Formed 2004 ... Herts 7s U14 Runners-up 2005 ... North Herts U14 team, Herts Youth Games 2005 runners-up (coached by Letchworth)... Herts Superteams U14 Runners-up 2005 ... Herts SuperTeams "Fairplay" winners 2006 ... Rochford 10s U17 Champions 2006 ... East Midlands 10s U17 Runners-up 2007 ... East Midlands 10s U17 "Fairplay" winners 2007 ... National 10s U17 5th place and "Fairplay" winners 2007 ... Herts 7s U17 Plate runners-up 2007 ... National 7s U17 Plate winners 2007 ... RFU "President's XV" Award winners 2007 ... Herts Superteams winners 2007 ... Midlands 10s U18 Runners-up 2008 ... National 10s U18 4th place 2008 ... North Herts U11 team, Herts Youth Games 2008 runners-up (coached by Letchworth girls) ... London and SE 7s U18 Plate runners-up 2008 ... Herts 7s U18s runners-up 2008 ... National 7s U18s quarter-finalists 2008 ... Gloucester City 10s U18 Bowl runner-up (6th) 2009 ... Worthing 10s U18 Plate runner-up 2009 ... National 7s U18 Plate winners 2009... Worthing 10s U15 Plate winners 2010... Worthing 10s U18 Shield winners 2010... Herts 7s U15 and U18 Bowl runners-up 2010... National 7s U18 Plate runners-up 2010...

Monday, December 28, 2009

Only in America!

Not strictly speaking a rugby story this one, but still something will be of interest and deserves wider circulation especially if you ever wondered why women's and girls' rugby struggles so much to get any proper newspaper or TV coverage.

At the recent BBC Sports Personality awards some viewers may have been disappointed (but probably not surprised) when an unbeaten twice-world champion women's sports team lost out on a major award to a men's team from the same sport who had recently managed to lose not just one game but an entire series, and moreover by a record score. Annoying though that was we are used to stupid behaviour like this from our sports journalists, to the extent that having a women's team nominated at all was a bit of a breakthrough.

However compared to America's sporting media it would appear that the BBC are a model of right-on feminist thinking, because in the US second place in their leading Sportswoman of the Year poll has just gone... to a horse.

Yes - its incredible but true that the combined knowledge of the USA's sporting journalists, when asked to come up with a list of that nation's top female sporting personalities for 2009 only managed to come up with one human (Serena Williams) before blank looks and mutual incomprehension forced to branch out into the animal kingdom and give the runners-up spot to a horse called Zenyatta (and if you want to read more or simply do not believe this two versions of the story are available, one from CBC and another from Women's Rights).

As they say (without a hint of irony) "Only In America" could the sporting exploits of half the population come second to a five year old animal that would not even know which way to run without a jockey on its back - though even then it demonstrably has more brain power than most US sporting journalists.

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