Legends Lane on TV

Our home ground has been on TV (again) - not actually at its springtime best this time, more at its "typical" muddy winter guise. The occasion is the visit of a Spanish team (Barcelona) to play the men's 2nd XV, because they are in the same league. Yes - Barcelona are in a Hertfordshire rugby league - the film explains why!

Anyway - enjoy and maybe remember a few similar games you have had on the same pitch.

To watch the video go here

Back at number 1

There are times when this feels like a bit of nerdy self-agrandisment, but I cannot resist mentioning that the latest blog rankings are out shortly. Our good friends at Total Flanker have had a sneak preview of the new standings - and we are up again!

Though it does not show up yet, in a few days the official site will show that The Letchworth Girls Rugby Blog is now an amazing 5th in the nation's sports blogs - and back at number 1 again amongst the rugby blogs!

No sign of Sky or Rugby World beating a path to the door yet armed with large cheques, but we live in hope. 

England win World Sevens warm-up

The Sporting Chance Foundation (aka England) were winners of the Dubai Exiles Sevens today, beating a multinational "Saudex Wooden Spoon" 12-10 in the final - comfortably England's closest game.

Despite sneaking ahead 7-5 at half time, England were behind for most of the final, and they were still behind with only four minutes left, before Sarries' Charlotte Barras scored England's crucial second try. However, it was Alice Richardson who was the main difference between the two teams with a try and two conversions that saw England to the title.

Several of the key Wooden Spoon players were from Scotland - but as they are (famously) not going to the World Cup the final was perhaps a poor guide to the fate of that event. Of more significance may was England's semi-final win over the Caribbean and North American champions Canada, where England ran out 12-5 winners (the RFUW website says that the "swept aside" the Canadians, but with a margin of only a single score its doesn't quite sound like that). This followed on from an even more comprehensive 34-7 win over the other North American qualifier, the USA, on the opening day.

Although these games were technically not internationals, the Canadian and US teams were effectively their national squads. This means that in the last six months or so England have now played (and pretty comfortably defeated) all of their likely challengers for the World Cup except one - Oceania/Pacific champions Australia. With one more warm-up tournament in San Diego to come, England look well set to live up to their number one seeding.

* Before you ask, Aylesford Bulls - whose unfortunate draw was highlighted last week - did creditably well against England in fact, going down 39-0 on Day 1. However they then lost 50-0 to Wooden Spoon and 39-0 to the USA before finally getting onto the scoresheet in the plate tournament where they lost to the Netherlands 25-7.

30th November

As we are without a large number of our U18s this Sunday, there will be no girls training at Letchworth on November 30th.

U18s who are travelling to Worcester on Sunday for the county match should meet at the University of Hertfordshire Sports Village :

"A 53 Seat Coach to take the Herts U15 Girls Squad and Herts U18 Girls Squads to Worcester RFC on Sun 30/11. It has been hired from Reg’s Coaches (which should be printed on the side of the Coach) and will be leaving from outside the Sports Village at the University of Hertfordshire Sports Village, de Havilland Campus, Hatfield Business Park, Hatfield, Herts, AL10 9EU at 09.30 sharp."

Six Legends get county call to Worcestershire

Six of our girls have been selected in the county squad for this weekend's U18 trip to Worcester. Its one less than we sent to the Sussex tournament as Natalie and Emily are unavailable, but Hayley is joining the county team for the first time this season as for once she has no representative trials, and it also means that we have had more of our girls play for the "senior" of the two county teams this season than ever before!

The full teams appears on the Herts blog, but our girls (with their squad numbers which would seem to reflect likely positions):

• 2 Charlie Hughes
  
• 4 Laura Watson
  
• 7 Jess Robinson
  
• 10 Nikki Alcock
  
• 12 Hayley Guilder
  
• 16 Eleanor Morris
  

Congratulations everyone, and have a good game.

I just realised that when tidying up the indexes I accidentally removed the link to the Hall of Fame. Sorry! Its now back - and updated (see the links on the right).

The forgotten award

Rugby's biggest awards evening took place last night - the eighth IRB Awards. All the headlines were about Shane Williams winning the Player of the Year (no female nominations... but then there never have been), New Zealand team of the year (the men... obviously), and various players and teams being inducted into the Hall of Fame (which, needless to say, remains male only - not least because no woman has ever been nominated).

However, buried deep in the awards (and I mean deep - only one of the IRB's many press releases and web pages on the subject even mention it) was the one award out of thirteen which recognised the existence of women's rugby - the curiously named "IRB International Women's Personality of the Year Award" (can the IRB not bring themselves to call women "players"?). And - in a night dominated by New Zealanders - it was won by an Englishwoman.

So congratulations to Carol Isherwood - former Performance Director at the RFUW until her surprise departure a year ago, and now Sports Development Manager in Westminster. The IRB describes her as the "one of the driving forces behind England’s success on and off the field over the past decade and a champion of the global development of the Women’s Game". 

The only other coverage of her award I can trace has been in a short press release from the RFUW which expands on Carol's 10 years of achievements at the RFUW by saying that she was "heavily involved in working to develop an effective partnership with the RFU and making the women’s game sustainable for players, clubs and at the elite level of the game". What neither the IRB nor, curiously, the RFUW mention are small details such as six Grand Slams and two World Cup finals in those ten years - a record possibly unmatched anywhere in rugby, male or female (unless anyone can suggest someone who has a better record?) - arguably deserving consideration for the Hall of Fame rather than a single line buried deep in a two page IRB press release.

Past winners of the IRB International Women's Personality of the Year Award:

2001: Shelley Rae (England)

2002: Monique Hirovanaa (New Zealand) 

2003: Kathy Flores (USA)

2004: Donna Kennedy (Scotland)

2005: Farah Palmer (New Zealand)

2006: Maggi Alphonsi (England)

2007: Sarah Corrigan (Australia)

RFU seeks your views on ELVs

We've been using the ELVs - the "Expermental Law Variations" - since the start of the season. So what do you think? Have you noticed? Have they made the game any better?

The RFU now want to know what you think - be you a player, coach, manager or spectator - and have published a short online survey. It takes barely five minutes to go through, so please pass on your opinions.

Note: There are a couple of questions about the ELV that allows a maul to be pulled down. Remember that this law does not apply to junior rugby so you will not have played it - but you may have seen it in action in games on TV.

British Colleges trial: further information

One question I've had about the the trials for the England and British Colleges team is whether your college needs to be an RFUW member for you to be able to attend the trial. As the question doesn't have a name attached I thought it would be a good idea to reply here so that everyone is clear.

Because the short answer is no. While you should encourage your college to join the RFUW (it probably won't cost them anything), and while RFUW membership is probably necessary for insurance at inter-college fixtures, it is NOT required in order for you to attend the England/GB XV trials.

This is mainly because you are taking part as an individual, so the insurance for the trials day, and any subsequent matches, is a matter for British Colleges Sport - the organiser of the event - not you or your college. Also the English and British Colleges representative teams are not RFUW teams (unlike - say East Region or England U20s) so actually whether or not your are a member of an RFUW registered club or college is irrelevant. 

However I now discover that there are some eligibility requirements that I wasn't aware of earlier - though in practice I cannot see that any of these will be a problem:

• Your college needs to be a member of British Colleges Sport. However, if its a local authority college is almost certainly will be. If in doubt you can check you college's affiliation here.
• I also discover that you actually have to be aged "over 16 and under 19" on the preceding 31st August - so its not quite any age, but its certainly covers all of you - and for both this season and next. In essence therefore its a U19 team.
  
• If you attend more than one college then its a bit complex - but basically the college where your spend the most hours has to enter you.

In short all you need is to get someone at your college to sign that form - and even that may be unnecessary as BCS have contacted us inviting us to put forward names. It is possible that this is an error on their part, but if so they have now made the same error twice - so if you college can't/won't nominate you... we probably can! Just ask.

After that all you need to do is get Wednesday afternoon off college on 3rd December, and make your way to Northampton - and unfortunately over to you on that.

Letchworth leave it (very) late!

Sunday's visit by Suffolk Sabres almost fell foul of the wintry weather which delivered frozen pitches and a little snow overnight but the morning rain eventually provided pitches with enough give in them for the game to proceed. And, by the kick-off at 1pm, the grounds were awash with sunshine ...

Once again we were pleased to welcome girls from Stevenage RFC who joined in the fixture bolstering the numbers on both sides. And what a great fixture it was! This was the keenest fought and closest contest Letchworth have had this season with the lead always within a single score right up to the last 10 minutes when Suffolk Sabres opened up a 10 point lead by scoring 2 tries in rapid succession. However, the Letchworth girls were not finished as they maintained pressure on the Suffolk line for a large part of that last 10 minutes and were rewarded with a try by Hayley which left them 5 points down with 5 minutes to play. More pressure was exerted but sterling defence by Suffolk Sabres kept out repeated Letchworth attacks until, with the last play of the game, Jess managed to cross the line to equalise the scores.

No pressure then on Nikki who had the conversion to win the game for Letchworth ... despite the strong breeze in her face Nikki managed to slot the ball over to secure the victory.

Many, many thanks to Suffolk Sabres for making the long journey on such a wintry morning and providing us with such a stern test.

Result : Letchworth 29 Suffolk Sabres 27

Letchworth scorers :

Tries : Hayley (3), Jess (2)

Conversions : Nikki (2)

vRugby: volunteers wanted

More information on the vRugby initiative - the new programme designed to use young volunteers to help spread the game.

It seems to be very early days yet. In Hertfordshire we have a "County Activator" in place - Sam Fulling at Saracens. The next stage will be the appointment of seven volunteer "Club Activators", aged 16-24, each of whom (with a team of four other volunteers) will run on a project designed to benefit their club. The chosen project will need to match one of four "themes"...

• vRugby Fun: increasing participation and introducing rugby to people who may not have experienced it before
  
• vRugby Life: delivering healthy lifestyle messages using the rugby ethos
  
• vRugby Cash: fundraising
  
• vRugby Force: mini club makeovers 
  

... but will otherwise be more or less of their (and their club's) choice. In practice this might mean running projects to increase participation (such as schools rugby festival or similar), performance (coaching), fundraising; or improving facilities. In return, as well as helping their club, the volunteers will get all expenses paid, full training, the chance to develop all kinds of project management and other skills, and free branded clothing.

Club activators are being sought now - so is anyone interested? If so please get back to me or Mike asap so we can look at how we might use this scheme to benefit our club and the wider game.

The Great RFUW AGM Mystery

After the game yesterday discussions turned, as they do, to the matter of the RFUW AGM.

Okay, a strange thing to discuss and not normally something high on the list of post match conversations but, as I recall, we had by then solved the world economic crisis, come up with a workable way of ensuring world peace, and had only been diverted away from Fermat's Last Theorem because someone pointed out that it had already been solved. So you can see we were running low on topics.

Even in these circumstances, the subject of Great AGMs I Have Known is normally not much of winner in rugby bar conversation but in this case it was pointed out that there is something seriously odd about this one.

When an organisation has its Annual General Meeting - as a rule - it will normally make a reasonable attempt to ensure that as many people as possible can attend by organising the event on a date when most people do not have alternative commitments. It is obviously impossible to come up with a date that suits everyone, but as a rule avoiding other major events in your own organisation's calendar would normally considered a good start.

Which is what makes the RFUW AGM ever so slightly remarkable as not only are Sundays match days for most clubs, but (as one correspondent pointed out earlier this week) this particular Sunday is also the final junior county fixture date - so anyone who is anyone in English junior rugby will be involved in an inter-county tournament somewhere. And in addition to that the 14th is also the date for senior regional trials, so most people associated with senior rugby will also be otherwise engaged. 

This did give those with a conspiratorial turn of mind cause to wonder. What is going to be discussed at the AGM this year? Or maybe what is it hoped will not be discussed? After all - as someone said - if you wanted to pick a more inconvenient date in the entire calendar so as to ensure that as few of the leading players, officials, parents, coaches, or volunteers as possible would be available then, short of choosing Christmas Day, you could hardly come up with a better date than 14th December.

Personally I think such speculation is nonsense and suspect that this is simply an example of frighteningly poor planning. After all, what things might RFUW possibly want to avoid discussion about? Any suggestions?

British and English Colleges XV trials: your chance to wear the red rose!

News that the trials for the English and British Colleges teams will take place at Moulton College in Northampton on Wednesday 3rd December between 1 and 4pm. The team is open to anyone (regardless of age) attending a Sixth Form or Further Education College.

I understand that the team is roughly the same standard as a regional team - last year several girls from the Essex county team played for England Colleges against Scotland in Edinburgh - so if you have ever been selected to attend a regional trial you really should give the trials a go.

I am seeking clarification, but appears that you need to be nominated to attend the trials by your college's PE department. They should have been sent nomination forms today. If they have not had the forms then download this form, give it to your head of PE (or someone appropriate) and get them to send it to Vicky Buck (vlb1978@yahoo.co.uk) as soon as possible. Or send it yourself. Or stand over them while they send it.

Then to get there the above map may help. In addition, official directions are: 

• Exit the M1 at Junction 15 and join the A508 North. After 2 miles the A508 becomes the A45. 
  
• At the third intersection leave the A45 by the slip road and join the A43 (signposted Kettering).
  
• Travel for 3 miles, straight across 2 roundabouts and at the third turn left onto Overstone Road (signposted Moulton). 
  
• Continue until you see the Co-op and bear slightly left until you reach a mini-roundabout in front of the Post Office. 
  
• Turn right down Stocks Hill, which leads into Cross Street, which leads into West Street. 
  
• Take the first turning right into Pitsford Road and then first right again into the College.
  

The changing face of English girls' rugby (update)

Further to the article last month, the RFUW have now issued an updated club list which includes several additionally teams - some of which are genuinely new, some just a bit slow with the paperwork. Clubs registered on the new list (which is not, unfortunately, dated) who were not there in October list are listed below. Clubs that are "new" (ie. did not appear on the 2006/7 list) are in bold:

• Beaconsfield Belles (Bucks)
  
• Bournemouth (Dorset)
• Cinderford (Gloucestershire)
• Crawley (Sussex)
• Darlington Mowden Park (Durham)
• Daventry  (Northants) - (U18 only)
• Durham City (Durham)
• East Grinstead (Sussex)
• Frome (Somerset) - (U15 only)
• Liskeard & Looe (Cornwall)
• Malton & Norton (N Yorks) - (U15 only)
• Old Northamptonians (Northants)
• Tamworth Wildcats (Warwicks) - (U18 only)
• Wallingford Maidens (Oxon) - (U15 only)
• Rockcliff (Northumberland)
• Winchester (Hants)
• Witney (Oxon)

So, to revise the numbers from the previous article, that means that (if my maths is right...) we now have:

• 130 girls clubs (119 offering U15 rugby, 114 providing U18 rugby) - up from 118 in 2006/7
• 75 clubs from 2006/7 list also appear on the 2008/9 list
• 43 registered clubs from 2006/7 are no longer listed
• 55 clubs are "new"

There are about 100 "viable" teams in each age band - ie. capable of fielding a team of at least seven on their own:

• 93 Category A teams (48 U15s, 45 U18s)
  
• 89 Category B teams (47 U15s, 42 U18s)
• In addition 51 "Category C teams" - ie. teams that would have to combine with another club to field a team.

Its a slightly improved picture compared with a month ago - and there are still a few clubs missing yet (*cough* Swaffham *cough*). However overall losing a third of a sport's registered clubs in two years must be a bit of worry. This is more than balanced by new teams, but think how strong the game would be if this hemorrhaging of volunteers, players, and experience was even just halved - surely its cheaper to maintain an existing club than it is to build new one? We'd then have a game genuinely and rapidly expanding rather than (more or less) staying where it is.

(The U15 and U18 maps on Google Maps have also been updated).

Watch the skies...

Winter is arriving early this season but despite the Doomsday headlines (Colder than Siberia!) as things stand the forecast for tomorrow at our end at least remains pretty good. Dropping below freezing tonight with the odd sprinkling of snow possible, but rain and rising temperatures in the morning reaching the dizzy heights of at least +6 by kick-off, so even with our ground's reputation for freezing we will be okay.

If the headlines are right our opponents, on the other hand, will be coming to us through a desolate Arctic landscape so here's hoping that they have fed the huskies...

This Sunday - East Anglia comes to Letchworth

The biggest home fixture of the season so far will (weather permitting!) see challenging games for both U15s and U18s on Sunday.

The U18s will face Suffolk Sabres, the new team made up of the pick of Suffolk (and Norfolk!) including at least one well known face!

U15s will be combining with Hertford to take on Norfolk Nomads - a combined team from the county, based mainly on Swaffham, but also including players from the likes of Holt, Faversham, and Wymondham  Cancelled owing to illness at Hertford.

Meet at the club by 12.15 (12.00 if possible, says Wonky) aiming for a 1pm kick-off. Gloucestershire's county manager will be the referee.

Region: a light in the fog?

The RFUW have responded very quickly to yesterday's piece about the senior regional trials.

Apparently:

• the trials are still "open" events - ie. anyone aged 18 or above may attend;
  
• some players on the RFUW mailing lists have been sent individual "automated" invitations - but this apparently does not mean anything special;
  
• they advise 18 year olds from "rushing in" to senior rugby and that they should discuss whether or not they should got to the trials with their coaches at club and county level; 
• finally, they clarify that a U18 selected for the senior regional squad cannot also play in the U18 squad (which is in all honesty no surprise and eminiently reasonable - though it was interesting that I could not find anything actually saying that in the more obvious sources - and I did look - hence my somewhat tongue-in-cheek comments).

It is really useful to have this clarification - but it has to be said that it would have been rather better if the above had appeared in the automated emails, because in no way do they read as if they are general circulars. If you doubt this then think how would you react to a personally addressed email that...

• begins by saying "The dates for the RFUW 2008/09 Regional Programme have now been set and we would like to invite you to register for the upcoming trials." 
• goes on to detail how to register and pay, 
• gives you your individual registration code, and
• finishes with "We look forward to seeing you there!"

No hint there about talking to club or county coaches about whether you are up to it (which surely would be a good idea for players of any age).

Could you help spread girls rugby?

There is a new initiative designed to spread the game of rugby - and its looking for volunteers aged 16-24 to organise and run events, large and small.

vRugby is a project funded by investment from something called the v match fund, a charity that exists to promote youth voluntary work in England. It has come together with the Rugby Football Foundation with the aim of putting together a network of CBs, clubs and 3,750 individual young volunteers to run events, improve facilities, spread the game's ethos, and raise funds.

Its sounds great, but working out exactly how you could be involved if you were interested is at present a little like trying to nail down a jelly. There are a fair few articles and websites out there (including one today about England's U20 captain Laura Keates being appointed a "vRugby Ambassador") but none seem to answer the basic question of "what do I do if I want to be involved". However, I have tracked down the Hertfordshire "County Activator" - a guy called Sam Fulling at Saracens - who should hopefully be able to fill in the gaps.

In the meanwhile take a look at the vRugby website and think about whether you could become involved.

Surprise (and slightly confusing) regional news

In a development that will really please the county U18 coaching staff Hayley (and presumably the other Hertfordshire girls aged over 18  who went to the England U20 trials) has been called up for the East Region's senior trials on 14th December. That means the trials for the adult regional squad - not the junior trials, which take place in January.

The reason that this is likely to have the county coaching team a shade peeved is that the 14th December clashes with the final county date, and the Notts Lincs and Derbyshire tournament. It also means that they will have been able to field a full-strength Herts U18 team on only one weekend all season - the trip to Worcestershire on 30th November (U15 team, and U15 and U18 travel information, for that here) - which makes that a rather special event.

Obviously girls like Hayley who fail to get into the regional senior squad will still be eligible for the junior trials in January. However if they do make the senior squad it is not clear that they will not be able to play for East U18s as well. There are some date clashes, but surprisingly not many, so its is not practically impossible.

Amongst the incentives for going to the senior trials is that there are fewer regional dates, but also more actual matches (rather than training sessions). The senior regional system also ties in better with the pathway to national squads.

The worst ever draw?

Imagine that you have entered a sevens tournament. Its a special event with lots of international teams - and its being played out in Dubai - but still most teams are normally club standard. Should be fun.

And the draw comes through and you find that you are playing someone called the Sporting Chance Foundation. Never heard of them - a bunch of charity workers maybe, odd ringer perhaps, but sounds good. Bring it on!

Well, that is the situation for Aylesford Bulls, from Hampshire [or maybe Kent. Apparently] who entered the Dubai Exiles Sevens, to be played at the end of this month. However, since the weekend they may have reassessed their view of their first opponents. Because there is more than one ringer in the team...

A press release from RFUW reveals that the team is, in fact, England. That is the full England sevens team - favourites for the Sevens World Cup next spring - who are using the tournament as a first warm-up. And England are not the only international team. Both USA and Canada - and possibly one or two more besides - have entered in varying degrees of disguise, which goes some way to explain why England are flying out to Dubai to face Aylesford Bulls rather than going 50 minutes down the M2. Anyone care to guess the score for the game?

After this England will be off to San Diego for a sevens there. Then it'll be back in fifteens mode for the Six Nations, preceeded by a warm-up game with Ireland in December. 

England will be going for their fourth consecutive Six Nations Grand Slam, and despite RFUW's attempts to make it seem slightly exciting it has to be said that England are now SO far ahead of the rest of Europe that an England 2nd XV would still be favourites win the title and, indeed, the slam. The only question is how many tries they will conceed - if any. They certainly won't lose any games. It'll be interesting to see who comes second or third, whether France's decline has now reached free-fall, and whether its possible for Scotland to get any worse - but the actual championship winner is a foregone conclusion.

Ellie makes her mark!

Both Letchworth U18 and U15 squads travelled to Hertford RFC today with the U18s playing against the hosts and the U15s combining with them to play against OA Saints and Saracens.

The U18s dominated their match against a novice Hertford team from the very first second when Jess fielded the kick off and immediately ran in a try. More tries followed soon after but, to their credit, the Hertford girls stuck to the task throughout and provided sterner opposition as the game progressed. Highlights of the game from a Letchworth perspective were a brace of tries for Georgie and a stunning 70 metre break-away try by Ellie in the closing seconds.

Result : Hertford 0 Letchworth 68

Letchworth scorers :

Tries : Hayley (3), Nikki (3), Georgie (2), Mel (2), Ellie, Jess

Conversions : Nikki (4)

Three Letchworth U15s - Laura, Jess and Ellah - joined with Hertford to play 2 matches in a triangular tournament with Saracens and OA Saints. The first game against OAs started as a close affair with the sides exchanging tries until Hertford/Letchworth managed to pull out a 4 try lead going into the final minutes. However, OAs came back strongly and managed to halve the deficit by the final whistle. The second game against Saracens was comfortably won by the visitors. The Letchworth girls all aquitted themselves well - particularly so as this was the first match at U15s for Ellah and the first match of any sort for Jess. Well done, girls!

Results :

Hertford/Letchworth 30 v OA Saints 20

Hertford/Letchworth 0 v Saracens 35

Many thanks to Hertford RFC for an excellent days rugby.