking (even though it damages the female game) and stupid recruitment panics (when it is almost entirely a male issue, if it is actually an issue at all) - then why can we not take on the good stuff as well?

Good news from Africa

2011-09-21T09:26:00.001+01:00

Reports from Ugandan rugby sources suggest that the team may be able to travel to next months Africa South sevens after all - and therefore keep alive their World Cup hopes alive.

It appears that, with the aid of some cost savings (bringing the target down to around £10,000) plus fundraising efforts, two-thirds of the money needed to send the team to Botswana has already been raised. Another £2500 is still needed for plane tickets, and £1300 for preparation expenses - but with a month to go the team are confident that they'll be able to raise the extra funds needed.

So... Where now with the Letchworth Girls' blog?

2011-09-20T23:34:00.000+01:00

A new season has begun, and its time maybe to review where this blog is going.

It was originally created as a news system for the players of the Letchworth Girls teams, but that purpose has rather ended. I don't have any real link with the girls teams (well, team - there is just a U15 section this year) now. None of the girls I knew now play for the club - everyone is now too old! - so I get no news about what they are doing - and I am not sure how many of them read this (if any).

However, lots of "former legends" do still read this, and it is a great reminder of six or so incredible years we had, starting - as it does - during the second season, and taking in all the triumphs and enormous fun we all had. Every player - certainly from the "originals" - appears in here, somewhere or other. Its packed with memories and so needs to be preserved just for that. The fact that articles from four or five years ago are still being read shows that some people value it, anyway!

Its also a great way of letting everyone know about what former legends are doing now, in the rugby careers, and if we are ever going to get that mythical reunion then this is where it would be organised.

But more important than that the blog has always been read - and still is read two or three thousand times a month - by many people with no connection with the club at all. The little filler stories have taken over and without doubt what appears on here gets noticed. Quite why I have no idea - why the national governing body would even read a small club blog never ceases to amaze me, but they have always done and (going by the feedback on my reports of the summer's Nations Cup) still do!

Reason being, I guess, that communication - true communication (in the sense of a two-way exchange) - within the game in England remains lousy, especially the junior game where even the most basic information tends to be transmitted by rumour as much as anything else. And as for exchange of views - criticism, discussion, debate - there is none of that. There remains a centralised control-freakery when it comes to the domestic game in England that remains astonishing (and no, Julia Hutton, I do not mean you - you are wonderful. My absolute hero. And I mean that - honestly). Coaches, parents and players really are scared to speak their minds, and at least this blog allows them to do that - even anonymously.

If I am proud of anything that this blog has achieved it is to hear that it these debates have, from time to time, annoyed those at the centre - at least that means they have had cause to think about what they are doing. Anyone who ever writes a blog (or magazine or newspaper) that a central authority likes should pack it in immediately! Doesn't mean that any policy has ever been changed as a result - indeed from time to time Twickenham has gone out of its way to say how they have not listened to any internet blogs - but I live in hope that it might have had some subliminal influence. Maybe.

Yes, at times I get things wrong - almost invariably because of the need to fill some vast unbridged chasm caused by a complete lack of information (again, not your fault JH). It is amazing, but true, that - for example - England autumn tests with France have still not be officially announced (at least in England - they have been an openly discussed fact in France for months), and as for the U13 nonsense... So I guess and speculate and try to make some sense out of smoke-signals emerging from TW2. Better that than silence - and just occasionally it does seem to spark some movement. Mind you, these days its just as likely to be Dublin 2 that raises the ire, though the IRB obviously have more sense than to take any notice of this at all, Indeed is anyone St Stephen's Green knew that this blog existed I'd be ever so slightly worried about them.

So... where now? If there were a range of other, real, news sources; if the game was open to discussion and people were not afraid to let their views be known; if the media at large gave the women's game a fraction of the coverage it deserves; if two- to three-thousand people a month were not reading this "irrelevant little blog" (that is the right quote, RW?) then I'd be more than happy to stop. But - apart from ScrumQueens - we are no nearer all that than we were in 2004.

A change of name? Ideally, yes - but regular readers know the blogs name, and those that don't find it via subject searches anyway. And it also honours the achievements of greatest bunch of young people you could have ever wished to meet.

So, we go on. If you want fact and information about women's and girls' rugby in Hertfordshire (and occasionally England generally), use the Herts Girls' blog. If you want to follow the international game, turn to ScrumQueens. If you want discussion, debate, speculation, rumour, opinion, and "occasional sage-like ramblings" (thank you anon from TW2) then come here. And if you want to start or contribute to any rumours or discussions yourself... carry on sending the comments. Good or bad. I welcome criticism...

RFU fail Level 1 numeracy. Inability to count...

2011-09-16T10:03:00.001+01:00

Not initially a women's/girls' story, but bear with me....

This is a rather attractive and impressive graphic, isn't it? It shows the number of registered players in each nation taking part in the men's world cup, with the smaller circle showing the percentage who are registered adult players. Its a bit misleading as a first glance it gives the impression that England have fewer adult players than the USA...

However, that is not what makes it stand out. What is impressive if the huge red circle to the side there. England. BIG isn't it - shows that England have 2.5 million registered players. Also highlights how many are lost as only 6% are adult males. This is the basis of the panic that has given us U13 girls rugby this season.

Yes - of the 2.5 million players in England, 2.4 million are children and women. And we know that RFU wildly undercount women and only acknowledge the existence of about 5,000 adult women players, so almost all are children.

Anyone see anything wrong here? No?

That is a heck of a lot of children. If I chuck in the fact that the RFU say that only 11,000 are girls then that really is a heck of a lot of boys.

Or, to put it another way, there are "only" 50 million people in England, and 10 million are children. That includes babies and infants, so we can also say that there are only about 6-7 million children old enough to play rugby. Half of them are girls, and RFU say only 11,000 of them play. So that leaves us with about 3.5 million boys in England... and the RFU say that 2.4 million of them play rugby.

That means that over 68% of boys play rugby union.

Wow! And not just at school - this is based on Rugby First, remember. These are club registrations!

Does anyone out there, for one tiny moment, believe this? If you do consider this. Letchworth - population 30,000. So that is about 2,000 boys aged 7-18. In which case the club should have 1,300 junior members, or about 100 boys for each age group!

What is amazing is such clear and obvious rubbish is never questioned. RFU publish this number, it appears on the IRB database, and now in graphics like this. And no-one ever questions it... And its all fiction. I'd hazard a guess that at least two-thirds of these players do no exist. At least - and if you doubt that ask a school class how many play rugby. How many people would put their hands up?

Yet this is the data that RFU use when they panic about players being lost to the game between junior and senior rugby, or about the game not expanding (or even about players being lost). It is this data that is used to justify panics like the U13s.

Dana - one of the best referees in the world

2011-09-15T16:45:00.002+01:00

An excellent study appeared today about one of rugby's leading referees - USA's Dana Teagarden.

Note that I do not say "female referee" - because it seems wrong to pigeon-hole Dana in that way. Fact is that the IRB calls on her to referee men's international rugby as much as it does women's, so she is clearly one of the leading referees of either gender.

What is remarkable - and what I did not realise until I read this - was that Dana began as a member of the USA's world cup winning squad in 1991. I wonder how many other leading officials also have world cup winning medals?

Its an excellent and inspiring article - well worth a look. http://networkedblogs.com/n58iM.

Women's Sevens Series now set for 2012?

2011-09-15T09:04:00.000+01:00

From the Swedish RFU's official facebook page (translated!):

"The first IRB sanctioned international seven-a-side tournament for women played in Dubai later this year. It is the first step towards the planned sevens series for women (corresponding to the IRB Sevens World Series) that they intended to begin by early as 2012."

Reaction from Netherlands and France to their exclusion from Dubai has been remarkably muted, and this may be the reason. December's event sounds like it is being sold as a one-off trial - with a proper series not starting until next season. Responses also hint that, to qualify for this series (from Europe at least) a nation may have finish in the top two at next year's European Championship.

As it stands, seven of the eight teams in Dubai do have an arguably legitimate reason for being there:

Australia (Reigning world champions)
England (European champions 2011),
China (Asian Champions 2010)
Canada (NACRA Champions 2008 - the last time it was played - and Las Vegas, Hong Kong and Amsterdam winners last season),
South Africa (African winners 2008 - also the last time it was played)
Brazil (South American Champions 2011)
Spain (European Champions 2010, and Runners up 2011)

However, the presence of the USA seems questionable. They have never won a significant international sevens, and the best they could manage last year was 4th in Hong Kong, where they lost to Netherlands. Teams with far better records than USA include...

Kazakhstan - Asian Games champions 2010 (beating China)
France - Runners up at Dubai and Hong Kong last season
Netherlands - Runners up at Las Vegas, third in Hong Kong, Amsterdam and Rome
Fiji - Pacific Games champions

IRB dip a toe into a women's sevens series

2011-09-14T18:28:00.000+01:00

Well, this finally looks like it.

Still nothing on the IRB website, but with quotes from IRB Chairman, Bernard Lapasset its the most "official" leak yet. [It's now appeared].

In short, the Dubai Sevens will include an official women's sevens tournament with eight teams whose participation is being part-funded by the IRB. The eight teams are Australia, South Africa, USA, Canada, England, Brazil, China and Spain - so the same teams as appeared in the Brazilian leak last month, except Spain replace New Zealand who presumably refused to take part, despite presumably plenty of IRB pushing which is probably the main reason for the delay.

What it is not is a women's series. And that is no surprise as, with no France or Netherlands (to name but two), that would be a hard sell. A one-off tournament they could just about get away with.

That aside it is an important development. Australia are taking part at least - for the first time since the 2009 World Cup - and the IRB are part funding it (with the Dubai authorities helping out).

However, let's not get carried away here. Only the semi-finals and final will be in the main stadium (which is what has happened at for the past two or three years anyway, albeit with a mixture of official and unofficial teams) so - until it becomes a proper series with all of the world's leading sides taking part - its not so much of a leap forward as a very tentative shuffle in the right direction.

More women's international sevens news

2011-09-10T13:36:00.001+01:00

First, rather depressing news from Africa that Uganda's women's team - the first Ugandan sporting team of any sort to ever qualify for a World Cup (when they made the finals of the 2009 Sevens World Cup) may be counted out of the 2013 tournament without playing a game.

The Ugandan RFU are in deep financial trouble and cannot afford the £13,500 needed to send the team to the Africa South qualifier later this year in Botswana. Tournaments planned for their men's teams are also threatened.

Elsewhere the continued silence of the IRB concerning the heavily rumoured Women's Sevens World Series continues.However this is not stopping a fair few countries preparing for it. The first leg would be in Dubai in early December, and from various sources it seems that this will include - as a minimum - USA, Canada, France, Brazil, England and Netherlands, plus suggestions that we might even see teams like Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and China taking part.

The second and third legs - in Las Vegas and Hong Kong - are also firmly on the calendar of most of these nations, which rather implies a pretty strong unofficial Series even if the IRB cannot bring themselves to make it official.

The only problem seems to be the fourth leg. French plans (below) show that a tournament in London was being planned - a major first for women's sevens as there has never been an international women's tournament in the UK before - but clearly there are some problems, problems that may be behind IRB's delayed announcement. It is interesting that France were targeting Amsterdam instead if London falls through, but it would be deeply embarrassing for the RFUW and RFU if the world tour went there instead of London.

Beyond that... why else might the IRB be delaying its announcement? A few educated guesses...

IRB want Australia and New Zealand (and China maybe) to take part - but they will probably not commit.
An eight nation event would be financially viable, but more than that might be problematic - the more teams you have in a tournament the more matches you need to play, and the more stadium time is needed, so costs rise significantly. In some venues you'd need extra pitches.
Trouble is that eight teams means excluding teams like France, Netherlands, Spain, etc.
IRB may not normally worry about such things, but now the Olympics are involved many of these nations' NOCs will be very interested and will have the financial clout to to sue the pants off the IRB if their nation was excluded. The IOC itself would probably have things to say.
With the money the Dutch are investing into their Sevens a few extra Euros to brief m'learned counsel would seem a reasonable expense, especially if joined by France, Spain, et al.
Its difficult to see how the IRB could argue successfully, in court, that the likes of France (finalists in last Hong Kong 7s) and Spain (Euro Champs 2010) should be excluded while New Zealand and Australia (not set foot on a field in 7s since 2009) should be included.
IRB could get a very (expensive) bloody nose

What I suspect we are going to get therefore is... nothing. Well, nothing other than Dubai, Las Vegas and Hong Kong having far larger turnouts of women's teams than ever before - but no overall, official, WSS title. And no London sevens.

England v France in November: Dates released

2011-09-10T11:21:00.001+01:00

RFUW have made no announcement about this, other then the anonymous official who posted on here during the Nations Cup, but England will be playing to friendlies against France this autumn ahead of the New Zealand tour.

The dates and venue have been released in France, however - indeed they were released a few months ago but no-one noticed, other than DfO (the information even failed to appear on the FFR website) and they are...

30th October: French trial match
2nd November: England v France (London)
5th November: France v England (Calais or Grande-Synthe)

Also of interest....

The European Championship (ie. with full-strength squads) will be in the Netherlands from 10-20 May (interesting that this is longer than the usual week-long event of past tournaments, which implies four rounds of games instead of three)
There could be an international women's sevens in London on 12-13 May, which would presumably be the fourth leg of the much-rumoured (but still unannounced) Women's World Series.
England U20s will play France in March

France - where dinosaurs roam

2011-09-09T18:33:00.001+01:00

One of the puzzles of women's rugby is why France - the country that could reasonably claim to be the birthplace of the women's game - under performs, when compared with other major nations. Overseas tours are few, and - despite being part of the FFR for two decades - those running the game seem to lack the ambition of the country they seem to envy more than any other - England.

Or maybe it is no puzzle, if the pronouncements of French men's coach Marc Lievremont are typical. In an interview yesterday's Le Parisien - Aujourd'hui en France the interviewer mentions that his sister plays the game. Lievremont replies...

She played, unfortunately! We were devastated in the family. She was wrong, obviously. Rugby has been in our home for a long time, but to do the same as her brothers, it was not appropriate for her personally. Once we get a little scratch in in women's rugby, we become all macho. Anyway, I think there are other sports for women.

I suppose the best you can say about this is that at least he is honest. However, can you imagine Martin Johnson saying anything similar? That he should think he could say such things without being slapped down by the FFR perhaps shows that his patronising attitude is by no means unique in French rugby.

Estelle Sartini, former French captain and a member of the Steering Committee of the FFR, was unimpressed - "I know that unfortunately still a lot of people who think like this." though she hopes that "the inclusion of the women's rugby at the Olympics will be one way that attitudes to legitimacy of the sport will change."

Support the only women's sports magazine

2011-09-08T22:14:00.003+01:00

A reminder - for those who have not come across it before - about Sportsister - the only UK magazine dedicated to women's sport.

The magazine frequently include articles about women's rugby and general articles about fitness, diet, training equipment and kit, plus information about a wide range of other women's and girls' sport. In fact, everything that the male-dominated sports media ignores!

The website is an excellent information source on its own, but there is also the printed magazine which is amazingly cheap - £10 for six issues, including postage (and, at the moment, a free gift worth twice the subscription cost).

Women's rugby's 56th team makes winning start

2011-09-04T18:03:00.001+01:00

Swiss Rugby XV...with one under age player

The 56th women's rugby test team took the field for the first times today - and made a winning start. Switzerland - not a country you'd associate with rugby - travelled to Belgium... and came away 15-7 winners.

They have actually been playing for some years - especially sevens - so its not a total surprise, but this was the first time they had played another country's national team. And, as Belgium would be ranked at around number 20 in a world list, it is certainly a good start.

They are unlikely to feature too much when it comes to the 2014 World Cup, but might aim for a place in the European Championship in the near future. On this performance they'd certainly give the likes of Finland and Germany a game.

Sydney on the road to Rio?

2011-09-03T09:03:00.001+01:00

It may be rugby sign-up weekend for most juniors, but for one the season has already started (as if last season ever finished).

Sydney Gregson will be playing for the London & South East U18 sevens team this weekend in the UK School Games in Sheffield. This is the first time rugby sevens has been part of the games, and is one of England's first steps towards getting together a GB team for the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

What is amazing about Syd is not only that she has been selected as one of only ten girls from the whole Division, but this will be her first taste of U18 rugby - last season she was only a U15 so she has never played at this age band before. The selectors clearly must think a lot of her!

There will be six teams in the competition, which is being played in Sheffield - the four English Divisions, plus two Welsh teams.

The only disappointing thing is that this will be the last time Sydney runs onto a field as a Letchworth player as, due to the lack of a U18 team at the club this year, she will have to move to Welwyn this season. However, despite the change of club colours, once a "legend" always a legend!